Practical guides for office managers building better hybrid workplaces. Learn how to optimize space utilization, automate operations, and support distributed teams.
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Office Insights
Open-Concept Office: Pros and cons, design, and modern concepts
An open-concept office is an open workspace where many employees work together without partition walls. Noise, a lack of private spaces, and constant interruptions are considered the biggest drawbacks of open-concept offices. However, you can solve these very problems through zoning, well-designed soundproofing, and skillful space planning.
Open-concept Office: The Most Important Points at a Glance
✓
An open-concept office refers to an open workspace for multiple teams without fixed partitions and is one of the most common office concepts in companies that adopt a hybrid work model.
✓
The biggest drawback of open-concept offices is the noise level: noise and acoustic distractions are among the most commonly cited causes of loss of concentration and declining productivity in open-concept offices.
✓
Zoning, acoustic partitions, and sound-absorbing materials solve the core problems in open-concept offices because they physically separate areas for concentration, communication, and relaxation.
✓
PULT makes it possible to plan open-concept offices: Through Desk Booking and Office Insights, the software shows which zones are actually being used and provides occupancy data for space planning tailored to actual needs.
What is an open-concept office?
An open-concept office (or open-plan office) is a contiguous office area in which more than ten employees work in an open space without floor-to-ceiling walls. It differs from a cubicle office in its open structure and from purely open-space areas in that it has clearly defined functional zones.
How does an open-concept office differ from a traditional office?
Office types can be classified based on how the space is divided. From cubicle offices with individual rooms to combination offices and open-concept offices, the openness of the space increases gradually.
A modern open-concept office combines open workspaces with activity zones—areas each designed for a specific task. It is precisely this zoning that distinguishes this well-thought-out concept from a simple desk arrangement.
For hybrid teams, an open floor plan makes particular sense. When part of your workforce is working from home, shared workspaces allow for much more efficient use of space than permanently assigned individual offices.
What are the pros and cons of open-concept offices?
Open-concept offices offer short lines of communication and high space efficiency, but their main drawbacks are noise and a lack of private spaces. The balance between these two factors determines whether the space is productive or stressful.
What are the advantages of an open-concept office?
The advantages of an open-concept office lie in collaboration and cost savings. Teams can easily coordinate with one another; these discussions take place without the need to schedule appointments, and new employees are able to integrate more quickly.
Added to this is the financial benefit. An open-concept office with shared workstations significantly reduces per-capita office costs, especially in companies where a high percentage of employees work from home.
✓
Short lines of communication: Teams coordinate with one another without organizational hurdles.
✓
Greater space efficiency: Shared workstations reduce costs per employee.
✓
Greater transparency and visibility: You can immediately see who is present and what people are working on.
✓
Faster onboarding: New colleagues learn the processes by working closely with the team.
What are the disadvantages of an open-concept office?
The biggest drawback of open-concept offices is the noise level. Conversations, phone calls, and keyboard clicks all blend together, and it is precisely this acoustic distraction that is one of the most common reasons why concentration suffers in an open-concept office.
In a controlled laboratory experiment, a research team at Bond University demonstrated that typical open-concept office noise increases negative mood by 25% and the physical stress response by 34%—as measured by heart rate and skin conductance—after just eight minutes of noise exposure. In real-world office settings, where employees are exposed to these noise levels for hours on end, these effects are correspondingly more pronounced. (Sander et al., Journal of Management & Organization, 2021)
Open-concept office layouts also significantly reduce face-to-face communication. In two field studies conducted with Fortune 500 companies, the volume of face-to-face interaction dropped by about 70% after the transition to an open-concept layout, while email and instant messaging traffic increased sharply. People who are constantly visible to everyone tend to withdraw inwardly and turn to digital channels. (Bernstein & Turban, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Harvard Business School, 2018). The availability of private spaces is therefore an important factor in well-being.
How do I design a modern open-concept office?
A productive and employee-friendly open-concept office is created through spatial zoning based on activity, effective soundproofing, and space planning based on actual usage data. However, furniture and rules alone are not enough if the basic layout of the space does not suit the way people work.
How does zoning work in an open-concept office?
Zoning divides the open space into areas for different activities. This principle stems from the activity-based working concept, in which each type of work is assigned its own appropriate space:
✓
Quiet areas for concentration and quiet, independent work.
✓
Opportunities for collaboration.
✓
Customizable project areas for teamwork and time-bound projects.
✓
Quiet, secluded areas for breaks and relaxation.
This allows employees to choose a workspace that suits their current task and ensures they have the best possible conditions there.
What type of soundproofing is suitable for an open-concept office?
Effective soundproofing in an open-concept office is achieved through sound-absorbing materials and physical barriers. The combination of elements on the ceiling, on the floor, as well as room dividers and large plants reduces the noise level.
✓
Acoustic partitions between workstations block sound directly at the source.
✓
Large plants with lush foliage also act as natural sound barriers.
✓
Upholstered furniture and upholstered room dividers absorb sound.
✓
Floor-to-ceiling partitions in an open-concept office separate zones from one another both acoustically and visually.
Acoustic panels on the ceiling and walls, sound-absorbing carpeting and rugs, and enclosed phone booths for video calls significantly reduce noise levels.
In cases where noise levels remain high despite these measures, the cause usually lies in the use of the space itself.
How does Desk Booking help optimize space in an open-concept office?
Desk Booking provides the data needed to plan an open-concept office according to actual needs. Rather than relying on assumptions, booking and occupancy data show which areas are regularly in use and which, by contrast, remain empty.
This leads to specific ways to adapt the space that allow for the redistribution and management of its use. For example, if the area designated for quiet work is consistently overbooked while spaces for collaboration remain empty, this is a measurable indicator that the layout needs to be redesigned.
PULT provides the necessary occupancy data: This allows you to analyze the use of your office space, and employees can reserve their seats in the appropriate zone.
How to Turn Your Open-Concept Office Into a Productive Workplace
An open-concept office becomes productive through zoning based on activity, effective soundproofing, and space planning based on actual usage data. The open space is preserved, and its weaknesses are eliminated through the right structure.
✓
With PULT Office Insights, you can see which areas of your space are actually being used and plan renovations based on real data.
✓
Your employees can reserve a workspace in the appropriate zone and see where their colleagues are already seated.
✓
You manage capacity and attendance all in one place.
{{onpage-cta}}
Hybrid Work
Agile work made simple: methods and benefits
Agile work is an approach in which teams complete small units of work, review interim results on a regular basis and make adjustments immediately. This makes the approach particularly suitable for tasks where information and insights emerge gradually.
Agile work means: completing tasks in small, reviewable steps and adjusting decisions regularly based on current interim results.
Core elements of agile work: short cycles, clear priorities, transparent workflows and consistent feedback.
Scrum and Kanban: the most widely used methods in agile work.
When agile work is most effective: when requirements evolve during the process, feedback is readily available and the team is expected to make decisions independently.
What does agile work stand for?
Instead of relying on one large overall plan, agile work is based on short work cycles that are reviewed continuously. This iterative approach creates a rhythm in which feedback can be incorporated at any time.
Kurze Zyklen: Arbeit wird in überschaubare Schritte geteilt.
Feedback: Ständig werden Zwischenergebnisse sichtbar und Rückmeldungen können einfließen.
Fortlaufende Verbesserung: Teams passen ihr Vorgehen und die Prioritäten regelmäßig an.
Offenheit: Aufgaben, Fortschritte und Hindernisse werden offen dargestellt.
How does agile work unfold?
Work is continuously prioritised, made transparent and adjusted based on the information available at that moment. This creates an approach that stays focused on the goal while allowing plenty of room for adaptation along the way.
Clarify the goal or problem: Start with a defined goal or a problem that needs solving, for example developing an app.
Prioritise the work packages: Gather the required tasks, assess them and sort them by importance.
Plan short work cycles: The team decides which tasks will be tackled in the next cycle, such as a sprint or a week.
Execute in small steps: The work packages are completed step by step. Dependencies and obstacles become visible early.
Review results and gather feedback: Results are presented, checked and compared with user expectations or client needs.
Adjust the approach (retrospective): The team reflects on what worked well and what did not, then adapts its way of working accordingly.
Which routines are typical in agile work?
Daily stand up: a short daily meeting of about fifteen minutes to set priorities and discuss any current obstacles.
Planning sessions: the team decides which tasks will be completed in the upcoming cycle.
Review or demo: the team presents interim results and receives immediate feedback.
Retrospective: a meeting focused on continuously improving collaboration and working methods.
Which methods are used in agile work?
The best known methods in agile work are Scrum and Kanban. They differ in structure but share the same goal: they make planning transparent, show how results become visible and ensure that feedback shapes the next steps.
Scrum
Scrum organises work in fixed iterations known as sprints, including defined roles, events and deliverables. A sprint lasts between one and four weeks and always ends with a result that can be reviewed.
Core elements of Scrum:
Fixed cycles: work is planned and completed in sprints.
Transparency: backlogs, goals and progress are kept visible at all times.
Feedback: each sprint ends with a review of the result and adjustments to the approach.
Scrum is especially suitable when requirements are dynamic, meaning they cannot be fully defined at the start and must be reviewed regularly.
Kanban
Kanban improves the flow of work without relying on fixed iterations. Tasks are shown visually on a board and move through defined process steps.
Core elements of Kanban:
Visualisation: tasks are displayed on a board so the current state of work is always clear.
Work in progress limits: each stage has limits to prevent overload and keep the flow steady.
Continuous flow: work moves through the process without fixed cycles.
Ongoing improvement: teams analyse bottlenecks and refine the workflow over time.
Kanban is particularly well suited to areas with continuous workflows, for example support, operations, marketing or HR.
What conditions are needed for agile work?
Teams that work in an agile way align themselves with the current goal, need the freedom to make decisions, require transparent workflows and rely on a team culture where open feedback is possible.
Goals and priorities: teams need a shared understanding of what they are working on and why. Priorities must be clear and reviewed regularly.
Decision making freedom: agility requires that the team can make decisions within defined boundaries.
Visibility of work and progress: tasks, status and current bottlenecks should be transparent at all times.
Cross functional skills: the team should cover as many required capabilities as possible.
Psychological safety: team members must be able to raise issues without fear of negative consequences. Only then will problems, mistakes and obstacles be shared openly and resolved.
Stakeholder involvement: feedback from customers, users or subject matter experts must be available and must genuinely influence decisions.
Examples of agile work
Example 1: Scrum – Developing a New Filter Feature
A SaaS provider runs a booking platform for seminars and training sessions. Customers regularly request faster filtering by criteria such as duration, format, or location.
Way of working:
The product team works in two-week sprints.
The sprint goal is an initial working filter for three criteria, without final design.
Filter selection and result logic are implemented as separate work packages.
Result after two weeks:
A simple, working filter panel for format (live / online), price range, and date.
The interface is not final, but fully functional and testable.
Users can filter real courses in a test environment and give feedback.
Outcome:
The team learns which filter combinations matter most to customers.
Technical feasibility is clarified before complex design begins.
Feedback is based on a real, working prototype.
Example 2: Kanban – Improving a Marketing Campaign Workflow
A marketing team manages ongoing campaigns for several product areas. Without a clear structure, tasks often pile up in the review stage, causing delays in releases.
Way of working:
The team introduces a Kanban board with the columns “Briefing”, “Concept”, “Creation”, “Review” and “Finalisation”.
The “Creation” and “Review” stages have WIP limits of three tasks each to make bottlenecks visible early.
Campaigns are planned as individual tasks, such as “create LinkedIn visual” or “improve ad copy”.
Result after four weeks:
The average turnaround time for a standard campaign element drops from twelve to seven days.
Significantly fewer tasks pile up in the review stage due to enforced WIP limits.
A graphic design bottleneck becomes visible and can be addressed through prioritisation or short-term support.
Benefits:
Campaigns launch more reliably and on time.
Capacity gaps are identified earlier and handled proactively.
The workflow becomes more stable and predictable without additional meetings.
{{onpage-cta}}
Office Insights
24 powerful office tools for companies, home office and hybrid work
24 office tools for desk booking, communication, project management, documentation, office suites, file management, scheduling, time tracking, e-signatures, automation, security and accounting.
PULT is a software tool for booking desks and meeting rooms. Employees can use a digital office map to select available workstations, rooms and zones and reserve them reliably. It also shows who will be in the office on which day, which makes team coordination easier.
Bookings can be made through the browser, smartphone, tablet or laptop, as well as via integrations such as Slack or Microsoft Teams.
The software offers more than just booking. It also includes features for office and space management, such as insights into the utilisation of individual rooms and zones as well as overall office occupancy.
desk booking in open plan offices and desk sharing setups
overview of who is in the office
planning and optimisation of space usage
Category: communication and meetings
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a platform for internal communication and collaboration. It offers chat, video and audio conferencing, file sharing and collaborative document editing within Microsoft 365.
Through channels and team spaces you can organise conversations, files and workflows by topic. Meetings can be run with features such as screen sharing, recordings and integrated whiteboards. Its tight integration with Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft OneDrive makes it possible to access appointments, emails and files directly from within Microsoft Teams.
Slack
Slack is a communication tool for teams and is used in many companies as an alternative or complement to email. Communication is organised in channels that can be created by topic, project or department. In addition, users can send direct messages, create group chats and use built-in audio and video huddles.
One important advantage of Slack is the large number of integrations. Services such as Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, project management tools, and CRMs can be connected directly, allowing information and notifications to converge in one place. Files can be shared and commented on in channels, keeping discussions and context transparent.
Zoom
Zoom is a video conferencing and communication platform used for online meetings, webinars and virtual collaboration. It supports video and audio calls, screen sharing and chat functions within individual meetings or persistent meeting rooms.
Users can share their entire screen or individual windows, present slides and collaborate on content in real time. Screen sharing is available in both the free and paid plans of Zoom.
Category: task and project management
Asana
Asana is a work and project management platform that helps teams plan and track tasks, projects and workflows. Teams create projects, describe tasks, assign owners and set due dates. Work can be displayed in different views such as list view, board view (Kanban), timeline or calendar.
Asana positions itself as a central hub for status overviews and goal tracking. It also offers automation features, reporting tools and, in its newer versions, AI powered assistance for workflows and analytics.
Trello
Trello is a browser based tool for task and project organisation built around boards, lists and cards. Tasks are created as cards and moved between lists such as “To Do”, “In Progress” and “Done”. This makes Trello particularly suitable for Kanban style workflows and clear, visual to do lists for teams.
core feature of Trello is its built in automation tool, Butler, which allows users to automate recurring workflows without any programming. For example, cards can be moved automatically when certain conditions are met or due dates can be assigned based on predefined rules.
Jira
Jira is a platform by Atlassian for managing tasks, projects and issues. Originally used mainly in software development and IT support, Jira is now also adopted by departments like marketing, HR and finance to model structured workflows.
In Jira, issues are organised within projects and can be created as tasks, bugs or user stories. Teams use boards — for example Kanban or Scrum boards — to visualise workflow steps and track progress. For business teams, there are dedicated project templates for project management, campaign work or request handling.
Category: knowledge, documentation and collaboration
Notion
Notion is a workspace that combines notes, documents, wikis, databases and task management in one system. It is used to document knowledge, build internal wikis and manage projects with all related information in a single place.
In Notion, content is organised on pages that can be structured freely using text, tables, checklists, relations and database views. This allows teams to build project plans, meeting notes, knowledge bases and dashboards within a single interface.
Confluence
Confluence is a web-based collaboration and documentation platform by Atlassian. It serves as a central place for knowledge management, project documentation and cross-team collaboration. Content is organised into pages and spaces that can be structured by topic.
Typical use cases include internal wikis, project documentation, technical documentation and process descriptions. Confluence supports collaborative editing, templates, comments and integrations with other Atlassian products, especially Jira.
Category: productivity suites and office tools
IONOS Nextcloud Workspace
IONOS Nextcloud Workspace is a cloud-based office and collaboration platform developed jointly by IONOS and Nextcloud. It positions itself as a European alternative to Microsoft 365.
The platform combines email, file storage, online office apps, calendars, contacts, chat and video conferencing in one environment.
Data is hosted in IONOS data centres in Germany. The service is promoted as GDPR compliant and is aimed especially at organisations that value digital sovereignty and European legal frameworks.
Google Workspace
Google Workspace is a suite of cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools. It includes Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Meet and Google Chat.
Its purpose is to bring email, files, communication and collaboration together entirely in the browser.
Documents are stored in Google Drive and can be edited simultaneously by multiple users. Google Meet enables video and audio meetings, Google Calendar is used for scheduling and Gmail serves as the email client.
Category: workshops and visual collaboration
Miro
Miro is an online whiteboard for visual collaboration. On a digital, infinitely zoomable board, users can place and structure sticky notes, text, shapes, lines and other elements. The tool is well suited for brainstorming sessions, workshops, process visualisations and planning work in distributed teams.
Miro offers a wide range of templates, including flowcharts, customer journey maps, retrospectives and roadmaps. Content can be edited collaboratively in real time, with comments and a presentation mode available.
Category: files, storage and file sharing
Dropbox
Dropbox is a cloud storage service that stores, syncs and shares files online. Users place files in a local Dropbox folder, which synchronises with the cloud so content is available across devices and through the web interface.
For teams, Dropbox includes additional administrative features such as permission management and structured team folders.
A key feature of Dropbox is file sharing. Files and folders can be shared via links, and depending on the plan, users can set password protection, expiry dates and download restrictions for shared links.
Nextcloud Files
Nextcloud Files is software for cloud storage, file synchronisation and file sharing that is typically run on a company’s own server or in a self managed cloud environment. It falls into the category of “self hosted file sync and share” and offers an alternative to services like Google Drive or Dropbox while keeping full control of the data within the organisation.
Various options are available for file sharing in Nextcloud Files. Files and folders can be shared with individual users or groups, or made accessible via public links. Depending on the configuration, shared links can be protected with passwords, expiry dates and permissions such as view only, upload or edit.
Category: scheduling and meeting coordination
Calendly
Calendly is an online tool for automated appointment scheduling. Instead of coordinating dates by email, users create a personal booking link that allows others to select an available time slot. Calendly checks availability against connected calendars such as Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook and prevents double bookings.
The user defines general availability (for example weekdays, time windows, buffer times) and sets up different event types such as a thirty minute intro call or a sixty minute internal meeting. For confirmed appointments, calendar entries are created automatically. Popular video conferencing solutions like Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams can be integrated directly, so each meeting automatically receives its own conference link.
Doodle
Doodle is an online service for finding meeting times in groups. A typical use case is the question “When is everyone available?” — for example for team meetings, workshops or external appointments with multiple participants. The organiser creates several time options in a poll and shares the link; participants mark their availability directly in the Doodle poll.
The results are compiled in a clear overview, making it easy to see which time slot works best for most participants or for everyone. Doodle can also send calendar invitations automatically once a time is confirmed. Depending on the product version, it can handle not only classic date and time polls but also booking pages and recurring meeting formats.
Category: time and time tracking
Toggl Track
Toggl Track is a time tracking tool focused on projects, clients and activities. Users can start and stop timers or log time manually; entries are assigned to projects, clients, tags or specific tasks. This enables detailed analysis of working hours, for example for billing, budget control or internal reporting.
Typical features include daily, weekly and project views, reports by client, project or activity and export options such as CSV or PDF.
Category: document workflows and e-signatures
Skribble
Skribble is an e-signature service that allows documents to be signed electronically with legal validity. The platform supports all three common e-signature standards: simple electronic signatures (SES), advanced electronic signatures (AES) and qualified electronic signatures (QES).
According to the provider, the service is hosted in data centres in Switzerland and is described as compliant with Swiss data protection law (DSG) and the European GDPR. A typical signing process consists of three steps: upload the document or pass it to Skribble via an integration, invite the signers and complete the electronic signature on a desktop, tablet or smartphone.
DocuSign
DocuSign is a service for electronic signatures and digital contract workflows. Documents are uploaded, configured with signature fields and other elements such as dates, initials or text fields and then sent to the signers. Recipients can review the document online and sign it with legal validity.
DocuSign logs the entire signing process through an audit trail that includes timestamps and the email addresses involved. Companies use the service for contracts, proposals, agreements and HR documents. Additional features include reminders, templates, form fields and integrations with CRM and office systems.
Category: automation and workflow integrations
Zapier
Zapier is a platform that connects web applications and automates recurring workflows. Users create “Zaps”, which consist of a trigger in one application and one or more actions in other applications.
Example: “When a form is submitted, create a record in the CRM and send a notification in the chat tool.”
Zapier supports thousands of apps, for example email services, CRMs, project management systems, online forms and chat tools. It allows data to move automatically between systems, triggers notifications and creates entries without any manual work.
Category: security and passwords
Bitwarden
Bitwarden is a password manager that stores login details, secure notes and other confidential information in encrypted form. Users create entries that contain a login name, a password, a URL and notes, and can organise them into collections. The browser extensions and mobile apps fill in login information automatically on websites and in applications.
Bitwarden uses a zero knowledge security model. Data is encrypted on the client side and, due to the architecture, the provider cannot access any decrypted content. The service is available as a cloud solution and, in certain plans, can also be self hosted.
For teams and companies, there are organisational features that allow shared access to vaults, management of access rights and the definition of security policies.
Category: accounting and finance
sevDesk
sevDesk is a cloud based accounting and invoicing platform aimed mainly at small businesses, self employed professionals and freelancers. The tool allows users to create quotes and invoices, capture receipts, assign payments and run basic reports on the financial situation.
Receipts can be captured digitally, uploaded and read automatically through OCR and AI based recognition in order to generate booking suggestions. Requirements specific to the German market, such as compliant archiving under GoBD rules, value added tax logic and interfaces for tax advisers, for example export in the DATEV standard, are supported.
Lexware Office
Lexware Office is a cloud based accounting and invoicing platform for small businesses, self employed professionals and freelancers. The service combines receipt capture, invoicing, the income surplus calculation (Euer), advance VAT returns and bank integration in one system.
Receipts can be captured digitally, uploaded and posted to the accounts. Based on this data, Lexware Office creates the income surplus calculation and various reports. The software includes features for creating invoices, quotes, delivery notes and reminders, for submitting advance VAT returns through ELSTER and for compliant archiving under GoBD rules.
Category: asynchronous communication (video)
Loom
Loom is a tool for asynchronous video communication. Users can record their screen, camera and microphone and share the resulting video through a link. This makes it possible to provide status updates, explain processes or give feedback without scheduling a live meeting.
Recordings can include comments and reactions, and viewers can watch the video directly in the browser without downloading any files.
Loom is especially useful for product demos, walkthroughs of documents or processes and for explaining complex topics that would be difficult to understand through text alone.
{{onpage-cta}}
Room booking
Guide: How to organise desk sharing in four steps
Desk sharing means that office workstations are used by several employees, depending on their attendance and the type of work they are doing. For this model to work fairly and reliably for everyone, you need clear and consistent structures.
Measure real utilisation: Track actual office attendance and workstation use for two to four weeks, for example with automated data from PULT Presence.
Determine the desk sharing ratio: Use the measurement data to calculate how many workstations you truly need, including peak days and special cases.
Structure the office: Set up standardised workstations and divide the space into areas for focused work, team work, meetings and phone calls.
Define rules: Establish guidelines for booking, clean desk expectations, behaviour in each zone and data protection.
Organise booking: Use a central booking system to reserve desks, rooms and zones reliably and to detect no shows automatically.
Step 1: needs analysis and planning
To make desk sharing work well in your organisation, you need a simple but reliable set of data. The goal is to determine how many people are actually in the office at the same time and how intensively your workstations are used. Only with these numbers can you decide how many desks you will need in the future.
Measuring actual office attendance
With PULT Presence you can capture office attendance and see how many employees are on site at the same time. Your team does not need to do anything, because detection happens passively. There is no extra effort involved:
Automatic check in through the company Wi Fi
No manual action required from employees
Compliant with data protection rules, because only aggregated attendance values are used
Detection of actual attendance rather than bookings, so no shows are excluded
This gives you precise office attendance data over a period of two to four weeks without needing to introduce a booking system beforehand.
Measuring the actual use of your workstations
Alongside attendance tracking, you should record how many desks and areas are actually being used. With PULT Office Insights you receive:
Utilisation reports for desks, rooms and zones
Visualisations of how each area is used on the floor plan
This lets you see immediately which areas are overused and which are underused.
Calculating the desk sharing ratio
The desk sharing ratio shows the relationship between the number of available workstations and the total number of employees.
Example: you have one hundred employees and seventy workstations. Your desk sharing ratio is zero point seven.
When you use this metric, take into account employees who still require a permanently assigned workstation. This may be necessary due to physical needs or because they rely on specialised hardware, for example a high performance video editing setup.
Define your target setup
Based on your attendance data, usage data and the desk sharing ratio, you decide:
How many workstations you will need in the future
Which areas need to be adjusted and whether, for example, more space for team meetings is required
Whether any parts of the office should be redesigned or repurposed
2. Set up the office for desk sharing
For desk sharing to work well for everyone, the office needs the right structure and an environment that supports the new concept. This includes standardised workstation equipment, new storage options and redesigned areas and zones.
Standardised and ergonomic workstations
The daily switch between different workstations is most comfortable for your employees when every desk has the same equipment. Make sure you provide:
height adjustable desks
identical monitor setups
universal docking stations or monitor adapters
ergonomic chairs that can be adjusted quickly
reliable Wi Fi throughout the entire office
Sufficient storage space
In a desk sharing setup, everyone needs a place for personal work items and clothing, for a backpack or bag, for bike helmets or a favourite mug. The following solutions have proven effective:
lockers
sufficiently large storage cupboards
mobile pedestals for work items such as a keyboard, mouse or headset
Here is the natural English translation:
Divide the office into zones
Zoning helps prevent disruptions and makes the space more usable. Typical areas include:
quiet zones with single workstations for focused work
areas for phone calls and video calls
zones for team work and collaboration
break areas
rooms or zones for exercise, balance and recovery
3. Introduce desk sharing rules
Few but well considered desk sharing rules create fairness and maintain hygiene at all workstations.
Booking rules: define how far in advance workstations can be reserved. In PULT you can specify for each employee, team and department which resources they are allowed to book.
Clean desk policy: it requires that sensitive data, storage devices and documents are not left on desks. Computers must be locked even during short absences.
Behaviour in different zones: set expectations for how people should behave in each area, for example consideration and silence in quiet zones.
Cleanliness: workstations should be left clean and tidy, and no personal items may remain. Provide stations with wipes and cleaning supplies to support this.
4. Introduce the booking process and booking software
A desk booking system makes daily work easier for your team. In PULT, individual workstations, meeting rooms, zones and parking spaces can be reserved reliably in advance.
These resources can be booked in PULT
With PULT your team can reserve the available spaces in your office in advance.
workstations and desks
zones you have defined, such as quiet areas, team zones and recreation areas
meeting rooms
parking spaces
visitor workstations
catering or additional services for meetings
How desk booking works in PULT
Your employees can make reservations in PULT in several ways:
on a smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop or terminal
through interactive floor plans that show available spaces in real time
through integrations in Slack, Microsoft Teams, Outlook or Google Calendar
with filters that allow them to select a workstation based on available equipment or the type of zone
If a team member does not show up for their reservation, PULT can release the booking automatically and make the resource available again. You can define how long the reservation should remain active after the scheduled start time.
Automatic attendance detection
Check in happens automatically through the company Wi Fi with a zero click process. As soon as one of the employee’s devices connects to the network, PULT recognises their presence.
Future of work: the most important developments through 2050
The future of work will reshape companies, jobs and collaboration over the coming decades. Breakthroughs in AI, demographic shifts, climate change and economic transformation will have their strongest impact between 2030 and 2050.
The future of work through 2050 will be shaped by digitalisation and AI, demographic change, hybrid work models and a shift in values toward more autonomy and meaningful work.
AI and automation take over repeatable tasks and reshape job profiles. Human work moves further toward analysis, problem solving and interpersonal responsibilities.
Work takes place in more locations. Offices, home offices and third spaces form a flexible ecosystem. The office becomes the place for collaboration, workshops and alignment.
Desk sharing and activity based working replace assigned desks in favour of bookable work zones.
Working hours shift toward results rather than presence. Flexitime, trust based working and flexible time accounts continue to gain ground.
Employees gain new opportunities through new models and career paths but also face risks such as information overload or blurred boundaries.
Companies need to adapt their structures, leadership, workspaces and skill development to remain productive and competitive.
What are the most important developments shaping the future of work?
The most important developments shaping the future of work are digitalisation and AI, demographic change, climate change and ecological transformation, new ways of working and a shift in values toward flexibility and meaningful work.
These five trends determine how companies will be organised between 2030 and 2050, which tasks become automated, which skills grow in importance and how workplaces and work models evolve.
Digitalisation, automation and artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence and the new systems emerging from it are among the strongest forces shaping the coming decades.
Key developments:
Generative AI automates analysis, research and writing tasks.
Process automation through RPA and machine learning replaces repetitive work and speeds up administrative workflows.
Robotics becomes more affordable and usable in smaller production environments.
Platform technologies standardise many work processes and enable distributed collaboration.
Impact:
A large share of tasks in administration, customer service, finance, production and logistics can be automated or heavily supported by AI by 2035.
Knowledge work shifts toward roles that supervise, guide and interpret.
New job profiles emerge at the intersection of technology, data and organisational development.
Demographic change and the shortage of skilled workers
Germany and Europe are facing a profound demographic shift.
Key developments:
The share of older workers rises significantly while the number of younger workers declines.
Many qualified professions, including IT, healthcare, engineering and education, are already severely understaffed.
From 2030 onward the retirement of the large baby boom cohorts reaches its peak.
Impact:
The shortage of skilled workers remains a structural issue and intensifies in several fields.
Companies need to focus more on employee retention, continuous training, reskilling, automation and international recruitment.
Older employees gain a more important role in organisations through knowledge transfer and more flexible work models.
Climate change, decarbonisation and green jobs
The ecological transformation is a long term trend that is reshaping economies and labour markets.
Key developments:
National and European climate targets create new demands for companies, especially in industry, energy, mobility and construction.
Sustainability reporting through ESG frameworks becomes more binding and more complex.
Renewable energy, circular economy models and resource efficiency gain importance.
Impact:
The demand for green skills rises steadily.
New fields emerge in energy production, decarbonisation technologies, environmental management and sustainable product design.
Companies need to realign their processes, products and supply chains.
New ways of working: hybrid, remote and platform based work
Work location and working hours become more flexible and more digital.
Key developments:
Hybrid work models that blend home office and office days have become standard in many companies and public institutions.
Remote work remains at a high level, especially in knowledge intensive roles.
International contractors can be integrated more easily.
Impact:
Organisations need to rethink collaboration, communication and meeting structures.
The demand for digital infrastructure, including collaboration software and desk booking tools, continues to grow.
Employment models become more diverse. Permanent roles, freelancing and project based work coexist.
Shift in values: purpose, autonomy and work life integration
Changing expectations around work and working hours shape how recruitment, retention and company culture are organised.
Key developments:
Younger generations expect more autonomy, opportunities for development and a workplace that makes a meaningful contribution to society.
The desire to balance work, family and personal projects grows stronger.
Mental health and managing workload become increasingly important.
Impact:
Employer attractiveness depends more heavily on culture, autonomy and development opportunities.
Leadership shifts toward trust and results.
How will jobs and skills change in the future of work?
Jobs and the skills required for them change in the future of work mainly through automation, AI support, new professional fields and a growing need for digital, social and analytical capabilities.
Routine tasks decline while tasks that rely on creativity, problem solving and human interaction gain importance.
Which types of work are most affected by automation?
Straightforward tasks with a high degree of repetition are the easiest to automate. These include:
administrative processes such as data entry and scheduling
standardised analysis and reporting tasks
parts of customer communication such as first contact or frequently asked questions
simple production, warehouse and inspection routines
documentation and form processing
In many fields these tasks are not fully replaced but partially automated by AI systems. Employees then take on roles that supervise, guide or interpret.
Which competencies will become especially important?
The future of work requires a blend of digital, analytical and interpersonal skills. The most important include:
digital fundamentals: working with AI, data literacy and digital communication
social and communication skills: collaboration, conflict resolution and empathy
analytical capabilities: problem solving and interpreting complex information
adaptability: continuous learning, openness to change and strong self management
creativity: developing new ideas, concepts and solutions
These competencies become more important across almost every profession, regardless of qualification level.
How can employees prepare for the future of work?
Employees should take an active approach to developing their skills. Key steps include:
assessing your current skills and comparing them with future requirements
building AI and data literacy regardless of your industry
upskilling or reskilling through microlearning, certificates or part time training
actively maintaining your professional network both inside and outside your company
strengthening self management and resilience to navigate change
How will the future of work affect companies, public institutions and leadership?
The future of work affects companies primarily through changes in technology, the shortage of skilled workers, ecological requirements and new ways of working.
How are organisational structures changing?
Organisational structures in companies and public institutions become more flexible and more cross functional overall. Typical developments include:
fewer or flatter hierarchies with more responsibility placed in teams
role models that are based on tasks rather than rigid job descriptions
How is collaboration changing?
Work processes become more digital, easier to understand and more standardised. Key changes include:
digitised workflows replace manual processes
shared work platforms form the basis for collaboration in distributed teams
standardising repeatable processes through automation
linking office and remote work through unified software
What requirements arise for the infrastructure?
Companies need modern office concepts and a reliable infrastructure:
stable digital systems for communication, coordination and documentation
booking and workplace systems designed for hybrid office models
well equipped meeting rooms that support participation from any location
data security and access controls, especially for AI applications
a workspace that supports both focused individual work and collaboration on team days
How will work location and the workplace change in the future of work?
Work location and the workplace change fundamentally because work is no longer tied to a fixed desk or a rigid timetable. Tasks are carried out where they can be done most effectively and at times that fit both operational needs and personal schedules.
Companies combine the office, home office and additional work locations into a single system where attendance, equipment and collaboration are aligned with how employees actually work.
Shift from assigned desks to flexible concepts
The traditional personal desk becomes less important. Instead, companies adopt models that reflect actual attendance and employee needs more accurately:
multiple work locations complement the office such as home office, coworking spaces and mobile work setups
not all employees are on site every day and attendance depends on tasks, meetings and the need for coordination
Office space is planned with fewer individual desks and more zones for focused work, collaboration or relaxation and exercise.
quiet zones for focused individual work
project and team areas for shared tasks
private spaces for calls or confidential conversations
meeting rooms for coordination
recreation and break areas for recovery
The driver behind this shift is the rise of hybrid work. According to ifo Institut, by early 2025 around twenty five percent of employed people in Germany were working from home at least part of the time. Companies are adjusting their office space because on average about a quarter of all desks remain unused on a regular basis.
Under these conditions, desk sharing makes the office suitable for what is known as activity based working. Employees choose the place, room or zone that best fits the task at hand.
.png)
