The biggest workplace management challenges for German companies in 2026

Hybrid work has long become the standard in many organizations across the DACH region. According to the Owl Labs’ State of Hybrid Work Report, most employees now spend only two to three days per week in the office on average. But this flexibility is also intensifying some of the biggest challenges in workplace management.

In conversations with hundreds of companies across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, we continue to see the same issues over and over again: chaotic room booking, missing integrations, confusing floor plans, manual processes, and a complete lack of data for informed decision-making. Read on to discover the biggest workplace management pain points in 2025—and how modern platforms like deskbird help organizations overcome them.

Key takeaways:

• The same pain points appear everywhere: More than half of companies struggle with room booking, integrations, or a lack of flexibility when implementing hybrid work models.
• Workplace management fails because of the tools: Outdated systems, missing automation, and constant tool switching slow teams down in day-to-day operations.
• An integrated platform simplifies workplace management: When rooms, desks, visitors, parking, data, and processes come together in one central platform, workplaces become flexible, transparent, and functional for everyone.

1. Difficulties with room booking

Booking meeting rooms is still far more complicated than it should be in many organizations. We frequently hear about double bookings, forgotten cancellations, missing information about room equipment, and employees not even knowing where their booked room is located. Digital room displays are often missing, and missing buffer times for setup or cleanup create additional friction.

The solution:

With room booking software like deskbird, you can instantly see which rooms are available and what equipment they offer. Book meetings in seconds, move them via drag and drop, and get suggestions for alternative rooms if plans change. Digital room displays show real-time availability, while automatic check-ins, cancellations, and buffer times prevent double bookings and ensure smooth workflows.

2. Missing or limited integration with Microsoft Teams and Outlook

Most German companies rely heavily on the Microsoft ecosystem—and most of our customers do as well. The problem: their workplace tools often don’t. Poor or missing integrations with Microsoft Teams and Outlook make booking harder and reduce visibility into existing reservations. When calendars don’t sync properly, teams are forced to switch tools, creating inconsistencies and slowing everything down.

The solution:

With a workplace management platform like deskbird, constant tool switching becomes a thing of the past. Seamless Microsoft Teams integration and real-time sync with Outlook, Google Calendar, HRIS systems, and other tools keep everything aligned. Teams stay productive in the tools they already use, while errors and manual work are reduced.

3. Insufficient support for hybrid work

What we see again and again in DACH organizations: companies want to work hybrid, but lack the flexibility to operationalize work-from-home policies and fluctuating on-site attendance. There’s little visibility into who’s in the office and when, office capacity is limited, employees are reluctant to return to the office, and desk sharing often meets resistance.

The solution:

A hybrid work platform like deskbird makes hybrid work manageable. Team views show who will be on-site and when. Interactive floor plans help employees see where colleagues are sitting and book nearby desks. Workplace events can be organized and shared directly in deskbird to provide additional incentives to visit the office and encourage attendance. The intuitive mobile app boosts adoption and helps reduce resistance to desk sharing.

4. Complicated user management

Cumbersome permission management, sync issues between systems, and inactive users driving unnecessary costs—these user management pain points come up repeatedly in our conversations with companies across the DACH region. Permissions are unclear, group management is manual, and users are not removed automatically when they leave the company.

The solution:

Modern workplace platforms like deskbird simplify user management through deep integrations with Microsoft Entra ID, SCIM, Okta, Personio, and other HRIS and user management tools. Roles and permissions are clear and flexible, even for complex organizational structures, and data stays up to date across systems. Admins can book on behalf of others, manage users efficiently, and enable secure single sign-on (SSO) for frictionless access.

5. Poor usability

Many workplace management tools feel outdated: too complex, too slow, and overly cluttered. Employees quickly lose oversight and need training just to book a desk. Mobile apps feel like a compromise rather than a real productivity tool. Long loading times, confusing UI updates, and hidden features lower adoption until the system is simply bypassed altogether. This is still reality for many German companies.

The solution:

An intuitive tool that is easy to use without lengthy training. With deskbird, employees get a user-friendly app to book desks, meeting rooms, and other office resources, and plan their week in a few simple clicks. The clear UI enables instant adoption, while transparent in-app updates keep users informed about new features and UI changes.

6. Lack of analytics and reporting

Which rooms are constantly booked? Which ones hardly ever get used? What does actual office space utilization look like? Many companies don’t have clear answers to these questions. Data on space usage, occupancy, no-shows, or presence is often missing. Yet without reliable data, it’s near impossible to properly plan or optimize office space. Even in cases where reporting on office occupancy is available, the insights are hardly enough to support informed investment decisions.

The solution:

deskbird’s built-in workplace analytics provide accurate insights into office and room utilization, no-shows, peak times, and preferred workspaces. This way, you can see which areas are frequently used or underused and how much space you really need to support your hybrid work model. Reports are designed to help facilities, HR, and management teams to make data-driven decisions and enable smarter office space planning—instead of relying on gut feeling. Our practical office space calculator helps determine the right number of desks and optimize the available office space for your teams to save costs.

7. Lack of automation

A common issue we hear about from DACH companies is that their workplace management still largely relies on manual processes. Excel spreadsheets, manual check-ins, bookings that aren’t automatically released, and user profiles that need to be updated manually waste time, especially for IT teams and office managers, and create avoidable errors.

The solution:

With deskbird, recurring workplace tasks run on auto pilot: automatic check-ins via geo location, weekly preferences for automated hybrid work scheduling, recurring room bookings, and auto-releases when no one checks in. Plus, user management becomes leaner through SAML, SCIM provisioning, and HRIS integration—freeing up time for what actually matters.

8. Inefficient visitor management

Many companies still manage external visitors manually using paper lists or Excel spreadsheets, with no real overview of who’s in the building. There’s no self check-in, no badge creation, and no automatic host notifications. Instead, processes are manual, inefficient, complex, and not digitized at all.

The solution:

Smart, digital visitor management that integrates seamlessly into existing workflows. With deskbird, guests are pre-registered, check in via tablet or kiosk, and hosts are notified automatically when their guests arrive. Desks, parking spots, and meeting rooms can be reserved in advance and front-desk teams keep track of who’s on site all the time—all GDPR-compliant, centrally managed, and fully integrated.

9. Confusing floor plans

Another common pain point we’ve heard about countless times: floor plans that cause more confusion than they actually help. They’re cluttered, outdated, poorly labeled, and far too complex. Rooms or desks aren’t properly labeled or missing altogether, and the mobile version of the floor plan is neither intuitive nor clearly understandable. Uploading new plans is time-consuming—or doesn’t work at all. The result: poor orientation, wasted time, and frustration.

The solution:

Clear, interactive floor plans that everyone understands instantly. With deskbird, you can upload floor plans, place desks and zones accurately, and publish intuitive layouts that make navigation easy. Employees quickly find the perfect desk, and admins benefit from a compact floors and spaces overview that speeds up navigation, simplifies layout updates, and shows important information at a glance.

10. Inefficient parking management

Parking is a daily bottleneck for many companies. Allocation happens via Excel or even WhatsApp, permissions are unclear, and reserved spots go unused. Without a digital structure, there is no clear control over who is allowed to use which parking space, waiting lists don’t exist, and electric charging stations or license plates have to be managed manually.

The solution:

Simple parking management that’s just as intuitive as desk booking. With deskbird, you can book parking spaces directly via interactive floor plans, save favorite spaces, restrict access to parking spots to specific people, and use automated check-ins to ensure unused reservations are released quickly. This way, teams stay in control, bottlenecks are reduced, and you enable fair and transparent use of limited parking.

Conclusion: Modern workplace management needs a powerful tool

The many pain points make one thing clear: today’s workplace management is more complex than ever. But with the right tools, it becomes not only manageable—but truly efficient. When systems are connected, processes automated, and booking intuitive, hybrid work actually works.

deskbird brings everything together in one single platform: rooms, desks, visitors, parking, seamless integrations, insightful data, smart automation, and a design that teams genuinely like to use. The result is a workplace that’s transparent, flexible, and smart—and finally feels like it was built for modern work. Book a free demo and see it in action.