Through much time and deliberation, you’ve decided that hot-desking is the option that makes the most sense for your office right now. You know that hot desking can fail pretty spectacularly, which is why you want to outfit the workstation(s) with all the accessories needed to promote productivity. What are they?
Hot desking accessories you need include:
1. Dry erase board and markers
2. Multi-functional power modules
3. Physical calendar or organizer
4. Power supply near desk
5. Backrests
6. Sit/stand desks
7. Mousepad with wrist rest
8. Exercising footrest
9. Stands for files, tablets, laptops, etc.
In this article, we will explain more about each of these handy products, including what they are and why they help when hot desking. We’ll even provide some shopping links courtesy of Amazon so you can get your workplace well-equipped to begin hot desking.
Hot Desking Accessories Your Office Needs
Dry Erase Board and Markers
We’ve written about it on this blog before, but by putting two or more people in a hot-desking environment together, they may be more likely to come up with collaborative ideas. These ideas can improve office life for everybody, so they’re definitely worth jotting down.
The only problem is your office might not have a means of writing down ideas as they come. Sure, an employee could take a break from what they’re doing to type or handwrite out what’s on their mind, but how likely is that? Then their great idea gets forgotten about, dying a slow death.
Dry-erase boards keep the flow of ideas moving and dreams alive. This dry erase board is an Amazon bestseller. It’s 17 inches by 23 inches and it’s also magnetic, giving you more options to attach it. You can also move the dry erase board as needed from one part of the office to another.
Seeing ideas written down, even in passing, can give other employees not even involved in the original conversation their own set of ideas. Thus the idea chain keeps moving for the betterment of everyone in the office.
Multi-Functional Power Modules
Even in your standard stationary offices, employees still tend to bring in a lot of tech with them. They might come into work with their smartphones, their laptops, their tablets, and the like. As you know, your computer doesn’t use the same kind of cord as your smartphone does. Having to bring all those adapters and plugs can be a pain, especially if your employee happens to leave one at home when they really needed it. Then they either have to spend their lunch break rushing back home or go without for the day. Neither of those options is great.
A good hot-desking office that wants to promote productivity should have a multi-functional power module. As the name suggests, this has international, data, audiovisual, USB, and all sorts of sockets in one module. No matter what your employees want to plug in, they certainly can.
Physical Calendar/Organizer
Everyone has their own personal calendars, even if this is a digital one through Gmail or Excel. Here, you can keep track of deadlines, appointments, and other goings-on in your own life. While we don’t recommend giving that up when hot desking, there’s something to be said for a physical calendar and organizer.
As we’ve explained in our hot desking series, employees work in shifts. When every shift is calendared out and perhaps even color-coded, that eliminates confusion. Hot desking can already cause some bad feelings, so at least give employees a clear weekly, even monthly schedule they can work from.
This calendar for 2020 has several lines for each date, making it perfect for writing down shift information. If you don’t already use a calendar and organizer system for your hot-desking office, make next year the time to start.
Desk Power Supply
Hot desking employees may only work at a single desk, but that doesn’t mean they don’t use up a lot of power when they’re doing it. You need to have a lengthy power strip to accommodate your staff.
Imagine this scenario: your employee comes into work with their phone at two percent battery life. They know they can charge it at work, so they’re not sweating it too much. Then they check all the outlets in the power strip and they’re all filled. Ugh! Now what?
Since hot-desking isn’t the most convenient choice for an office setup, you want to make the lives of your employees easy in any little way you can. Having a long power strip with multiple outlets is one way to go about this.
This power strip includes 16 outlets in one. That gives you room to plug in the office computer, phone line, and other electronics while still having plenty of outlets open for employees’ phones or tablets. The strip has a cord that stretches 9.8 feet, giving you versatility regarding where you plug it in. It runs on 125 volts of power and can provide 1,875 watts of juice.
Backrests
In 2007, the Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation did a study on employees in an office environment with preexisting arm, hand, shoulder, and/or neck pain. Up to 654 participants were included in the study, and they represented several companies.
The researchers found that pain can put a damper on productivity at a rate of 26 percent. Employees with more than one area of pain, up to 36 percent, were even less productive than those with only one area of pain. Participants would call out of work 32 percent of the time if they had shoulder and/or neck pain and 11 percent of the time with hand and/or arm pain. Those employees that had both missed work at a rate of 43 percent.
That data spells out the need for comfort in the workplace. If you don’t already have a backrest for your office chairs, you need to change that ASAP. The one we just linked you to is a top product on Amazon. The orthopedic styling can alleviate pain in the lower back while providing better back support.
Don’t lose the profits you’re making through hot-desking by having your employees call out due to pain. Outfit your office seats with a backrest for each chair in the building.
Sit/Stand Desks
How many hours a day do your employees spend sitting? Hopefully, not most of their day. Lots of data and studies have linked prolonged sitting with the following health issues:
- – Heart disease
- – Lung, endometrial, and colon cancers
- – Osteoporosis
- – The development of varicose veins
- – Weight gain
- – Deep vein thrombosis
- – Diabetes
- – Dementia
You want healthy employees, so giving them the opportunity to stand and sit as they choose is paramount. To that end, a sit/stand desk makes for the perfect solution. Here’s what I use and it’s available on Amazon. While a sit/stand desk maybe isn’t the cheapest thing in the world and it does take up some room compared to a regular desk, it’s worthwhile. (We have written a related article – 25 Desks your office needs for health and wellness)
Mousepad with Wrist Support
Of all the painful hand/wrist conditions that can impede work, carpal tunnel is at the top of that list. The good news is that many studies have found that typing does not necessarily cause carpal tunnel. The bad news is this condition can start as young as 30 years old. More bad news is that you can expect less productivity and possibly even more absenteeism from employees with lots of wrist pain.
Again, one of the very least things you can do for the comfort of your employees is to provide a mousepad with wrist support or wrist rest. This Amazon’s Choice product has both. The wrist support goes in front of the keyboard for more comfort when typing. The mousepad has support for the wrist as well.
Exercising Footrest
We already talked about how sitting all day can lead to a myriad of health maladies, increasing cancer, heart disease, and diabetes risks. While a sit/stand desk is a fantastic investment to combat the effects of sitting for too long, you can do more. Make sure you add an exercising footrest to your hot-desking setup as well.
Why? Well, this exercising footrest and many others can increase the energy of your employees, lessen their fatigue, and boost their foot and leg circulation. The basic, simple back-and-forth rolling motion feels so easy and effortless that your employees will forget they’re getting exercise right at their desks.
Stands for Computers and More
A stand is another accessory we’d recommend for a more efficient hot-desking setup. This laptop stand is available in packs of up to six, which is quite useful if you have a lot of staff.
The computer stand has features like air circulation to prevent device overheating, forward-tilting, and a cable organizer so cords can be fed through. It improves the ergonomics of a workstation as it sits 6.1 inches up.
Perhaps your employees do a lot of work on their tablets. In that case, this tablet stand makes for a great pick. It has rubber feet so it doesn’t slide or skid on the desk. It’s also compatible with a slew of tablets, among them the Samsung tablet, Air Mini Surface Pro, and a variety of iPads.
Check out other Topics:
Coworking, Technology, Stress, Wellness, Sustainability, Workplace Productivity, Employee Experience, Hot Desking
Related Questions
What is warm desking? If you like elements of hot-desking but you’re not in love with the whole concept, then you might elect to use warm desking at your office instead. Warm desking adds a bit more organization to the schedule, allowing employees to book spots at the desk ahead of time. Your staff may still share one desk or it could even be more than one.
Do you need hot desking rules? If you read our post about hot-desking etiquette, then yes, you absolutely need hot-desking rules for your company. These keep employees from bringing in personal effects that could disappear, creates space between employees, and lessens messes like food and other debris being left for another employee to clean up.