Q. I’m thinking of introducing hotdesking, how do I overcome the problem of staff not having their own phone but still being able to receive voicemail?
 
Ian Hunter of Comms4Business.com writes:

You don’t say which type of telephone system you have in use but provided it is a relatively recent purchase, say in the last three or four years, the solution to the issue of getting the right voicemail messages to the right person can be solved.

Hotdesking, the ability for workers to share resources such as desk, phone and access to the local area network for email, has been recognised as an important feature by manufacturers of telephone systems for some time. Modern systems are highly featured and programmable to meet an individual organisation’s needs; indeed many are becoming increasingly user programmable via browser-based interfaces that let you change the way the the system works. That can be a minefield if you are uncertain of what you are doing so most suppliers have what they call an AMC (Adds, Moves and Changes) service.

The supplier will set up ‘login’ codes for each of your designated hotdesking workers so that when you allocate them a desk for a period all they need to do is enter the code on the phone and a predefined set of parameters for that person come in to force at that phone. Typically this will include calls to that person’s DDI (direct dial number) being routed to the phone. The worker will be able to retrieve his or her messages at the phone by entering their regular PIN.

When users leave the office they ‘logout’ and the phone system recognises they have left and brings in to play an alternative set of ‘rules’ for the users. This could also route calls to their mobile phone and alert them when they have voicemail messages to collect remotely.