The attendance visibility problem
In a hybrid workplace, the simplest question becomes the hardest to answer: who is in the office today? Employees ask because they want to know if a trip to the office is worth it. Managers ask because they need to schedule in-person meetings. Facilities teams ask because they need to plan catering and room configurations.
Before desk booking tools, the answer came from badge swipe data, which is delayed and imprecise. Or from Slack polls, which are noisy and unreliable. Or from asking around, which does not scale. DeskHybrid replaces all of these with real-time attendance visibility built on booking data, delivered through the channels employees already use.
The /whoisin command
The `/whoisin` command is the fastest way to check office attendance. Available in both Slack and Microsoft Teams, it returns a list of employees who have booked desks for a given date, grouped by team.
Typing `/whoisin` without a date defaults to today. Typing `/whoisin tomorrow` or `/whoisin 2026-04-02` returns results for that specific date. The response includes the employee's name, team, and floor, formatted as a readable list.
The command is useful in several contexts. An employee deciding whether to come in checks `/whoisin` to see if their close collaborators are booked. A manager planning a team sync checks `/whoisin` to confirm enough people will be present. A facilities coordinator checks `/whoisin` to anticipate headcount for services.
Team presence board
The team presence board is a visual dashboard in the DeskHybrid web and mobile apps that shows office attendance across teams and dates. It displays a weekly grid where each cell indicates whether a team member has booked a desk, declared an office day in the weekly planner, or has no plans yet.
The board makes attendance patterns visible at a glance. Managers can spot days when their team clusters together and days when attendance is thin. They can use this information to suggest anchor days or to schedule collaborative work on high-attendance days.
The presence board updates in real time as employees book or cancel desks. It can be filtered by team, floor, or office location. Admins control what information is visible: some organizations show desk locations, others show only presence/absence status.
Daily digest notifications
The daily digest is a morning notification sent to each employee summarizing office activity for the day. It includes the employee's own booking (if any), a list of colleagues who are in the office, and any relevant team attendance information.
The digest serves two purposes. First, it confirms the employee's own plans, reducing the chance of forgotten bookings. Second, it provides social context that encourages office attendance. Seeing that several teammates are booked makes the office feel worthwhile, and knowing who is in helps employees plan spontaneous conversations and ad-hoc meetings.
Digest messages are delivered through Slack DM, Teams chat, or email, depending on the employee's configured notification channel. Admins set the delivery time (typically 30-60 minutes before the workday starts) and choose which content blocks to include.
Weekly planning and attendance signals
Weekly planning enhances attendance tracking by creating forward-looking signals. When employees declare their office days at the start of each week, managers and teammates gain visibility into the coming week's attendance before individual desk bookings are made.
This advance visibility is valuable for scheduling. A manager who sees that most of the team is planning to be in on Thursday can schedule a team workshop that day. An employee who sees low team attendance on Friday can shift their office day to a more populated day.
Weekly planning data feeds into the team presence board and the `/whoisin` command. Even before desks are formally booked, planned office days appear as tentative attendance, giving teams an early coordination signal.
Attendance visibility without surveillance
DeskHybrid's attendance tracking is built on booking intent, not monitoring. The system shows who plans to be in the office based on their desk reservations, not based on badge swipes, location tracking, or screen monitoring. This distinction matters for employee trust.
Employees control their own visibility by making or canceling bookings. There is no passive tracking. If an employee does not book a desk, they do not appear in attendance views. This opt-in model means attendance data reflects genuine intent rather than surveillance output.
Admins configure privacy boundaries at the tenant level. Options include hiding desk-level locations, restricting cross-team visibility, and limiting the `/whoisin` command to managers only. These controls let organizations balance coordination needs with employee privacy expectations.
Internal Link Suggestions
- [Team Presence Visibility](https://www.deskhybrid.com/features/team-presence-visibility)
- [Slack Integration](https://www.deskhybrid.com/features/slack-integration)
- [Integrations Overview](https://www.deskhybrid.com/integrations)
- [Pricing](https://www.deskhybrid.com/pricing)
- [Get Started](https://www.deskhybrid.com/get-started)
- https://officedeskapp.com/pillars/desk-booking-software-guide
- https://officedeskapp.com/pillars/hybrid-workplace-operating-system
Feature Proof Points
- feature:team_presence_visibility
- feature:daily_digest
- feature:slack_integration
FAQ
How does DeskHybrid track office attendance?:
DeskHybrid tracks attendance through desk bookings and weekly plan declarations. When employees book desks or declare office days, they become visible to teammates through the presence board, `/whoisin` command, and daily digest notifications.
Is DeskHybrid attendance tracking the same as employee monitoring?:
No. DeskHybrid shows booking intent, not surveillance data. Employees appear in attendance views only when they actively book a desk or declare an office day. There is no badge tracking, location monitoring, or passive data collection.
Can managers see attendance across all teams?:
Visibility is configurable by the tenant admin. Organizations can allow cross-team visibility for everyone, restrict it to managers, or limit visibility to within-team views only. Desk-level location details can also be hidden while still showing presence status.