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"Hot-desking" is a great term. It's said to be derived
from "hot bunking" - the practice in the navy where as one
person comes off watch he crawls into a bunk just vacated by
someone going out to do his stint. Very effective use of space,
and you don't have to worry about getting into a cold bed. And
quite intimate, in its own way. The term may have an evocative
derivation, but hot-desking has not necessarily proved popular
with workers. Poor implementations have led many of the
high profile pioneers to abandon the idea. Staff resented
turning up at the office not knowing if they were going to be
assigned to the first floor or the fifteenth, or who they would
be sitting next to.
But the economics of business property mean that there are
many advantages to using space more effectively. And one
approach is to use someone else's space on an as-needed basis,
allowing today's flexible and more mobile workforce to
"hot-desk" at an office close to them or to their customers.
There are benefits too for the growing company, who may not be
ready to take the plunge and have their own office space.
A good implementation, where people have access to a good
quality working environment that they become familiar with, need
not be too threatening.
A new hot-desking service has been launched by one the UK’s
leading operator of business centres, MWB BusinessExchange, to
provide users with a permanently available and cost-effective
base in a central business location.
With prices starting from just £299 per month BusinessBase,
as the new service is known, is claimed to be more than 50%
cheaper than taking space in a normal serviced office. The new
service is expected to prove especially popular with
organisations seeking to expand into new regions or test new
marketplaces with minimal start-up costs.
Users of the service will simply unlock their cabinet, take a
seat and plug in their laptop to start work. They will be
provided with a handset, allocated a DDI and given high speed
internet connectivity. Each will work in a shared facility which
will provide excellent networking opportunities, while reducing
overheads.
Users of BusinessBase will get up to 100 hours per month in
the dedicated and high quality hot-desking centres, which have
been created at most of MWB BusinessExchange's 35 UK business centres. This time can be
shared by up to three people during the course of a week.
In addition, BusinessBase users have the benefits of
virtual office services, getting their telephone calls answered
in the name of their company and having mail and fax sorting and
forwarding services.
“British businesses still have a long way to go to implement
efficient hot-desking policies and gain the cost savings
associated with them,” according to Jamie Vine, head of product
development at MWB BusinessExchange. “We already have a
lot of experience of developing successful hot-desking policies,
both for our customers and our own staff, so we have used that
experience to design the perfect hot-desking product.
“The new service is the perfect stepping stone for users of
existing virtual office services, but who are not yet ready to
take an office full time. It will also prove ideal for those
executives who need to find a better balance between the need to
be highly mobile, yet enjoy quality office time and professional
support services.
“While many individuals will wish to manage their own use of
BusinessBase, we will also be offering to manage the
process for larger companies where large numbers of mobile
workers may need to hot-desk during the course of a week.”
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