How Space Booking Systems Create Satisfied Employees
What is a Space Booking System?
A space booking system/platform manages and maximizes the use of workspaces through reservation software. Employees can reserve an available space, empowering them to work at any open slot rather than one permanent desk. Office spaces include not only desks but also cubicles, workstations, conference rooms, coworking spaces, car parking spaces, collaboration spaces, and private offices. Companies are beginning to realize that space booking is an efficient way to maximize space and employee happiness and productivity.
Space booking is part of a larger set of flexible work arrangements. Flexibility gives employees greater freedom to choose their own work schedules, office locations, and even seating arrangements. Implementing flexible work arrangements like desk sharing (which uses space booking technology) rewards your employees with a greater work-life balance.
Two of the most common desk sharing strategies are hot desking and office hoteling. Office hoteling allows employees to reserve a desk for a limited amount of time while hot desking allocates seats to employees as they are required. Check the traits below to see if desk sharing is a good fit for your company:
- Employing a mostly mobile workforce
- Employing mostly consultants, a sales team that travels often, or contractors who are only in the office part-time
- Having a flexible office floor plan
- Having offices in multiple cities
- Desiring to trim down square footage and save on facility rental costs
- Wanting to increase cross-departmental collaboration
- Wanting to attract a workforce that values flexibility
Where workers seat themselves is a crucial component of business success. That’s because unhappy, uncomfortable workers will naturally produce lower-quality work. Managers who are thinking about implementing a space booking system need to consider their entire business’s needs as well. Does the company want to optimize its existing office space? Is the company expanding faster than it can acquire new office space? Do employees need flexible seating to encourage more open communication and collaboration? Asking the right questions and consulting with relevant stakeholders (HR, employees, managers, etc.) will determine whether your company should implement desk sharing. Once a company decides to enact desk sharing, it needs a stellar space booking system to efficiently manage reservations.
Components of a quality space booking system include emphasis on user experience, easy adoption, real-time data and reporting, a cloud-based system, and dedicated customer support. Look for these traits when shopping for space booking software.
The future of how we work transcends across different generations of workers. To retain top-notch talent, companies should embrace the changes in the way people live, work, and use technology. If your employees desire a more agile workplace, consider our space booking system with AVUITY VuBook and Mobile. VuBook transforms the chore of scheduling a space into an easy task. Through our convenient software, employees can view the current calendar and space traits of any meeting room or space. It can also integrate with existing calendar platforms such as Office 365. To eliminate wasted time, employees can save and view their favorite spaces to allow for easier booking. Interactive maps assist with visualizing and reserving specific spaces. Employees also have the option to book with our mobile app. Both VuBook and our mobile app can incorporate logos, colors, and even specific forms or maps to enhance the employee experience. VuBook and our app are convenience wrapped up in efficiency.
Ensure a Healthy & Safe Work Environment With Avuity
Is your business struggling to reopen safely amidst COVID-19? How will you ensure that all spaces remain clean? How will you implement new cleaning and sanitizing protocols? How can you reduce congestion in common areas? At AVUITY, we have added new features to our hardware and software platform to specifically address the growing concerns around workplace health and safety. Our agile workplace technology empowers companies to make the workplace more flexible while ensuring a safe environment for everyone.
With VuSpace, our analytics and sensor management software, you can set capacity levels and receive notifications for areas that are too populated or over capacity. Our mobile app for employees allows them to easily view busy areas as well as workstations in use and their cleaning status. If you’re worried about people’s return to the office, our smart sensor technology staggers workstation occupancy and measures distances between people. Our technology also provides notifications to sanitation team when workstations, meeting rooms, cafes or restrooms reach a threshold of visitors and require cleaning. We’ve designed all of these features to prioritize your employees’ health and safety. Because at AVUITY, we help you make your space work, and work safely.
