In LATAM, nearly 4 out of 10 office desks remain empty on any given day. Yet, continuing to hire in new countries means multiplying office contracts, hardware providers, and loose invoices. This article reviews the data behind this inefficiency, several real cases of how it is resolved, and how First Plug and Desky tackle each side of the problem: hardware and space.
The surprising stat
Latin America is the region in the world that manages its offices best, and yet, according to the latest JLL Global Occupancy Planning Report, almost 40% of the workspace remains idle on a day-to-day basis. In other words, companies continue to pay fixed contracts for desks, rooms, and square footage that, much of the time, nobody uses.
The region is also the densest in desks per person: 1.5 workers for every available seat, compared to 1.3 in Asia-Pacific and 1.2 in North America and Europe. Even so, this "shared" space still does not translate into an expense that aligns with actual use.
This mismatch reflects a fundamental shift in how organizations think about workspace. Globally, 62% of companies now require a fixed number of office days, compared to just 28% in 2022. The hybrid model has ceased to be an exception and has become corporate policy.
The conclusion is simple: scaling a distributed team should not mean adding management hours or losing visibility of spending. And that same mismatch (paying for something that is not always used, without really knowing what you have) is repeated, almost identically, in how a remote team's hardware is managed.
One same problem, two fronts
When a company hires in several LATAM countries at the same time, it usually stumbles upon the same mistake in two different places: hardware and workspace.
Hardware: the more invisible of the two
A notebook for the person who started in Colombia. A monitor for the designer in Mexico. An urgent order for Argentina. Each purchase resolved with a different provider, with no traceability of what equipment each person has, what condition it is in, or how it is recovered when someone leaves.
That is where First Plug works: it centralizes the acquisition, management, and recovery of remote hardware through its own operation and a regional network of providers. Its platform (free) gives total visibility over the company's assets: what each person has, in what condition, and where it is.
Space: visible, but rigid
Renting a fixed office implies long-term contracts and costs that are paid even if the space remains empty, and with almost 4 out of 10 desks unused on an average day, that sunk cost is the norm. When the team is spread across several countries, the problem multiplies: each city has its own rates, its own contracts, its own payment methods.
That was exactly what Milagros Diez, Senior HR at Candor Investment Group, faced when leading a 100% remote team scattered across several countries. She wanted to offer something simple: the possibility of working from professional spaces when needed, without endless local contracts or fixed costs that no one ends up using.
"We needed a benefit that really added value, but without adding complexity. No endless local contracts or fixed costs that maybe nobody will use."
Milagros Diez, Sr HR, Candor Investment Group
With Desky, the Candor team accesses a network of more than 700 verified spaces (coworkings, meeting rooms, private offices) in more than 30 cities in LATAM and Europe, under a single contract and without negotiating country by country. Each person reserves their space from the app, when they need it. Milagros sees everything from a single dashboard: who uses what, when, and how much is spent. And at the end of the month, Candor pays only for what the team actually used.
"Today I can give my entire team a benefit they actually use: budget, freedom to choose where to work, and a simple experience for HR."
Milagros Diez, Sr HR, Candor Investment Group
The case of Candor is not an isolated one. Each company solves the same space problem in its own way, depending on how its team is set up:
Darwin IA offers its employees workspaces in Mexico and Brazil without negotiating with each local provider: everything is resolved in a single monthly invoice, instead of managing separate contracts in each country.
CookUnity uses Desky to solve the space for its in-person week in Peru, once a month (the week when the remote team gathers in person), without paying for a fixed office that would remain idle the rest of the month. It is, in miniature, the same logic that explains that 40% of idle space at a regional level: those who need an office every day pay for it, not those who need it for a week.
The same pattern, two different assets
Neither solution sells a fixed asset to the company. They sell control over a variable resource (hardware in one case, space in the other) with full visibility and cost tied to actual usage.
That is the difference between managing blindly and having a dashboard that tells you what you have, where it is, and how much it costs you.
In numbers:
~40% of office space in LATAM that sits idle on an average day (JLL)
1.5 workers per available seat in the region (JLL)
62% vs. 28% of companies requiring fixed office days today, compared to 2022
Frequently Asked Questions
How to manage spaces and hardware for a team in multiple countries without multiplying HR work?
By centralizing. A platform that unifies providers by country — whether for coworkings or for equipment — eliminates local negotiation and maintains full visibility of spending in one place.
What happens if my team only needs space occasionally, such as one week a month?
There is no need to pay for a fixed office for that. Pay-per-use models, like those used by CookUnity for their monthly in-person week in Peru, allow reserving space only when the team actually gathers.
Is it cost-effective to provide on-demand workspace and hardware to a distributed team?
Yes, when the payment is tied to actual use. Pay-as-you-go models avoid sunk costs and allow adjusting the budget to the team's real needs, month by month.
Ease for the incoming team. Control for the growing company. Not a single device nor a square meter too many.
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