Best practices for setting up desks

Introduction

This guide gives best practices for setting up desks in Robin. The choices you make here control who can book a desk, when they can book it, and how good your desk data is in analytics.

What desk types does Robin have?

Robin has 3 desk types:

• Assigned: a fixed desk that an admin gives to a person. It has no end date.
• Hot: a flexible desk. People book it for the same day only, for up to 1 day.
• Hotel: a flexible desk. People book it in advance, for 1 day or more.

What is a neighborhood?

A neighborhood is a color-coded group of desks on the map. It shows which desks belong to a team or department, so the team can sit together.

Why is desk setup important?

Desk setup decides how easy it is for employees to find and book the right desk. It also decides which data you collect. For example, some dashboards count only hot and hotel desks, and check-in data exists only for desks that have a check-in policy. Set up desks with care from the start, and you get a better experience and more useful data.

Best practices for setting up desks

• Group desks and name them clearly. Use the Layout tool to create desk groups and give each group and desk a clear name. You can apply policies to a desk group, so group desks that need the same rules.

• Choose the right desk type for each desk. Apply the assigned, hot, or hotel type to a desk group, a single desk, or specific desks in a group. You can mix desk types in one desk group. To manage assigned desks, use the Assignment tool or the office map.

• Let others use assigned desks when they are empty. Turn on desk sharing (release) so employees can release their assigned desk on days they are out. For desks assigned only on some days, turn on Bookable on unassigned days.

• Create neighborhoods for teams. Use the Assignments tool to create neighborhoods. Check that each neighborhood has enough desks for its team.

• Define who can book desks. Use the Access management console to set who can book desks and when, in one office or all offices. If you have Advanced Authentication + User Management, use custom roles to set desk access permissions, such as where a role can reserve or assign desks.

• Set booking windows and limits. Use desk booking policies to set the advance booking window and the max reservation length for hotel desks. When you first turn them on, the defaults are a 90-day advance booking window and a 1-week max length. Set policies for a whole building or for specific desk groups.

• Give some teams first access. Use priority desk booking to give specific users or user groups a longer booking window for hot and hotel desks.

• Add amenities to desks. Use the Layout tool to assign amenities to desks. If you do not find the equipment you need, add a custom amenity.

• Turn on desk check-ins. Desk check-ins confirm that people use the desks they book. Turn them on for hot and hotel desks only, or for all 3 desk types. Include assigned desks if you want check-in data for them too.

• Free up desks that no one uses. Turn on abandoned desk protection for hot and hotel desks. Robin then cancels a reservation if no one checks in before the threshold ends. We recommend a threshold of four hours.

Measuring your results

Use the Desk Insights dashboards in the Analytics tab to see how your setup works:

• The Bookings dashboard shows booking rates and trends. You can filter it by neighborhood.
• The Office Density dashboard shows busy and quiet days. It counts hot and hotel desks only, and excludes assigned desks.
• The Desk Check-In dashboard shows check-in rates for desks with a check-in policy.
• The Desk Cancellations dashboard shows how many bookings people cancel, and how many abandoned desk protection cancels.