Workplace operations insights

Return to Office: TL;DR

• According to return to office surveys, a mandatory return to the office leads to declining satisfaction and has a negative impact on productivity.
• If you introduce a mandatory return-to-office policy, you risk increased turnover, especially among women, high performers, and millennials.
• The attractiveness of the office is the biggest lever for employees to voluntarily return to the office to enjoy its benefits.

What does “return to office” (RTO) mean?

Return to office (RTO) describes the return to the office after periods of high remote or home office work. The term has become established especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Return to office can be organized voluntarily or mandatorily by the employer.

Distinction: Return to office vs. office first vs. hybrid work

• Remote work: Working outside the office, either permanently or on certain days.
• Hybrid work: A combination of office and home work, often with fixed team rules (e.g., two to three days in the office, the rest at home).
• Office-first vs. remote-first: Basic attitude toward the place of work, either the office as the main place of work or the home office.
• Return to office policy: binding requirement from the employer, for example, at least three days per week in the office.
• Incentive-based return to office: offering attractive office space, team days, zones in the office for teamwork and desk sharing, so that office presence is perceived as added value.

The importance of returning to the office

The idea behind returning to the office is to strengthen collaboration, belonging, corporate culture, and innovation in the workplace.

However, if you roll out a return to the office as a compulsory measure, you risk dissatisfying parts of your workforce or causing them to look for new opportunities.

If, instead, you establish hybrid working models and make your office more attractive through desk sharing, quiet zones for silent and concentrated work, meeting areas, and zones for collaboration, you increase the likelihood that your employees will voluntarily be present in the office and enjoy its benefits.

Evaluate presence: PULT Presence

With PULT Presence, workplace check-in happens automatically as soon as employees connect their device to the company Wi-Fi.

✔ Uses existing infrastructure
✔ Real-time utilization & transparent attendance
✔ No additional hardware, no clicks, no effort
✔ Fully GDPR compliant

PULT Presence

Do return-to-office mandates really work? 

Several recent studies show that forcing employees to return to the office with back to office mandates does not increase productivity. Instead, satisfaction declines and loyalty to the employer weakens.

• A study by the University of Pittsburgh analyzed over 100 publicly traded companies that have introduced a mandatory return to the office. The result: no measurable performance gains, but a decline in employee satisfaction.
• Another study based on over three million LinkedIn profiles shows that employee turnover increases significantly after the introduction of return-to-office policies. Women, high performers, and younger generations are particularly affected.
• At the same time, the time-to-hire (the time it takes to fill a position) increases. The rate of successful hires declines.
• Studies from the US and Europe confirm that the motivation to come to the office voluntarily is strongly related to the design of the workplace and clear communication, but not to coercion.

If you want to introduce a mandatory return-to-office policy, you cannot expect performance to increase. On the contrary, you risk valuable members of your workforce becoming dissatisfied and/or leaving.

If you want employees to come to the office more often and enjoy doing so, you can achieve this by creating an attractive workplace that entices your employees with offers that working from home cannot provide.

How can I get employees to return to the office voluntarily?

The return to office concept works best when the working conditions in the office are attractive. The higher the quality of the working environment, the greater the incentive to return regularly. Your office should offer advantages that your employees do not experience when working from home.

1. Room concepts and zoning

• Multispace principle: Plan differently designed zones for concentrated work, collaboration, exchange, and relaxation.
• Retreat zones: Acoustically shielded workstations with partition walls, textile surfaces, and plants reduce noise levels. In an office that has been calmed in this way, people have been shown to concentrate better and for longer.
• Team zones: Rollable furniture makes office spaces and specially designed zones convertible. Tables, seating, whiteboards, and partitions can be moved together as needed so that this furniture suits the respective project work.
• Phone booths and small meeting rooms: These rooms reduce noise in open-plan offices and prevent phone calls or video conferences from disturbing the rest of the team.

2. Acoustics and quiet

Sound absorbers, ceiling panels, and partitions reduce reverberation and background noise.

Greenery in the form of plants or green partitions improves acoustics, indoor climate, and atmosphere.

You should keep areas for quiet work clearly separated from areas for discussion and teamwork. This clear zoning also makes it easy for your employees to find the right area for the task at hand.

Tip: In PULT, you can divide the office into zones and define their respective purposes.

3. Light and climate

Natural daylight is an important factor for people's personal well-being. Therefore, position workstations close to windows and use glass walls when room dividers are necessary to draw light deep into the space.

In Germany, artificial lighting must reach at least 500 lux at the workplace and be dimmable. Lights with a neutral white spectrum, i.e., from 4,000 to 5,000 Kelvin, have a positive effect on alertness and concentration.

Also consider the indoor climate: modern ventilation systems, CO₂ monitoring, and a temperature between 70 and 73 degrees Fahrenheit create better working conditions.

4. Relaxation and breaks

Lounges with sofas and armchairs offer your employees physical relaxation during the working day. They are a welcome and popular alternative to office chairs, at least temporarily, during calls or breaks. With laptop stands provided, your employees can also continue to work in a focused manner while sitting in the armchairs.

A well-equipped kitchen with a refrigerator, microwave, kettle, coffee, tea, and water stations enhances the office and break times. 

Snacks and drinks, as well as a canteen, increase the quality of the stay and offer an advantage over working from home, where your employees have to take care of every meal themselves.

Tip: Fresh fruits as a supposed benefit in job advertisements has long since become a negatively connotated internet meme.

On the other hand, high-quality and comfortably furnished break areas, a constantly available supply of drinks and snacks, or even a canteen can boost return to office morale. These advantages can be effectively communicated to applicants.

5. Technology for switching between working from home and the office

If you want your employees to enjoy using your office, you should equip it with the technology needed to ensure that switching between home office, office, zones, and meeting rooms works smoothly. This also ensures that your employees can easily switch between the different zones.

• Storage space for personal items: Lockers or cubicles are practical and convenient when many employees frequently switch between the office and home office. Jackets, backpacks, or bike helmets can be safely stored in them.
• Personal work equipment such as mice, keyboards, headsets, or noise-canceling headphones can be stored in lockable compartments. This means that these items do not have to be transported every time.
• Every workstation should be equipped with docking stations or monitor adapters. Your employees can then easily connect their laptops to the existing monitors and immediately have a large setup.
• Meeting rooms: Equip your meeting rooms with high-quality conference technology (microphones, cameras, large displays). Make sure that all participants—whether in the room or remote—are equally involved.
• Sensors and monitoring: Sensors for room occupancy, air quality, and temperature provide valuable data. You can see when rooms are heavily used, whether air quality is deteriorating, or whether the temperature needs to be adjusted. This data helps you to continuously optimize space, as you can see actual demand and act accordingly.
• Desk booking software: With a booking app, employees can reserve workspaces, zones, and meeting rooms in advance. This ensures that your employees have fair access to the available space resources.

Make returning to the office easier with desk booking

Returning to the office works best when office space is used in a way that offers real advantages over working from home. Desk sharing can save up to 30% of the office space that was previously occupied by permanently assigned individual workstations.

You can convert this space into zones for collaboration, project work, and breaks. Surveys show that these areas are in greater demand than traditional individual workstations. This creates an office that is attractive, offers variety, and makes it worthwhile to be there.

For this to work in everyday working life, you need a platform that makes space allocation and booking easy. With seat booking in PULT, your employees can ensure that the room, zone, or desk is free and available at the right time.

• Workplace booking: Reserve desks with a click, integrated into Slack and MS Teams.
• Room booking: Use meeting rooms without conflicts, including equipment such as whiteboards, displays, and catering.
• Weekly planner: Overview of who is in the office and when. This allows you to schedule team days sensibly.
• Office insights: Data on utilization to read out office utilization.
• Parking spaces & visitor management: Easily reserve parking spaces and welcome guests.

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Workplace Experience: TL;DR

• Workplace experience describes the overall experience that employees have in their working environment: consisting of rooms, technology, services, and culture.
• A good workplace experience is created when employees experience a positive culture and office space, digital systems, and organizational processes work well together.
• Hybrid working is changing the requirements for the workplace: fewer fixed desks, more zones for teamwork, quiet, and breaks.
• The quality of the workplace experience can be measured through employee feedback, utilization data, attendance measurements, and external evaluations.
• With PULT, you can visualize the workplace experience, identify trends in usage, and make targeted improvements to your office.

What does “workplace experience” mean?

Workplace experience describes the overall experience of employees at their workplace and the associated environment. This includes three closely related areas: the spaces in which they work, the technology they use, and the culture they encounter and help shape.

Why is workplace experience important?

A positive and managed workplace experience is important because the shift between working from home and working in the office (hybrid work), competition for skilled workers, and rising expectations of the workplace are creating new requirements.

You need to design your spaces, the technology you use, and your organization in such a way that they keep pace with new ways of working. Only then will your office remain a place that people enjoy using and where they can work productively.

Hybrid working is changing office space

Because many employees regularly work from home, permanently assigned desks are often empty. At the same time, employees want spaces for collaboration, project work, or quiet zones for concentrated work.

To offer this variety in the office, you need to repurpose space. A reduced number of individual workstations creates room for zones that are actually needed and desired.

To ensure that the remaining desks can be fairly distributed and used, you need a booking system that allows employees to reserve workstations and rooms in advance.

Tip: Desk booking in PULT enables your employees to access all workplaces, rooms, zones, and parking spaces fairly and to make binding reservations.

The workplace determines employer attractiveness

Workplace design plays an important role in the competition for skilled workers. Applicants pay attention to whether an office offers modern areas for teamwork, quiet spaces, good technical equipment, and services that make everyday work pleasant and differ from both their former company and working from home.

If your office space offers something that is superior to that of your competitors and working from home, you increase your chances of attracting new employees and retaining existing ones.

Processes for workability

Every interruption in everyday office life has a noticeable effect on your employees. Such interruptions can include:

• A technically disrupted video call with a customer
• Double-booked meeting rooms
• Noisy open-plan offices without acoustic dampers
• Lack of opportunities for physical relaxation

Disruptions of this kind add up and have a negative impact on your employees' ability to concentrate. With a well-designed workplace experience, on the other hand, you can ensure that rooms and technology function reliably and that personal workflows are not unnecessarily disrupted.

The workplace experience strengthens loyalty

An office that offers a variety of working options has a direct impact on satisfaction. When employees feel that their needs for peace and quiet, interaction, and comfort are being taken into account, they are more likely to stay with the company. A positive workplace experience thus contributes directly to reducing staff turnover.

What influences the workplace experience?

The workplace experience encompasses three areas: spaces, technology, and culture. Only when you consider all three together can you create a working environment that truly improves everyday life.

Spaces and floor plans for a positive workplace experience

Because many employees regularly work from home, individual workstations can be reduced. Convert some of this space into areas that are in greater demand: zones for project work, meetings, quiet work, or even breaks.

Studies show that this variety of spaces is a significant factor in whether people enjoy coming to the office. The core idea is to offer your employees advantages with the layout and equipment that they don't have at home. 

A desk booking system ensures that the remaining workstations, rooms, and zones are available for planning purposes.

Technology for a good workplace experience

Digital equipment is an integral part of the workplace experience. Hardware and software should enable your team to work as freely as possible and never become a bottleneck for productivity.

This includes powerful Wi-Fi, video conferencing systems, large and sometimes multiple monitors per workstation, docking stations or monitor adapters for laptops, and software for communication and planning.

Equally important are sensors and software that make utilization, air quality, and temperature measurable and visible. By consistently using this technology, you ensure that employees can use workstations and rooms without disruption and in high quality.

Culture and services along the workplace experience

Workplace experience also means how work feels in the office. This includes collaboration between departments, the design of rules and processes, but also offerings such as team events or even hiring a workplace experience manager.

These elements influence whether your office is a place where people enjoy spending time. They complement spaces and technology with a social and organizational dimension.

Tip: An active desk sharing concept can have a positive effect on the workplace experience in this regard. Desk sharing breaks down departmental boundaries. Colleagues who would otherwise have nothing to do with each other sit next to each other. This encourages conversation and company-wide exchange.

How can I provide a good workplace experience?

A good workplace experience is the result of careful planning and gradual implementation in your company.

• 1. Assess the current situation: Start by taking stock of the available space and how it is used, the existing technology and furniture, and employees' expectations of the company. Use occupancy data, feedback surveys, and discussions to do this.
• 2. Clarify responsibilities: The workplace experience affects several areas: IT, HR, and facility management. Determine who is responsible for which tasks and how you will make decisions together.
• 3. Adapt office space: Reduce unused individual workstations and use the space for areas that are actually in demand: team rooms, quiet zones, break areas. Add a booking system so that workstations and rooms are distributed fairly at all times.
• 4. Check technology: Ensure stable conference systems, docking stations at workstations, and software that facilitates processes.
• 5. Integrate workplace experience services and culture: Snacks & drinks, canteen offerings, lounge areas, sports activities, employee events, joint workations, workshops, training courses on private financial security or healthy lifestyles, career opportunities, psychological counseling, job bikes, etc.
• 6. Get feedback: Regularly ask how the workplace experience is perceived. Use short surveys, digital feedback tools or a workplace experience app.
• 7. Continuously improve: Work on the workplace experience is never finished. Needs change and technology evolves. Therefore, plan regular adjustments and check whether and which measures are effective.

Tip: In the workplace experience platform PULT, you can measure office utilization, gradually replan and optimize office space, and easily conduct surveys among employees.

How do I measure the quality of the workplace experience?

You can measure the quality of the workplace experience by combining several sources of information. These include feedback from your employees, objective usage data, the functionality of your systems, and external evaluations.

Employee perception of the workplace experience

• Surveys: Short monthly or quarterly surveys give you an up-to-date picture of the mood.
• In-office NPS: A simple scale (“How likely would you be to recommend the office as a place to work?”) provides you with a comparable value that you can track regularly.
• Feedback and annual reviews: Personal conversations give you deeper insights that are not likely to be revealed in standardized surveys.

Objective usage data

• Space utilization: Booking systems or sensors allow you to see whether workstations, meeting rooms, or quiet areas are being used as you planned.
• Attendance rates: These show on which days and at what times your office is used particularly heavily.
• Length of stay: Provides information on whether employees only use the office for individual appointments or spend longer periods of time working there.

Tip: With PULT Presence, employee office attendance is automatically recorded as soon as their laptop or smartphone connects to your company Wi-Fi. Unlike simple booking data, this gives you real attendance figures.

Technical functionality

• System stability: Failure rates for video conferencing, Wi-Fi, or software.
• Ticket processing times: How quickly problems are resolved.

External reviews and signals

• Review platforms such as Kununu or Glassdoor: Comments and reviews show you how (former) employees perceive the working environment, with regard to factors such as workplace design, equipment, or atmosphere.
• Turnover and application rates: An increasing resignation rate or declining applicant numbers are also signals that the workplace experience is out of balance.

Evaluate data in context

The most meaningful insight into the quality of the workplace experience comes when you combine the various sources. If internal surveys show dissatisfaction with space availability, occupancy data shows high utilization, and criticism of office design appears on review platforms, you know that action is needed.

Similarly, you can check whether new measures such as additional team zones or improved technology are reflected positively in feedback, data, and reviews. This can also be handled by a workplace experience coordinator.

Measure and improve workplace experience with PULT

A positive workplace experience for your employees is created by the interplay of many factors: spaces and zones that enable different ways of working. Technology that works reliably. Offers and services such as catering or lounge areas that enrich everyday working life and surpass the comforts of working from home. And a culture that ensures people feel comfortable in the office. All these elements interact and determine how the workplace is experienced.

To ensure that you can evaluate this experience not only based on gut feeling, but also control it in a targeted manner, you need reliable data, such as that provided by the workplace experience software PULT:

• Office Insights: PULT allows you to see in real time how heavily your office space is being used. Based on this, you can gradually adjust the room layout, reallocate space, and gather direct feedback from employees via surveys.
• PULT Presence: In addition to booking data, Presence provides you with real attendance figures. As soon as laptops or smartphones connect to the company Wi-Fi, office attendance is automatically recorded. This gives you a realistic picture of how many employees are actually in the office, regardless of whether they have made a booking in advance.
• Workplace and room booking: Your employees can reliably reserve workstations, meeting rooms, zones, and parking spaces. This ensures that everyone has fair access to available resources and no one is left standing in front of occupied spaces.
• Actively shape desk sharing: Departmental boundaries become more permeable, colleagues from different areas sit next to each other, and exchanges take place that would not otherwise occur in everyday life.

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Desk Sharing – TL;DR

• Desk sharing reduces the number of fixed individual workstations and uses office space on an as-needed basis for focus, team, and meeting zones.
• Sharing desks reduces operating and equipment costs, scales with growth, and promotes cross-departmental exchange.
• Success factors for desk sharing include standardized equipment, binding bookings with no-show rules, clean desks, and a 5–10% capacity buffer based on measured utilization.

What is Desk Sharing?

Desk sharing refers to the use of the same office workspaces by several people. A workspace is no longer permanently assigned to a single person, but is occupied by different employees as needed.

The aim of desk sharing is to reduce the amount of space required for individual workstations. Since many workstations are unused on a daily basis due to the high proportion of employees working from home, it makes sense for employers to reduce the number of desks available rather than leaving these spaces unused. The space freed up in this way can then be used for other purposes.

• Shared workstations are designed to be neutral and are not individually furnished.
• Employees choose or book workstations depending on their needs and attendance times. 
• Order, cleanliness, and data protection are ensured by common rules. 

Distinction between desk sharing and other terms: 

• Desk sharing is often used synonymously with Workplace sharing.
• Hot Desking: The equivalent of desk sharing in the US and UK. 
• Coworking: Use of workspaces as a service by different companies or self-employed individuals.

What are the benefits of desk sharing?

Desk sharing allows office space to be used more efficiently and creates room for new ways of working. You can use the space you regain to benefit your team in the form of modern break areas, spaces for collaborative project work, meeting rooms, or phone booths. 

• Put underused space to good use: If your employees no longer come to the office every day, many desks remain empty. With desk sharing, you can use this space for other purposes, such as breakout rooms, project work, or meeting places for short discussions.
• Aligning the office with actual usage: Instead of reserving workspaces for maximum occupancy, you can plan based on real data on office attendance. This allows you to avoid permanently empty areas and use the available office space much more efficiently.
• New contacts between departments: When your employees regularly sit at different desks, they encounter colleagues from other teams more often. This creates exchange across departmental boundaries and promotes better understanding among each other.
• Easy scalability in case of changes: If your company grows or project teams are formed at short notice, you don't have to rent additional space immediately. New employees can easily find a place in the existing structure, as desk sharing is designed to accommodate changing staff anyway.
• Reduced ancillary costs: Fewer workstations mean less furniture, less cleaning, and a leaner technical infrastructure. This reduction is directly reflected in operating costs.

What are the disadvantages of desk sharing?

Disadvantages of desk sharing at work arise from a lack of planning and acceptance within your team: a shortage of workspaces during peak times, loss of a permanent workspace, additional effort required for setup, and hygiene issues. However, with good organization, these issues can be easily managed.

Lack of workspaces during peak times

When more employees show up at the office than there are workspaces available, this inevitably leads to frustration and delays.

Desk sharing best practice: In the PULT desk booking system, your employees reserve their preferred workspace in advance. This ensures that their workspace is available when they arrive, even before they start their commute. In the event of no-shows, the seats are released again after a period of time specified by you.

Loss of a fixed workplace

Many people identify with their desk. Having their own space conveys stability and control. When this anchor is missing, a feeling of alienation can arise.

Desk sharing best practice: Offer lockers and cubbies to complement shared desks. Personal work equipment and private items can be stored securely in them. The initial feeling of loss also quickly fades into the background when the new spaces actually benefit employees and enhance their everyday work.

Additional effort at the start of the working day

Without a fixed workplace, the day begins with setting up the workplace: adjusting the table and seat height, connecting the laptop to monitors, and setting up the mouse and keyboard.

Desk sharing best practice: Standardize the equipment at all workstations. The same monitors, identical docking stations or monitor adapters, and easily adjustable furniture ensure that a workstation is ready for use in just a few simple steps. Include in your clean desk policy that workstations must be returned to their original state after use so that they are ready for the next person.

Hygiene and order at shared workstations

Frequent user changes increase the demands on cleanliness. Keyboards, table surfaces, and chairs are subject to greater wear and tear.

Desk sharing best practice: Include cleaning measures in your desk sharing policy. Trash, food scraps, or drink stains can be quickly removed with cleaning wipes provided. Supplement this with regular professional cleaning, which is included in the building service cycle.

How do I calculate the number of shared workstations required?

The most important key figure in desk sharing is the desk sharing quote. It shows how many employees share a workspace in mathematical terms.

The desk sharing ratio is calculated by dividing the number of workspaces by the number of employees.

A value of 1.0 means that each employee has their own space. If the ratio is 0.6, for example, an average of around 1.7 employees share one desk.

First, you should determine how many employees are actually in the office at the same time. The most reliable way to do this is to observe the office over a period of two to four weeks. It is not the average that is important, but the maximum number of employees present at the same time.

Tip: In the desk sharing software PULT Presence, you can track your employees' attendance as soon as their laptop or smartphone connects to the company Wi-Fi. This happens automatically, without any effort on the part of your employees, and works with your existing Wi-Fi network.
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Dicsover PULT Presence

The maximum attendance determines the number of workstations required. Take into account fluctuations during vacation periods or due to field staff who work in the office on an irregular basis. Start by planning a buffer of 10% and monitor utilization on an ongoing basis. The data is automatically processed for you in the office insights in the desk sharing tool PULT.

This gives you reliable values that you can use to further develop your space planning. One goal may be to reduce the number of individual workstations as much as possible and observe which other areas are in greater demand.

Making desk sharing viable with PULT

Desk sharing is a response to changing work patterns among your employees, rising operating costs, and the desire for modern office organization.

• Office space is used more efficiently instead of standing empty.
• Employees are given rooms and zones that suit their current tasks.
• Companies gain more planning flexibility without incurring additional space costs.

For desk sharing to work, you need a few rules, well-designed equipment, and, above all, a desk sharing system that organizes the allocation of workspaces for your employees fairly.

• Workspace booking in PULT: Make binding reservations for desks, rooms, and zones, directly integrated into Slack and MS Teams.
• Weekly planner: Overview of who is in the office and when, to schedule team days.
• Office evaluation: Reliable data on utilization, which you can use to secure planning and desk sharing quotas.
• Parking spaces & visitor management: Easily organize parking spaces and guest bookings.

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Smart Office: TL;DR

• A smart office uses sensors, controls, and booking systems to organize office space according to demand and offer it to employees.
• The most important room concepts in the smart office include quiet zones, areas for teamwork, meeting rooms, telephone booths, and break and social areas.
• Desk sharing in the smart office enables a fair distribution of workspaces while reducing the number of unused desks.
• The smart office offers companies higher productivity, lower space costs, and greater attractiveness in the competition for skilled workers.
• Employees in the smart office benefit from better working conditions, more choices, and fair access rules for workspaces and rooms.

What is a smart office?

A smart office is an office that is designed with technical equipment and a well-thought-out room layout to suit the actual working methods of its users. The aim is to make targeted use of technology and software to create a place that has a positive effect on productivity, health, and collaboration in equal measure.

Distinction from related terms:

• New Work focuses on values, meaning, and new forms of leadership.
• Modern Workplace often refers to the digital workplace with software and cloud services.

What are the key technologies in the smart office?

The most important technologies in the smart office include sensors for occupancy and room quality, automatic controls for lighting and climate, booking systems for workstations, rooms, and employee attendance.

Sensors for rooms and workstations

Occupancy sensors detect whether desks or meeting rooms are in use.

• Benefit: Companies can identify which areas are being used to capacity and which remain unused.
• Implementation: Workspaces that are consistently underutilized can be converted into quiet zones or areas for teamwork.

Environmental sensors measure temperature, humidity, CO₂ levels, and noise levels.

• Benefit: They provide alerts when air quality declines or noise levels become too high.
• Implementation: Poor acoustics can be improved with sound-absorbing furniture, acoustically effective partitions, or large plants.

Control of lighting, climate, and air

Automatic systems in the smart office regulate lighting, heating, and ventilation depending on usage.

• Example: Lighting dims when there is sufficient daylight, ventilation starts when CO₂ levels rise, and heating and cooling are reduced in unused rooms.
• Result: consistent conditions for concentrated work in rooms that are actually in use and lower overall energy consumption.

Booking systems for workstations, rooms, and zones

Employees can reserve individual workstations, meeting rooms, project areas, quiet zones, or parking spaces in advance.

• Advantage: everyone has the opportunity to access the available options fairly.
• Implementation: Reservation via app or desktop, quick check-in with QR code or chip, automatic release of unused spaces.

Tip: Your employees can reserve their preferred seats in advance using the PULT desk booking and room booking system. As soon as they arrive and connect their laptop or smartphone to the company Wi-Fi, their presence is automatically recorded.

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What room concepts belong in a smart office?

Important room concepts in a smart office design include quiet zones for quiet and concentrated work, open areas for teamwork, meeting rooms and telephone booths, as well as break and social areas. They complement each other and enable every activity to find the right place.

Quiet zones and individual workstations for concentrated work

• Purpose: undisturbed work on tasks that require full attention.
• Implementation: sound-absorbing materials such as carpets, acoustic ceilings, room dividers, upholstered furniture; rules for quiet (no phone calls or extended conversations).
• Addition: plants as natural sound absorbers and visual barriers.

Areas for teamwork

• Purpose: Employee exchanges, project work, workshops, meetings with customers.
• Implementation: Open spaces with rollable tables, chairs, whiteboards, room dividers, presentation technology.
• Location: Physically distant from quiet zones.

Meeting rooms and telephone booths

• Purpose: Confidential conversations, video calls, concentrated small group work.
• Implementation: Soundproof telephone booths with power supply for laptops and adjustable lighting; small meeting rooms equipped with displays, cameras, and good acoustics.
• Advantage: Enables undisturbed communication despite large, open office spaces.

Break and social areas

• Purpose: Relaxation, informal exchange, community.
• Implementation: Coffee kitchens, lounges with sofas, games or sports facilities.
• Addition: Design with warm materials, fabric-covered surfaces, and upholstered furniture, as well as daylight to create a pleasant atmosphere.

Biophilic design

• Purpose: Combining work and nature, increasing well-being and concentration.
• Implementation: Plant walls, planted room dividers, wood materials, plenty of daylight.
• Advantage: Natural sound absorption and improved air quality.

What are the advantages of smart office solutions for companies?

A smart office system offers companies three main advantages: productivity increases because employees are happier overall, space is used more efficiently, and the company becomes more attractive to applicants and employees.

Increase productivity in the smart office 

• Fewer disruptions thanks to appropriate room layout and better acoustics.
• Fewer health-related absences because lighting, air quality, and equipment are better coordinated.
• More collaboration thanks to zones for exchange and project work.

Optimize space and costs

• Workstations are only provided when they are really needed.
• Vacancies decrease and operating costs are significantly reduced.
• Energy consumption is reduced through demand-based control of lighting, heating, and ventilation.

Increase attractiveness as an employer

• A modern and employee-centered smart office signals appreciation and awareness of employee wishes.
• Talented individuals are more likely to choose employers who offer contemporary spaces and working opportunities.
• Sustainability aspects (energy savings, conscious use of space) improve the company's image. 

What are the advantages of a smart office for employees?

For employees, smart office services mean better everyday working conditions, more choices, and fairer use of office resources.

• Pleasant working conditions with fresh air, appropriate lighting, and quiet zones.
• Variety between sitting, standing, and movement.
• Less acoustic stress.
• Employees decide for themselves whether they want to work alone in a focused manner or together as a team.
• Quiet zones, project areas, or social areas are available depending on the task.
• Desk sharing allows employees to choose the workplace that suits their activity.
• Booking systems ensure that all employees have equal access to workstations, rooms, and break areas.

What role does desk sharing play in the smart office?

A smart office combines sensor technology, controls for lighting, heating, and ventilation, and a room layout that meets the actual needs of employees. However, for these new smart office structures to be effective and fairly distributed, an overarching concept is needed: desk sharing.

Desk sharing allocates workspaces according to demand, makes underused areas visible and usable, and ensures that employees get the right space for the task at hand. To make the concept work, you can use booking software:

• Set up the PULT booking system: Reserve individual workstations, meeting rooms, project areas, quiet zones, and parking spaces via app or desktop; automatic check-in via Wi-Fi connection with PULT Presence; automatic release in case of no-shows (no-show rule).
• Establish fair rules: maximum advance booking period, no permanent reservations for the same table, quotas for high-demand areas and team days when adjacent seats can be booked.
• Standardize equipment: monitor, docking station, keyboard, mouse at every table; personal items in lockers; clean desk policy.
• Organize cleaning and maintenance: Daily cleaning of individual workstations by employees, provision of disinfectant wipes, regular maintenance cleaning.

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