How Sartorius grows without adding office space

The essentials

Sartorius, a life science group from Göttingen with around 14,000 employees worldwide, introduced desk sharing with Seatti in 2021 because the company was growing faster than its office space could be expanded. Seatti runs directly in Microsoft Teams, takes over users and permissions from Entra ID, and was rolled out from a single department to large parts of the Göttingen campus and further sites. Today hybrid work is a fixed part of the company culture, and Sartorius uses the anonymised analyses from Seatti as the basis for space decisions.

Growth faster than the space

Sartorius grew so strongly during the pandemic that the Göttingen campus soon had more employees than desks. Demand for products used to manufacture vaccines and medicines rose, and the office space could not be expanded at short notice. HR had already experimented with mobile working and a pilot phase in selected departments, and in August 2021 the decision for desk sharing was made.

“A system that is easy to use helps. But at its core it is about rethinking the way we work. We asked ourselves what we actually associate with work. Does working mean a fixed desk, a fixed place in the office, or what do we associate with work?”

– Beatrix Henseler, Head of Human Resources at Sartorius

Three challenges during growth

Sartorius faced three tasks when moving to hybrid work, and each made the others harder.

How do you make room for new employees without new space?

At Sartorius the need for workspaces rose so quickly that additional offices were not an option in the short term. Instead of adding more desks, the open space concept was to be kept and the existing space used better.

How does hybrid work change collaboration?

Employees and managers at Sartorius looked for new ways to collaborate because work was becoming increasingly independent of location. Choosing your own workplace used to be unusual, and that is exactly what changed the office and meeting culture.

How do you organise shared desks without losing track?

As soon as desk sharing at Sartorius grew beyond the first departments, it became unclear who had reserved a desk on which day. When more employees came in than there were desks, it led to frustration.

Easy to integrate, easy to use, easy to scale

Sartorius chose Seatti because it integrated quickly, worked without training and could be expanded step by step.

Why does integration with Microsoft Teams matter so much?

Sartorius uses Microsoft Teams for internal communication, and Seatti fitted seamlessly into this existing system. Through the integration with Entra ID, users, groups and permissions were taken over in a privacy compliant way, sparing IT the rollout of an additional application.

How do you roll out without training?

At Sartorius all employees had immediate access to Seatti because the interface feels like part of Microsoft Teams. No training was needed, and that carried acceptance from the start.

How does desk sharing scale from one department to several sites?

Sartorius started with a single department and then added more users and areas step by step. In the admin panel, administrators create new areas in a few clicks and set up fixed desks, for example.

From one department to several sites

Sartorius extended desk sharing with Seatti from HR to large parts of the Göttingen campus and then applied the space concept on a smaller scale to Guxhagen, Ulm and the Swedish office in Umeå. Desk booking allows half day and full day reservations and shows everyone how many desks are free on which day. Anyone who works on site more than three times a week or needs special equipment keeps a fixed desk, and departments handling confidential data stay in their own areas. Assigned lockers make sure there is personal storage even at flexible desks.

What has changed since the rollout

Sartorius has been working hybrid with Seatti for five years, and the model has proven itself in three areas.

High acceptance through flexible and fixed desks

At Sartorius, a pilot in one department has become a way of working for large parts of the group. Because Beatrix Henseler and her team shaped hybrid work on a personal level and combined flexible with fixed desks, employees with very different needs found their place in the new model, and that has strengthened acceptance for the long term.

Space decisions based on anonymised data

Alongside booking, Sartorius uses Seatti workplace analytics to evaluate utilisation from the whole floor down to the single desk over freely chosen periods. Administrators only see anonymised and aggregated booking data, and no personal data goes into the analysis.

Stronger retention and a wider talent pool

With the hybrid model, Sartorius was able to widen its talent pool because new employees from all over Germany work flexibly from where they live. Mobile working is now a fixed part of the company culture and helps retain existing employees and attract new talent.

Lessons from the rollout

Five years of desk sharing at Sartorius point to four lessons that apply to any growing company.

Start small, then scale

A pilot department shows what works before the model moves to the whole campus and further sites.

Combine flexible and fixed

Fixed desks for those who are on site every day or need special equipment increase acceptance of flexible desks.

Roll out where people already work

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

Privacy from day one

Anonymised analyses provide the basis for space decisions without making individuals visible.