Moviri & The Elastic Workplace: Building a Flexible Future
40-60%
office capacity
166
total desks
The Challenge: Staying Competitive and Preparing for the Future
For a small tech company, recruiting and retaining top talent is crucial. “It’s a highly competitive industry” says Matteo “It’s an industry where people not only demand flexibility, but they also expect the ability to work with people in a very fluid way.”
The pandemic brought a lot of changes to Moviri, including the introduction of hybrid work, and it gave Matteo the chance to think outside the box and work with his team to develop a new flexible work policy.
With most of Moviri's consulting teams already working asynchronously and in different locations, they were well positioned to move into a hybrid model. Matteo and his team wanted to build a strategy that:
- Achieved a balance between the demands of the business and individual flexibility
- Provided an adaptable foundation to support managers and their teams in achieving business outcomes
- Made them a more agile and productive organization
Their brainstorming and collaboration led to a new operating framework and hybrid work strategy: the Elastic Workplace.
This new workplace policy was one of a kind and set Moviri apart from their competitors. It supported their distributed teams and established a more fluid workflow increasing productivity and employee retention.
Now that the policy was ready, Matteo needed a tool that would support it, a tool like Robin.
Solution: Innovation with Robin
As the vendor evaluation began, Matteo and his team mapped out their needs and started looking at tools that would allow them to:
- Create an office map that mirrored their space
- List technology and assets available in the office
- Arrange flexible desk booking and conference room options
- Offer their teams a user-friendly app they could use on the go
Most importantly, they needed software that was nimble enough to accommodate office changes like mask mandates and capacity limits.
After a few demos, Matteo noticed Robin’s innovative and forward thinking mentality. The new capabilities and features gave Matteo and his team a chance to learn as they went and try new things. “We could see a future with Robin, not just in terms of, ‘We have a tool to book a desk,' but also something that might be useful down the line,” Matteo said.
Next step was introducing the mobile app to their teams.
Matteo partnered with the IT manager and began office implementation. The app’s intuitive interface made integration simple and allowed Moviri to easily connect to Google Workspace and complete the setup almost completely on their own.
Once the app was in place, Matteo worked with managers to install governance principles and set expectations for their teams. Although faced with some concerns from managers at first, the transition process overall was very smooth.
"You don't just simply say, ‘The office is open. If you want to show up, show up. If not, don't.’ Instead you need to create an expectation of thoughtfulness in team decisions and behaviors, with business outcomes as your north star."
Managers communicated directly with their teams and the CEO shared messages about office usage and policy updates at team meetings. After some encouragement, teams downloaded the app and fully embraced desk booking with Robin.
“Frankly it was a lot easier than I thought it would be.” said Matteo “If there were any problems, they were not with the app, they were with ingrained office habits from before hybrid work.”
Moviri built a new work environment focused on flexibility, agility, and productivity. They found a balance between the demands of business and individual needs and could finally bring it to life with support from Robin.
“It was easier than we thought. Everyone was concerned about what was going to happen with Robin and booking desks. But we were able to adjust quickly to the transition,” said Matteo
Outcomes: New talent, new clients, new opportunities
With workplace software in place, Moviri had an opportunity to recruit and work outside of the office. Now they could extend their hiring reach and target new talent.
“We wanted to expand in both directions in terms of talent pool and in terms of new markets” said Matteo “So if we can use this opportunity with Robin, this new way of working to be more strategically agile, then we should do it.”
They chose to open a new office near the University of Padua. Known for its highly ranked tech programs and the quality of its graduates, it was the perfect place to begin outreach. This strategic move expanded the reachable recruitment pool by 40%.
In just three months they opened a satellite office by the University and began:
- Building a relationship with the university
- Competitively attracting top talent
- Reaching new, potential clients
Robin made it easy to add an office, clone their entire process, and implement it amongst transfers and new hires. "Now we have a model, we have a system and we have a tool, and we can take this template and cookie-cutter do it elsewhere" said Matteo.
Moviri is using Robin in their Milan Headquarters and their new satellite office in Padua with plans to expand to Boston in the near future.
They now have two offices where teams and interns can book desks and conference rooms.
- Milan: Total of 148 desks, all available for hoteling
- Padua: 18 total desks, 9 available for hoteling, 9 assigned
On average, the Milan office reaches 40-60% office capacity on a weekly basis with Wednesdays and Thursdays being the busiest days.
“It has to do with people and culture, it's not just desks,” said Matteo. “I know for sure that it has prevented some people from leaving and has allowed us to hire people that we wouldn't otherwise.”
With support from Robin, Moviri improved their culture and employee experience and have continued to evolve their office to meet their team’s needs. Robin’s frequent app updates and new features provide Matteo and his team with vital innovation that gives them room to grow and the ability to try new things.
Workplace analytics proved to be a valuable tool, helping the Moviri team discover correlations between engagement and space usage. With office traffic insights, managers can see when and where their teams naturally gather making it easier to adjust to hybrid schedules and coordinate team days.
Matteo and his team continue to find new ways to use the app, like blocking off desks to reserve space for events. With Robin, Moviri has entered the future of work.
“It’s very important that leaders really understand that we are in a different world and going back to the office may mean very different things compared to what it might have meant two years ago.”
Creating the Elastic Workplace and working with Robin resulted in better retention, improved recruitment, and an agile approach to office expansion for Moviri.
