10 advantages and disadvantages of desk sharing

Advantages and disadvantages of desk sharing

What are the advantages of desk sharing?

Desk sharing can help you to better organise the workspaces in your office, reduce their number in some cases and thus make more conscious use of the available space than before. This gives you and your team spaces that are better suited to your way of working and have a more modern feel overall.

Fewer desks, more space for employees

If your employees work from home part of the time, desks in the office will be empty. You can therefore reduce the number of desks and have your team share the available workspaces.

This step frees up space that you can make available to your team for other purposes. You can set up quiet zones for concentrated work or areas with rolling tables and movable partitions that work groups can reconfigure for their projects.

👉 According to Fraunhofer IAO, up to 30% less office space for desks is possible if workspaces are distributed intelligently.

You adapt the office to actual behaviour

Attendance fluctuates much more today than it used to. In many teams, employees are in the office two to three days a week, spread across different days of the week.

When you introduce desk sharing, you align your office with these actual usage patterns instead of a rigid full occupancy. This prevents individual spaces, entire offices or seating areas from standing empty and ensures that you can better plan the available space and layout.

Communication between departments improves

When seating is redistributed on a daily basis, colleagues from different teams get to talk to each other. This improves communication in everyday work, especially in areas where information is not only shared in meetings, but also in passing.

These conversations broaden everyone's perspective and increase understanding of each other's work.

You can react more quickly to changes

When you hire new employees or the team structure changes, you don't have to adjust the entire office space every time and you are not tied to a rigid configuration.

With desk sharing, you use the existing workspaces in such a way that everything works even during growth or restructuring. New employees simply fit into the ongoing workflow. There is no need to set up a new desk and hardware for them when they start work.

Keep an eye on office utilisation and the use of workspaces and meeting rooms with Office Insights from PULT. With the figures in front of you, you can react to emerging changes.

You reduce resource consumption

By reducing space requirements, desk sharing can significantly contribute to ensuring that you do not have to move to a larger property as your company grows. You remain in a comparatively smaller space with lower energy requirements, less cleaning and fewer equipment costs.

If more employees work remotely or in a hybrid model at the same time, CO₂ emissions from daily commuting are also reduced. Desk sharing can therefore help to achieve operational sustainability goals without compromising performance.

What are the disadvantages of desk sharing?

Desk sharing leads to problems when more employees come to the office at the same time than there are seats available. If there are no binding booking rules, this can lead to misunderstandings. In addition, the requirements for cleaning and coordination within the team increase.

Lack of available workspaces

If more employees come to the office at the same time than there are seats available, workspaces have to be improvised or some employees have to leave the office and switch to working from home or coworking spaces.

You can avoid this situation entirely by regularly checking capacity utilisation and introducing a reliable booking system. To check this, you can use the desk sharing ratio as a measure of the ratio of your number of employees to the number of workspaces currently available.

No personalisation of the workplace

Desk sharing eliminates the need for a fixed workstation with permanently placed personal items and individual storage space. Even the monitor, desk height and office chair are still set to the previous user's preferences when you start work.

Offer your employees the opportunity to store personal items, work equipment and documents securely. Lockers or lockable rolling containers are ideal for this purpose. This allows employees to continue using their favourite mug and placing family photos on their desk every day.

When purchasing new office equipment, make sure that monitors, chairs and desks are very easy to adjust. Height-adjustable desks are available with quick-select buttons that can be used to select different heights.

Greater organisational effort

Desk sharing only works if the process is clearly regulated. This includes booking systems, definable zones and information about which workstations are available and when. The handling of short-term changes or colleagues who do not show up must also be defined.

The larger your team, the more important it is to have binding desk sharing rules, for example in the form of an internal guideline or works agreement.

Hygiene and equipment requirements increase

If a different person uses the same workstation every day, the cleaning interval must be adjusted. Surfaces, keyboards, mice and chairs need to be cleaned more frequently than with fixed workstations.

The technical equipment must also be suitable for changing users. Height-adjustable chairs, easily positionable monitors and standardised connections (docking stations) are necessary so that every workstation is immediately ready for use, regardless of who is using it.

Irregular personal contact

With changing workstations, it can be more difficult to meet certain colleagues or make arrangements in person. If you can't find anyone in the office with whom you want or need to work, you lose time or postpone upcoming tasks. New employees and cross-location teams in particular need clear information about who is in the office and when.

In PULT, your employees can see where other colleagues are working. This makes it easier for them to sit next to each other. You can also reserve individual areas for specific groups or departments.

Comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of desk sharing

Advantages

• Unoccupied desks are saved when employees also work from home.
• Freed-up space can be redesigned for quiet zones or team areas.
• Office occupancy adapts over time to the actual behaviour of the teams.
• Teams mix more; there is more exchange between departments.
• The number of workstations can be scaled in response to changes without requiring additional space.
• Resource consumption decreases: energy, cleaning, furniture and commuting.

Disadvantages

• Bottlenecks can arise if no booking software is used and more employees come to the office at the same time than there are seats available.
• The workplace must be adjusted daily to suit the individual's height; lockers must be purchased for personal belongings.
• The organisational effort increases: booking, communication and utilisation must be managed.
• Cleaning must be carried out more frequently as workstations are used by different people.
• Spontaneous coordination is limited to digital channels when it is not clear who is in the office and when.

When is desk sharing worthwhile?

Desk sharing is worthwhile if employees already work in a hybrid manner and do not have any specialised requirements for their workplace. Daily use can then be organised with fewer desks without compromising productivity.

The model is less suitable or not suitable at all for activities that require fixed and special equipment or involve confidential conversations at the workplace. Desk sharing also has its limits in teams with a high office presence.

Desk sharing is suitable if...

• Employees regularly work in a hybrid manner: Those who are only in the office two or three days a week do not need a fixed workstation. In such teams, occupancy remains predictable on average.
• Workstations are equipped with standardised equipment: Uniform furniture, monitors, connections and technical requirements ensure that every workstation can be used by anyone without the need for reconfiguration or technical hurdles.
• Tasks can be performed regardless of location: Those who work with a laptop and headset and do not need any special equipment or documents can easily work in different locations.
• Communication is well organised: if it is clear to the team who is in the office and when, coordination works even without fixed seating arrangements.
  

Desk sharing is not suitable if ...

• Employees have special ergonomic or medical requirements. Those who rely on special equipment, such as orthopaedic chairs or individual monitors for image processing, should keep a fixed seat.
• Work is mainly confidential: staff appraisals or other very personal conversations; handling data that must remain confidential.

How can desk sharing be implemented successfully?

Desk sharing is a tool for adapting your office to the actual use and working behaviour of your team. If employees regularly work in a hybrid manner, you can save space by sharing workstations and use this space to benefit your team in other ways.

It is important that you take a structured approach to implementation:

You need clearly defined booking procedures, standardised equipment for each workspace and software that shows you how much your office is being used over time.

With the desk booking software PULT, your team can book workspaces, rooms and zones with a single click. Your employees can see directly which spaces are available, filter by equipment and see where their teammates are already sitting.

At the same time, you can evaluate the office usage data in Office Insights and see which rooms and zones are particularly popular and which ones you can remove or convert.

Tip: Here you will find inspiration for modern office concepts and help with workplace management.

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Advantages and disadvantages of desk sharing – frequently asked questions and answers