Customer stories · Non-profit
RSPB accommodated 2,500 employees on flexible desking without major portfolio changes.
The UK’s largest nature conservation charity rolled out flexible desking office by office, using live space data to accommodate its teams without expanding its real estate.
The situation
Before Kadence
- Over 2,500 employees and 12,000 volunteers across multiple buildings, most with dedicated desks and only a few shared desks in selected buildings
- No way to manage the shared desks that did exist, and a workplace strategy that no longer matched how teams worked
- An earlier project to understand how efficiently desks were used, which the pandemic turned into a need to change
- A tender for a system easy enough to set up and use for a large, diverse workforce, and quick to roll out
What changed
With Kadence
- Flexible desking in place within weeks, with a process that is rolled out office by office
- Color-coded floor plans that look like the office, so employees find and book an available desk straight from the plan
- A live office view across all locations, so building admins can see how desks are booked and used and who is in
- Admin control over which desks are bookable or restricted, floor by floor and building by building, to manage capacity
- Space analytics for planning intentional time together and right-sizing offices across locations
Chosen by tender, rolled out office by office
RSPB needed a system that a large and varied group of employees and volunteers could use without help, and that the workplace team could set up quickly enough to move office by office. Kadence came through the charity’s tender process. For employees, desks appear on color-coded floor plans that look like their own office, with available desks shown in green, so booking is a matter of choosing a desk on the plan. That made adoption quick and gave the workplace team a view of who was in or out from day one.
“Kadence’s overall package and flexible desk booking solution was deemed most suitable from the tender we performed. The team had a very flexible approach with their product development, and was open to developing the product to meet our future needs.”
Forecasting demand across locations
Managing how people used the space was only part of it; the workplace team also needed to prepare for demand through the week and the months ahead. A live office view across all locations shows building admins how desks are being booked and used and who is in, which lets them forecast office traffic. Space analytics turns that into decisions about how offices are used, so teams can plan productive time together and the charity can right-size its spaces across locations in future. Admins can also set which desks are bookable or restricted on any floor or building to hold capacity where it is needed. The result is that all 2,500 employees are accommodated without major changes to the real estate portfolio, and without the expansion plans that had been under consideration.
Rediscovering the office
In the first two months after rollout, flexible desk bookings almost doubled month on month, which the charity reads as people finding the value in being in the office again. Because the system is easy to use, the workplace team sees little demand from employees needing help or guidance.
“Kadence has helped through the next phase of hybrid work by helping us keep people organised and allow flexible desking in the office buildings that are currently open.”
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