Help your team plan office days that are worth the commute
See how elia helps small teams coordinate and get more out of in-person time.
Gestion FÉRIQUE
How Gestion FÉRIQUE Made In-Person Days Worth Planning For
Gestion FÉRIQUE moved to hybrid work and ran into a familiar problem: employees came into the office without knowing if their colleagues would be there. With elia, they can see who's coming in, pick a desk that suits what they're working on, and actually plan office days around each other.
At a glance
2
office spaces
86
bookable desks
New features
added within months
LOCATION
Montreal, QC, Canada
INDUSTRY
Financial Services
SIZE
170 employees
company overview
Gestion FÉRIQUE is a Montreal-based non-profit mutual fund manager, founded in 1999. It's the only non-profit investment fund in Canada, serving engineers, engineering graduates, and their families.
PRODUCTS USED
Gestion FÉRIQUE offers its 170 employees a flexible hybrid model. The shift to hybrid went smoothly, but the team quickly noticed that flexibility without coordination has a downside: employees would come in and find that the colleagues they needed weren't there.
The company looked for a tool that would fix that, and be simple enough that a small team could get it up and running without making it a project.
The challenge
Gestion FÉRIQUE needed desk booking for a hybrid team, but colleague visibility was as important as reserving a spot. Employees needed to see when colleagues were coming in so they could plan around them. The tool also had to be straightforward enough to roll out without a long implementation:
- no desk booking system in place
- employees coming in without knowing who else would be there
- needed to cover both open collaboration areas and closed offices
- small team, no appetite for a complex deployment
How elia Helped
Gestion FÉRIQUE worked with the elia team to set up the platform in a few days. A user guide went out to employees, and most were using it on their own from there.
A platform that keeps improving
THE ISSUE
The team wanted a tool that would grow with their needs over time, not stay static after deployment.
ELIA'S SOLUTION
New features were showing up within months of going live, based on feedback from teams like theirs. The product kept improving while they were using it.
Planning around people
THE ISSUE
Employees were coming into the office without knowing if the colleagues they needed would be there, making in-person days hard to coordinate in advance.
ELIA'S SOLUTION
Employees can see when colleagues are planning to come in before deciding their own schedule. They can book an open desk for collaborative work or a closed office when they need to focus. Office days became easier to plan and more likely to involve the right people.
"Now, our employees can plan their in-office days more easily, knowing when their colleagues will be present and choosing a desk that suits their needs (e.g., closed office or open space). It's convenient and fosters collaboration."
The results
- employees planning office days around when colleagues are coming in
- open and closed workspace types both covered through booking
- new features added within months based on team feedback
- quick setup, picked up by staff without much hand-holding
- HR and IT both satisfied with how the tool works in practice
Why it matters
Flexible hybrid models give employees control over their schedule. The coordination gap comes from that flexibility. Without visibility into when colleagues are coming in, office days become unpredictable. Gestion FÉRIQUE needed booking that solved the coordination piece without adding complexity to an already flexible model.
