The term hotdesking is perceived negatively by workers and could put them off joining a company, according to experts at a recent Estates Gazette round table about finding value in a changing London.
With land at a premium and central London office rents rising, companies are increasingly trying to maximise their existing office space through desk sharing and more innovative use of office space.
The shift towards flexible working is inevitable, but terminology is critical, agreed the round table panel.
“Agility has a virtuous interpretation, hotdesking has the opposite,” said Jim Herbert, chief executive of Aon Risk Solutions, which recently moved its UK headquarters to the Cheesegrater, EC3, because the large floorplates allowed them to create a sleek and efficient working environment.
“Based on people’s preconceptions around hotdesking, before you even move to a new office, you are going to lose people,” he added. “We spent three-and-a-half years explaining to people before we moved what the benefits of their sacrifices would be.”
John Slade, chief executive of BNP Paribas Real Estate, said despite the trend for lower occupation of offices there were still “forces going the other way towards traditional working”.
His comments were backed up by Dan Bayley, the firm’s head of office leasing, who said that “not everyone is trying to push people into the smallest holes”.
“You do still have at the other end the Googles of this world where it’s all about growth but the finance director isn’t driving things, it is the business development teams and they are taking buildings initially where they are not rolling around like peas in a drum, but they have got a lot of space because they know they are going to keep growing.”
The round table was hosted in partnership with BNP Paribas Real Estate. Listen to the full discussion below and read next week’s Estates Gazette for full coverage.
