**[ALTERNATIVE OFFICING]{.underline}**

**2005-PRA-002**

**HOTELING**

**Department of the Treasury**

***(\*HONORABLE MENTION AWARD WINNER)***

Hoteling was defined as a flexible work arrangement whereby an employee
already telecommuting does not have an assigned personal workspace but
may reserve office space on an as needed basis, without permanently
being assigned to a private office, cubicle or desk.

During 2003, the Department of the Treasury\'s Treasury Inspector
General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) employees formed a
cross-functional team focused on expanding the telecommuting program to
provide a positive cost benefit to TIGTA and reduce the amount of office
space in offices with high concentration of employees participating in
telecommuting more than two (2) days per week. It was believed that
employees who did not report to the office on a routine basis did not
need to have office workspace devoted solely to them. They could share
office space with other employees assigned to the same office; thus
\"Hoteling\" was born. This was the first time a project of this type
had been attempted at TIGTA.

Hoteling allows TIGTA to reallocate workspace and accommodate a greater
number of employees in a smaller amount of space, ultimately reducing
real estate costs. It was looked at as a means to recoup some of the
costs associated with implementing the telecommuting program. Employees
would no longer be assigned to a specific workspace, but rather would
have to make a reservation when they came into the office for the type
of workspace they would require. Work areas were reconfigured to match
particular work tasks and each work area was assigned a unique number.

The full participation of Management Services, Information Technology,
and Audit ensured the success of this effort. TIGTA's rent expenses were
reduced by over \$100,000 a year after implementation and they have
developed a reasonable strategy for managing rent inventory and future
rent costs. The success of the pilot resulted in TIGTA expanding
hoteling to additional locations and realizing additional cost savings.
In addition, the implementation of hoteling institutionalized the
telework concept within TIGTA. The ability to use hoteling provides
TIGTA with increased flexibility in space allocation, especially during
a time of shrinking budgets. The use of common workspace promotes
interaction among telecommuting employees when they are in the office.
Employees used to having everything in their personal workspace find
they now need to come into the common workspace more often to retrieve a
file or to obtain office supplies, thus promoting a feeling of
belonging.

The team's accomplishments include, but are not limited to, the
following:

-   Developing a methodology and criteria for hoteling site locations,
    including developing a Concepts of Operations document and a "Rules
    for the Road" document. These documents enable the organization to
    evaluate future hoteling sites, provide a policy framework for
    hoteling and provide guidelines for employees participating in a
    hoteling environment.

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-   Conducting market research to identify a reservation software
    package; the team selected a software package that TIGTA now uses
    for its workstation reservation system. The concierge function of
    the software was fully explored and developed during the program;
    this is a vital function that allows other employees outside a
    particular office to reserve workstation space as needed. This
    software was essential to the success of the hoteling pilot, without
    it the process for reserving workstations would have been very labor
    intensive. The software also provided us with data to evaluate the
    usage of workstations and to make better, more informed real estate
    decisions for future locations. With this software we identified an
    optimum ratio of employees to hoteling workstations. This analysis
    will allow us to increase our savings in future hoteling locations.

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-   Addressing employee concerns over the program by developing and
    issuing employee surveys; concerns identified by these surveys were
    addressed, and the issues were built into the planning methodology
    for future expansion.

-   Redesigning the configuration of the pilot office space to fit the
    hoteling concept, while addressing employee concerns regarding
    individual work stations, and shared common areas.

Hoteling has been a success at TIGTA and has the potential to provide an
avoidance of the ever increasing rental costs for limited use space and
also provides TIGTA with the flexibility and adaptability to meet the
challenges of a changing workforce.

For more information, contact Ms. Donna Leach on 202-927-5924, or by
email at Donna.Leach@TIGTA.Treas.gov.