The name of the game in the post-pandemic workspace world is ¨What have you done for me lately?¨ It isn’t enough for a company or a workplace to just roll out the traditional setup and think they will be making their staff happy. The ¨hot office¨ or ¨day office¨ has become one of the most requested services in flex/coworking spaces across the globe within the last two years. With the emergence of the “hot office,” it is now easier than ever to keep track of both on-site and remote employees alike.
Let’s dig into more of the concepts and realities of this offering that could make it worth it for your company.
HOT OFFICES: WHAT ARE THEY?
One thing that needs to be specified before getting too deep into the details is the term, Hot Office. The coworking industry has been using the term Hot Office, Hot Desk, or Day Office throughout its inception. There is no correct term just whatever that particular space decides to use. We will use them interchangeably throughout.
Hot offices are fully furnished, private office spaces that you may rent for as low as 1 hour up to a full day. Coworking spaces came up with the Hot office as a response to the growing need of the digital nomad, the growing ¨work from home crowd¨ that didn’t want to make commitments, and individuals that needed a quiet space to work.
Assume that day offices are like a 1-night stay in a hotel as you travel for business. The desk, chair, four walls, and the door all seem to be yours, but it’s only for one day! Bringing in your precious office memorabilia or that painted picture of your dog just isn’t going to work. When your time is up for the day, it’s time to make like a banana and split. Sorry for the bad pun.
Instead of the traditional office layout, this is a radical departure from the norm. Buuuut, fits a variety of workers in a variety of situations.
THE TRADITIONAL OFFICE MODEL VS. DAY/HOT OFFICES
The office paradigm of the late 20th century was based on the idea of providing each member of a company their own personal cubicle or small workspace. The traditional office model was predicated on several key factors like job position, tenure, or salary. Those in the ¨cubicles¨ were often in that position not because of their choosing, leaving them to relegation in a noisy and uncomfortable environment for 8 or more hours a day. There were designated desks in the corporation where employees would come and work until they were moved to a different role or area.
When the conventional office model was replaced by the coworking office model in the mid-21st century, a new sort of workspace distribution was conceived: hot desking. A Hot office/Desk is a workspace that is not assigned to anyone over a long-term period.
For added convenience, hot-desking workspaces can be requested in advance rather than being filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Employees are free to utilize any available desks, tables, or chairs because there is no “owner” to that specific space anymore. The flexibility already puts some people at ease and some of you are already stressed out!
In the progression of the coworking/hot desking paradigm, day offices represent the next phase, with two significant differentiators… Flexibility & Cost
A Hot Desk vs. Day Offices: What’s the Difference?
The difference(s) are really in the setup or architecture. Unlike day offices, which are enclosed spaces that offer greater privacy, hot desks place individual desks side by side with others in large, open public areas. You for sure don’t get the privacy, or for that matter, even a door with hot desking.
One desk and chair are conventional, although many offices have many desks and chairs in order to keep the workstation isolated from the rest of their building. Think of it as a pod setup that can help teams streamline workflows and keep things coordinated.
In many ways, day offices and hot-desking have specific characteristics that are distinct unto themselves. Hot desking comes across as more communal and flexible in its nature. Day/Hot offices tend to cover the privacy side that people desire. Hot desks are simple while Hot offices tend to be a bit more involved just because of what comes along with the service.
In coworking, a hot desk is much less private but comes with a cheaper price tag. The hot office on the other hand allows for that privacy demanded by various forms of work but also carries a price. A coworking spaces’ responsibility is to offer a variety of workers from a variety of industries a menu of options that can best fit their needs.
HOW CAN DAY OFFICES HELP YOUR COMPANY?
1) Make Yourself Look, Professional
First impressions are hard to get over. We all know that. It is vital not just for impressing consumers and clients, but also for motivating your team’s efficiency. Don’t have a team? Well, clients and vendors alike still want to have the confidence that an office provides.
Hot offices are the ideal method to generate a professional image without the effort and expense of doing it yourself, thanks to additional design aspects like natural light, bold colors, and comfortable-yet-functional furniture.
3) Physical infrastructure
Day offices come with everything your company needs to get the work done without the stress of having to coordinate it all yourself. Electricity, water, gas, internet, tech support, and cleaning are already managed by outside sources.
Think about the administration that business owners or the C-Suite can eliminate when they don’t have to hire someone or self-administer the basic running of an office. It doesn’t stop there either. We forget just how much effort goes into the little details within topics like the internet or the water. When there is an interruption or failure in that specific service, how much time does one spend getting it back up and running? What happens during maintenance? That isn’t a concern when you are part of a Hot Desk/Office setup as that is taken care of for you when you work in that setting.
What a relief!
3) Minimal Overhead
The amount of work you get done in a single day isn’t always a good indicator of productivity. It’s sometimes quantified in terms of how much money you can save.
Overhead costs are essentially non-existent in day workplaces. This frees up your time, energy, and hard-earned money to focus on the more vital components of productivity, such as getting the job done.
4) Structure And Focus
The benefits of working from home are plentiful, don’t get me wrong. While working from home has its perks, the many distractions it brings quickly outweigh the benefits. But don’t get working from home as this utopian setup will be the future of work.
Even the most innocent of distractions may take your focus away from what you or your team need to be doing in order to develop your business: the television. Working from a hot office provides you and your team a way to keep your business and personal lives distinct while still giving your day some direction.
It may not sound fun but it may be the best thing for us all!
4) Amenities
Having access to corporate-level printing, a kitchen, meeting rooms, and more can all bring a lot of ease to your corporate life. Amenities are one of the most sought-after items ranking behind workout areas/gyms. Working from home often puts individuals behind as they can’t readily get to a lot of office equipment that comes along in a Hot Office package.
Also, let’s not forget the ultimate amenity that working in a shared office environment in a Hot office provides… a community or a group of people to be around. No more loneliness is not a bad thing at all.
6) It’s so easy!
All of the hard work of setting up furniture, installing equipment, decorating the room, and ensuring that the utilities are operating is done for you when your team employs this type of setting.
You only need to show up and get to work. There is no stress involved.
