Flexible working that brings everyone together

Lightly edited transcript of the video – filler words and repetitions have been removed.

Felix Mohr (Co-founder of desk.ly): Today, we are at Stadtwerke Langen near Frankfurt, and together we'll take a look at how they have implemented a hybrid work model with desk.ly. Come along with us!

Carolin Piecha (Head of HR): When I conduct job interviews, I find that many people truly value the flexibility of mobile working and, of course, the advantage of being able to organize their workday flexibly.

Torben Boom (Head of IT & Digitalization): To strengthen our employer brand, we have established a company agreement that allows up to 80% mobile work where the positions permit.

Jasmin Bayer (Marketing): For me, it was impossible to keep track of who was sitting where and who was in the office at what time, because you really had to walk through the building and actively look to see who was on site and where you could find them.

Carolin Piecha: It was abundantly clear that we would definitely need a tool like desk.ly to coordinate everything effectively.

Torben Boom: We were already using a system to book our desks. We could no longer adjust booking plans and, unfortunately, the Teams integration didn't work. We also needed a more attractive system that was simple in design and intuitive to use.

Carolin Piecha: From an HR perspective, it's important that teams can come together – that people aren't just sitting together by department, but can also work on a project basis.

Torben Boom: The most important requirement for the new system was that it had to be easy to use. We didn't want a huge training effort. It needed to be integrated with Teams and accessible via the web interface, on smartphones and with all common methods. The support from desk.ly during setup and onboarding was perfect. It only took a few days before the system was ready to use.

We transferred all existing plans, which were then stored in the system, created our users, set up the permissions and were able to activate the system. We have a clean desk policy to ensure data protection. In addition, every employee receives an additional agreement regarding mobile work to address this appropriately.

We had no problems integrating the system and enabling single sign-on for our users, so that no one has to remember even more passwords and login details.

Jasmin Bayer: For me, it was very easy to get used to the booking tool, because I find that desk.ly is very intuitive to use and easy to handle.

Torben Boom: We communicated it via the intranet and provided the training materials, but the system was simple and intuitive to use – there were hardly any follow-up questions.

Carolin Piecha: desk.ly was well received by the staff.

Torben Boom: We have analyzed the booking data so far and are already finding that there are desks that are used more frequently and others less so. And we are considering which office spaces we really need and which we might be able to use differently.

Jasmin Bayer: Collaboration with colleagues has noticeably improved. For me, it's especially useful that I can transparently see in advance which colleagues are on site and when they are there, so I can join them accordingly, because that just makes a lot of things easier. You can also arrange to meet up for a personal chat over coffee and just see each other again.

Torben Boom: What used to be quite separate has blended together a bit after the renovations. Sometimes people from the technical department sit together with the sales team, and that brings completely new perspectives and ways of looking at things.