Hoteling and Telework business processes are two sides of the same coin

Hoteling and Telework business processes are two sides of the same coin. They should be considered together when planning a new workplace strategy to gain the productivity benefits for the workforce and the infrastructure benefits associated with a more efficient workplace.

On the one side, Telework or work from anywhere, results from technology enabled mobility. While this mobility creates workplace flexibility and enhances the productivity and satisfaction of the workforce, it also creates office space vacancy of 50% to 70% on average. On the other side, this vacancy creates an opportunity for leading organizations to employ Hoteling business processes to address this low utilization and create measurable value by cutting occupancy costs, CO2 production, energy consumption and improving business continuity.

For those practitioners that are just starting to plan their implementation of Hoteling and Telework or have already engaged in these processes, the following suggestions may help guide them to define, design, develop, deploy and operate their new workplace more quickly and successfully.

• Start With a Business Case: Every organization must justify the allocation of its resources and time. Take the time to create a thorough business case. Tie the workplace strategy directly to the organizational strategy. You will need this legitimacy for every phase that follows. Include assessments of cultural readiness, executive commitment, technology infrastructure capabilities, actual utilization of space measurements and facility readiness to name a few areas of investigation. Include stakeholders across several disciplines, including corporate real estate, facilities management, technology support, environmental sustainability, human resources and others will ensure that the business case and the implementation plan are balanced and positioned for success. Create both a People ROI and an Organizational ROI to ensure that the values to each are balanced.

• Base Decisions on Data: From the initial assessment phase through to ongoing operational improvements, every phase should be supported by continuous, consistent and systematically generated data over time. This is the only way to support the detailed analysis and key performance indicators that will be used to measure success now and long into the future. This will help avoid lengthy conversations about the legitimacy and believability of the data behind your metrics.

• Gain Executive Management Commitment: Gaining top level commitment speeds the deployment of any new strategy, especially one that impacts how and where people work. People respond better when they know (and see) the boss is fully engaged. No enterprise-wide deployment will be possible without this commitment. See if it can be achieved sooner rather than later.

• Communicate, Communicate, Communicate: It is impossible to over-communicate the plans, value propositions, rationale, policies and procedures associated with Hoteling and Telework. But effective communications is not a one way street. Providing ample opportunities and mechanisms for questions and feedback, some face to face and some electronic, helps ensure people feel like they have some control and influence on their workplace.

• People First, Everything Else Follows : People have voted with their feet – they have left the traditional office and made the choice to work in other places. The low utilization proves that. The implementation of Telework and Hoteling processes help to formalize and leverage what has already happened. But don’t think this logic makes the transition effortless. Business improvement requires people to change, and implementing Telework and Hoteling is no different. Re-engineering work processes requires the organization to transition people from their current comfort zone (I have a permanent desk and I have my home office and maybe even a third office in another city and I like it like that) through their fear of change (what do you mean you are going to “take away my desk”) into a new better, more flexible work environment (choose where and when you work, we’re measuring output, not time in office or effort). Doing this well is the art and science of Change Management. It starts before any other activity and continues throughout the implementation and roll-out. Interestingly, middle and upper management are sometimes the ones that need the most attention and time to adjust. Don’t skimp on training for both managers and employees. It will speed adoption and ensure success.

• Technology, the Great Enabler — The workforce needs fast, robust and always on technology infrastructures to support the work anywhere, anytime telework model. People need ways to find available workspaces, locate their colleagues, and plan where and when they need to work. Workplace management needs a technology infrastructure that is designed and implemented to support the specific policies and procedures selected to control and manage the Telework and Hoteling business processes. They also need systems to measure the utilization of real estate, the amount of Telework (government) and other performance metrics for their workplace. The technology infrastructure must be flexible to accommodate the continuous changes that occur as the processes evolve and mature. What starts out as a 1 to 1.5 worker to workspace ratio matures to a 1 to 5 ratio and beyond. The good news is that people are adaptable to change, and the technology must be as well.

For more information on Telework and Hoteling visit our website:

• Hoteling
• Telework

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