How Schmitz Cargobull rolled out desk sharing across four sites

The essentials

Schmitz Cargobull, a long established company from Münsterland with almost 6,000 employees, replaced its temporary home office arrangements after the pandemic with a permanent hybrid working model based on desk sharing. The search for a booking tool ended with Seatti in 2022, because the solution runs directly in Microsoft Teams, needs no training and could be rolled out from the pilot site in Horstmar to Altenberge, Münster and Vreden. The works council and HR backed the decision, and role based permissions let each site shape its own areas. Hybrid work is now a fixed part of the company culture and an argument in the search for skilled staff.

From pandemic stopgaps to a permanent rule

During the pandemic, Schmitz Cargobull faced the question of how office operations should continue in the long run. The logistics industry struggled with the protective measures and was partly brought to a standstill. The company followed the political guidelines and implemented them with one temporary solution after another. As the pandemic eased, a lasting solution was needed: desk sharing as an intermediate model in which employees choose between home office and office.

Opinions in management differed, but for many employees home office had become impossible to imagine away. The works council and Human Resources chose the hybrid model in a quick process. So that the rules apply consistently across the company while every department keeps some freedom, Michael Schöller, Head of IT Infrastructure & Services, and his team went looking for a booking tool.

Five requirements for the tool

It had to be fast, simple and uncomplicated for the switching model to work in daily life. That led to five requirements.

Why a SaaS solution instead of building in house?

To get started quickly, Schmitz Cargobull dropped the idea of its own in house software early on. IT was convinced that a SaaS tool was a better fit than spending months on development. The system was to integrate quickly into the existing landscape and be set up and supported by an external team.

Why was only an integration with Microsoft Teams an option?

The sentence “not another new tool” was one nobody wanted to hear. Because Schmitz Cargobull works in the Microsoft environment, only a solution that fits seamlessly into Microsoft Teams was an option. Employees need no training and book directly in the environment they already know. For IT there was a second advantage: users do not have to be created again, and their roles and permissions carry over through the interfaces of the Microsoft integration.

What makes a tool usable without training?

The interface had to be understood by employees at once, because Schmitz Cargobull wanted to avoid workshops and intranet guides as far as possible. Ease of use also meant certainty: nobody should set off for the office in the morning for nothing and search in vain for a desk, parking space or meeting room. Anyone who has made a reservation should be able to rely on having a place.

How do you tell whether the hybrid model works?

Schmitz Cargobull wanted to see how its offices are really used. What was needed was an evaluation of utilisation for single desks, floors or whole office complexes, anonymous and GDPR compliant, to understand usage behaviour better.

How does desk sharing scale across several sites?

The plan from the start was to offer desk sharing across several sites and for a total of 3,000 employees. The pilot phase at the main site in Horstmar was followed by three more sites: Altenberge, Münster and Vreden.

The decision for Seatti

What convinced Schmitz Cargobull about Seatti?

The easy integration, the clear interface and the simple operation convinced the team. Quick and uncomplicated communication with the Seatti team added to that. In a short time a plan was drawn up to equip the offices with the software and make desks bookable.

From a pilot site to four locations

Every site at Schmitz Cargobull is laid out differently. Some have larger production areas, elsewhere employees prefer assigned desks. With the integrated admin panel, hybrid work can be enabled globally and administered locally at the same time. Desk booking applies across the company, while sites and departments decide how they shape the concept.

To make that work, Seatti lets you set up role based permissions. The global administrator hands rights and roles to other IT administrators, who know the situation on site better and manage it themselves. They release whole floors for hybrid work or set them up for fixed desks. Seatti adapts to the company’s hybrid set up, not the other way round.

What has changed since the rollout

Michael Schöller, the works council and HR could draw a first conclusion in the very first months, and after three years of hybrid work the model has proven itself in three areas.

Fast change through a familiar interface

The intuitive interface and the seamless integration into the Microsoft ecosystem shortened and sped up change management. Willingness for the new way of working grew enormously, so after a short settling in period hybrid work could be scaled to further sites.

More collaboration in the office

Even though the model rests on flexibility, the motivation to come into the office depends above all on who else will be there. Schmitz Cargobull therefore relied on transparency from the start. In the Meetup Dashboard, all employees see at a glance who will be in the office and book a desk right next to them. Group bookings followed later, letting people book desks for a group or a fixed team and making team days easier to plan.

Trust as a competitive advantage in hiring

Schmitz Cargobull backed flexible working places and hours and gave its employees trust in doing so. That advance of trust landed well: hybrid work has become a central part of the company culture, helps retain existing employees and attract new skilled staff, and lets work fit better with private life. When filling new positions, it is clear that the company has an edge over its competitors.

Lessons from the rollout

Four lessons from the rollout at Schmitz Cargobull apply to any company with several sites.

Involve the works council and HR early

Because the works council and HR backed the hybrid model together, the decision came in a quick process, even with opposing views in management.

Common rules, local freedom

A global framework with role based permissions lets sites and departments shape their own concept without the rules drifting apart.

Roll out where people already work

A solution inside Microsoft Teams needs no training and no additional user accounts for IT.

Plan for several sites from the start

Anyone who starts with a pilot site and plans the rollout for 3,000 employees from day one can scale site by site.