Recruitment experts claim that hot-desking; the practice whereby staff do not have their own desks, but are allocated work space according to their needs is leading to an unhappy workforce.
Enabled by improved technology including wireless internet connections, the uptake of hot-desking as a way of working has grown.
Jonny Cainer at marketing recruitment agency, Marketing Professionals UK, warns, however, that the trend can lead to an unproductive workforce:
“Hot-desking has become very popular in recent years in both the public and private sector. Businesses in city centres have to pay huge premiums for state of the art offices in prime locations and often find that a number of desks are always empty when staff are out visiting clients. It makes sense for them to be allocated a desk when they touch base at the office.
“However, I’ve found that staff resent not knowing who they’ll be sitting next to from one day to the next. It doesn’t help to create a team spirit or corporate culture and makes many employees feel isolated and under-valued. This can lead to staff becoming de-motivated.”
Cainer says that hotdesking may not be the answer for all businesses despite the lure of cutting costs.
Hot-desking is most common in call centres and financial services which run 24 x 7 on shifts. British Airways, Easyjet and IBM have taken up the practice in recent years.
