Embracing coordinated hybrid with Personal Kadence

As part of the new strategy, the company has made the decision to transition to a hybrid work model but also knowing it’d require a re-examination of its workspace, process and tools, including: 

• How their office could be reworked as a hybrid workplace
• How to maximize space utilization with a downsized office
• Making it easy for visitors to book a space to work
• What new tools were needed to support the new working model and desk hoteling process

The current goal is to have employees come into the office 2 days a week of their choosing – not mandatory but to do what is best for their own departments. Particularly with the Services Department, the team has been encouraging their members to come into the office for in-person meetings 2-3 times a week by using Kadence to schedule team days, effectively on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

One of their favourite desk booking use cases is when someone is coming to the headquarters from out of town, or when executives visit, it was incredibly easy for the team to use Kadence to book a desk on-the-fly while travelling – making the whole experience of coming into the office seamless and enjoyable.

Reduced office size by 68% with a desk hoteling model

The company made a decision to reopen a section of the office and downsized the space by 68%. The plan was to save costs on real estate by adopting desk hoteling. Prior to the pandemic and even when the office first reopened, the team had no proper process to manage hot desking. Employees can simply grab a desk and ‘camp out’ for the whole day, and that’s when the team knew this is not going to be sustainable in the long run. 

They needed a new solution to enforce a proper desk hoteling process for people returning so that they could: 

1. Book a desk on any given day when they wanted to come into the office
2. Get visibility on who has booked to come into the office
3. Find teammates on-the-go and book desks nearby

With Kadence, they were able to facilitate the whole process seamlessly. The results? They have seen a 25% month-on-month growth in recurring desk bookings consistently over the last six months. This not only indicating people are feeling more confident to return, but also getting into a regular habit of booking a desk when they come into the office.

Improved desk availability with auto desk release

Getting people to return was a short-term goal. The long-term vision for the team is to fully maximize usage of their downsized office while making sure employees are having a great in-person experience while being on site. That means:

1. Keeping track of desk usage in real-time to ensure desk availability for 200 employees (with 150 desks)
2. Managing desk hoteling properly by knowing who has booked to come into the office ahead of time, and who has not shown up or checked in
3. Understanding which areas are more popular or underutilized to even out office traffic 

One of their favourite Kadence features was auto desk release. The feature enables the admin to release a desk when a person doesn’t check in to their desks (or check out earlier than their reserved time), so that the desk can be released and become available again for others to use.

This particular feature has helped the team greatly in the high utilization places and prevents highly demanded spaces from going to waste, especially with a downsized office.