Making the Office Hotel More Welcoming

While some may question when the concept of an office hotel first emerged, the terminology generally dates from the early 1990s when firms began exploring it as a way to reduce costs through shared workspaces.

For some types of businesses it makes sense, for others it does not. One of the more storied examples of the latter is the experience of the Chiat/Day advertising agency after it decided to eliminate private offices and cubicles in 1995. According to the plan some 300 full-time employees would no longer have dedicated offices but instead work from wherever they wanted – home or on the road. When coming into headquarters they reported to a concierge for a space assignment, phone and laptop. The idea failed, one reason being that more employees came into the office than space was available.

“Hoteling can make sense for firms where personnel spend more time out of the office than in it,” says Mark Bassil, co-founder and vice president of MAiSPACE, a Mt. Olive, NJ, based manufacturer of modular office furniture systems. “As noted in a Today’s Facility Management blog about a year ago, more than 22 million workers telecommute between home and office at least one day per week,” he reports. “Employees are becoming increasingly mobile and many organizations have responded to that by creating what the article calls shared ‘touch down’ spaces that co-workers can use when they need to be in the office. Technology has made it easier to be productive off site as well – be it in a home office or on the road.”

Company management from the executive suite through human resources and facility managers must carefully study the pros and cons of adopting a hoteling environment. “They cannot ignore the emotional impact on employees when they lose what they consider to be their space, no matter how much or how little time they actually spend in it,” Bassil says. “A good primer is ’10 Keys to Office Hoteling Success’ published by Facility Innovations.”

How MAiSPACE Supports “My Space”

With a tip of the hat to the social networking website, Bassil says today’s modular office furniture systems when properly specified and administered can accommodate people’s need to put a sense of self into their workspaces. “Thanks to modern manufacturing techniques modular office systems such as offered by MAiSPACE are available in dramatic designs and a wide variety of colors and textures that enable firms to put variety rather than sameness into their hoteling floor plans,” Bassil says. “Workstations need not be cookie-cutter cubicles but rather an eclectic mix of clear, striped, frosted or patterned glass; wood, fabric, painted steel and stainless steel staggered throughout the office areas to provide a sense of individuality rather than sameness,” he says. “What’s more, these systems are available at price points averaging 40% below some of the most well-known names in the contract furniture industry and enable us to build out floorplans as low as $15.00 per square foot.”

Assigning employees the same workspace when they check in can add complexities to supporting the “my space” concept. Mobile storage and filing systems by MAiSPACE solve this by equipping employees with dedicated cabinets that hold not only their relevant files but personal items as well, and which can be kept in a central storage area when the employee is working elsewhere. “This allows staff to personalize their temporary workspace with photos and other memorabilia, the lack of which is one of the biggest arguments against hoteling,” Bassil suggests. “Taking it a step further, plants can be made available on loan as a company service to those wishing them.”

Providing Intelligence to the Hotel Room

Offices designed on the hoteling concept rely heavily on access to companies’ information resources via the local area network (LAN) so arriving staff members can quickly log in and establish their phone and computer connections. “The MAiSPACE patented plug-and-play cabling system supports this by offering the highest capacity in the contract furniture industry,” Bassil says. “Computer density per workstation is no problem as multiple ports can accommodate laptop and/or permanent access to the company IT resources and data storage.”

Consolidation points enable workstations to be added or removed or relocated across the floor plan as business conditions warrant. This is accomplished by plugging or unplugging modular office clusters from the nearest consolidation point or accessing the horizontal cabling system through telecommunications outlets placed strategically in the raised flooring.

“Hoteling is not a space-saving panacea for all companies,” Bassil says. “Businesses depending on face-to-face contact and group collaboration may, like Chiat/Day, find it counterproductive. But it can be an effective approach for businesses whose employees are more productive when out than when in. In these instances attractive designs such as offered by MAiSPACE go a long way to making a temporary office seem like home.”

MAiSPACE.com will help business owners and operators make smart choices in Office Cubicle Systems and Office Furniture for their offices and selecting the right Systems Furniture.

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