Taitori’s smart office solutions assist around 350 hybrid workers at Retta Group Oy’s new headquarters.
Retta Group Oy is the largest expert service group in the Nordics specializing in the brokerage and management of residential properties, real estate, and commercial premises, providing comprehensive services and solutions for the real estate sector in housing and commercial property services.
Retta’s clients include housing and real estate companies, private and public owners and users of residential, real estate, and commercial properties, as well as fund companies, banks, and many other real estate sector players, along with consumers.
Initial Situation
“When I joined the company about three years ago, we had discussed and made guidelines regarding remote work models and culture, but we didn’t yet have a remote work culture in place. Then came COVID-19, and everything moved home,” says Retta’s ICT manager, Ilkka Kemppainen.
It was a fortunate coincidence that when the pandemic hit, the company was in the process of implementing Teams and Office 365 remote working tools. During the pandemic, various office transformation solutions were made, and the search for a new headquarters began. The old headquarters was located in two different addresses in the metropolitan area, and due to the changed circumstances, it was deemed that one space would be sufficient for the employees.
From Piloting to implementation
New premises for the headquarters were found in Pitäjämäki, Helsinki, in the summer of 2022, and a comprehensive renovation began, which included tearing down an entire floor with bathrooms, partition walls, and suspended ceilings.
“It was known in advance that the new headquarters would not have enough workstations equipped with screens and docks for everyone to use simultaneously. However, the spaces were designed so that if we utilized all the meeting rooms, breakout areas, and seating, we could fit the entire team there,” Kemppainen explains.
Retta had previously piloted Taitori’s functionalities at the old headquarters with two meeting rooms and a small pilot area. Employees were asked to test and try out how the system worked, but due to the pandemic, the pilot was relatively limited. However, they were able to experiment with making reservations using QR codes.
“During the planning phase of the headquarters, it became clear that we needed some kind of booking system or solution for how employees would use our new spaces, as personal workstations would not be available for everyone. Taitori was a natural choice for us. We explored other options and systems available on the market, but discussions with Taitori were already advanced, and we had the opportunity to try the system practically, so the decision was ultimately easy,” Kemppainen elaborates.
Employees Choose How and Where to Work
The return to the office and the new normal in the era of hybrid work has mostly been well received at Retta. Previously, the company’s policy was that it would be good to be in the office 60% of the working time. One reason for this was the opening of the new headquarters, which involved significant investments, and naturally, the desire was for people to spend time in the new facilities.
“Now that we have moved into the new office, we’ve noticed that people are indeed coming in. They have embraced the new spaces, which are comfortable. In May, the company policy was changed again so that it would be good to be in the office at least one day a week. In other words, the recommendations were slightly relaxed,” Kemppainen shares.
Kemppainen views the role of the headquarters as very important for both Retta and its employees:
“People who work together need to be present together. You can see it in your own work behavior; even though I enjoy remote work, I always look forward to going to the office. Of course, it requires some organization from the work community: the team agrees on when they will be in the office, or managers have to put in some effort to ensure that people come in. But it’s worth it; we organize shared lunches, coffee breaks, or other activities to foster a sense of community. So far, no one has complained about going to the office to meet colleagues.”
“I think the best part of this new working model is that everyone can choose how they work. Remote work may allow for better focus on certain tasks, but if someone wants to go to the office, it has to be genuinely nice and comfortable, with functional spaces.”
“I believe COVID-19 showed us that we can work anywhere we are. The need for togetherness comes from the employee, the unit, or the department—or the collaboration itself,” Kemppainen explains.
In addition to smart office solutions, Taitori’s data and reports provide factual information about how spaces are actually used.
About six months after the move, Retta began to analyze the data from Taitori’s system regarding space usage. Although the timeframe is not yet long, some specific things have already been verified, such as the fact that workstations by the windows are more popular than those facing the hallway.
“Some of these points are obviously self-evident, but now that information is concretely available, it certainly helps us make decisions.”
“We have spaces with different furnishings or challenges with technology, so now we can determine that those spaces are not desired. It is also noticeable that despite emphasizing the importance of booking spaces, some people still do not reserve them. Although the data is not perfect, we have already seen benefits in wanting to guide and encourage employees to book workspaces. All this information will assist in internal space and personnel planning in the future.”
“A poor situation could be one where data and reporting are not utilized, or our employees do not act as agreed, leading to more people being in the spaces than can accommodate. We’ve also noticed in client areas that during peak times, there are not enough spaces available, and it’s possible that more client spaces will be needed in the future.”
Retta actively monitors the data and reports produced by Taitori regarding space usage. If a space is not in use, they want to understand why. The issue is first investigated, and then employees are asked why they do not want to use the space.
“My view is that reporting and data usage will become increasingly important in the future. The trend is that office spaces will not be expanded; rather, we will move towards smaller, more efficient, and more compact spaces. Therefore, using data and reporting is extremely important to see how spaces operate effectively,” Kemppainen states.
Conclusion
Retta’s new headquarters utilizes Taitori’s booking system, through which 207 workstations and 34 meeting rooms are reserved. Retta has 11 entrance displays and a large touchscreen lobby display that visualizes the real-time booking situation of spaces on a 3D floor plan and allows space reservations directly from the lobby display. The overall setup also includes Retta-branded interfaces for both the Taitori app and the meeting room displays, integration with O365 Exchange, and SSO single sign-on.
- The Valimotie headquarters has approximately 350 registered individuals, with a total of 590 places to work.
- There are 207 bookable workstations across various areas and team collaboration spaces, equipped with docks, screens, and keyboards.
- Internal meeting spaces consist of a total of 23 rooms with 137 bookable spots.
- There are 25 quiet spaces, such as phone booths, with 34 spots (not bookable).
- Client meeting spaces total 11 rooms with entrance displays, accommodating 83 spots.
- The “Tori” work café concept includes around 130 non-bookable spots.
The transition to Taitori’s smart office solutions has been smooth, as the implementation was primarily done overnight during the move.
“We now have a booking system at our headquarters that meets our needs for the time being, and we see a lot of potential in it. For example, through automation and sensors, I see that we could make the entire system even more user-friendly. This is a direction we will definitely look into in the future.”
And finally, would you recommend Taitori to other companies?
“Very warmly. Above all, Taitori has been able to meet nearly all the needs we have encountered. Of course, the system is not perfect, and there are always small improvements to be made, but Taitori has responded well to our proposed development needs, making collaboration easy. The sales effort was good, and prior experience with the product helped.
