Make hybrid office days worth the commute
See how elia helps organizations simplify desk booking, improve office coordination, and make in-person collaboration easier.
How a Leading Canadian Insurer Made a 3:1 Desk Ratio Work for Collaboration
The hybrid policy was already right: a 1:3 desk ratio and a 20% monthly on-site target. What this insurer needed was a way to make that ratio work for the 6,600 people using it. elia's desk booking, kiosks, and occupancy sensors closed that gap.
At a glance
1 desk
per 3 employees
20% monthly
on-site presence target
LOCATION
Canada
INDUSTRY
Insurance
SIZE
6,600 employees
company overview
The company is one of Canada's insurance providers, offering coverage and financial protection services to individuals and businesses across the country. With 6,600 employees working across 9 buildings and 30 floors in Quebec and Ontario, the company operates one of the larger hybrid office footprints in the Canadian insurance sector.
PRODUCTS USED
A leading Canadian insurance firm was already operating with an efficient hybrid workplace model: 1 desk for every 3 employees. With a 20% monthly on-site presence target, the company could support a much leaner footprint than a traditional assigned-desk model. That target could be met by week or by month, managers came in two days a week, and every space was unassigned, even for senior leadership.
But the challenge was making that model work for employees, not just real estate.
Before elia, employees could come into the office and find a place to sit, but they often ended up beside people they did not work with. Office days were flexible, but not always intentional.
The company needed a better way to make in-person time easier to plan, navigate, and use for meaningful work.
The challenge
The company managed a large office footprint across Canada, spanning multiple buildings, floors, and thousands of employees. It already had the desk ratio and hybrid policy in place, but the day-to-day office experience needed to catch up.
The lean ratio also left the company with more space than it needed. It reduced its real estate by 160,000 sq ft, about 30% of its Quebec portfolio. For nearly two years after, the office ran on a first-come, first-served basis with no booking system. Without a reliable way to know what was free, desks often got held informally.
To make the model work better, the team needed to:
- help employees plan office days around the people they needed to work with
- make it easier to find available spaces on-site
- support a lean desk ratio without making the office harder to use
- give employees a simple way to book desks and navigate the workplace
- lay the groundwork for understanding actual space utilization across the portfolio
Before elia, the team relied largely on Outlook for meeting rooms and had no dedicated system for desk management. There were no kiosks in place to help employees find available spaces or locate colleagues when they arrived.
Announcing the 3:1 ratio also needed careful communication, and the company’s change management team guided employees throughout the rollout.
Workspace at a glance
Category
Count
Buildings across Quebec and Ontario
9
Employees
6600
Floors
30
Desks
2,644
How elia Helped
The company adopted elia through an all-in-one deployment, with the rollout centered on the capabilities that mattered most to the employee experience.
Better coordination
THE ISSUE
For employees, the real value of an office day depended on who else was there.
ELIA'S SOLUTION
People could see who was coming in and choose desks accordingly. Instead of arriving and sitting wherever space happened to be available, they could plan their day around the coworkers they needed to see.
Easier navigation
THE ISSUE
With fewer desks available, the onsite experience needed to remain simple and intuitive.
ELIA'S SOLUTION
The company installed elia kiosks on nearly every floor, giving employees a real-time view of available spaces and the ability to book a desk on the fly if they forgot to reserve one before arriving.
Future occupancy insight
THE ISSUE
Beyond day-to-day booking, the team had no reliable way to see how space was being used, or to catch no-shows that made desks look occupied when they weren't.
ELIA'S SOLUTION
Occupancy sensors were deployed as part of the workplace ecosystem. This added another layer of workplace visibility, giving the team the infrastructure to track real utilization across desks and floors and inform future planning decisions.
The results
With desk booking, kiosks, and workplace visibility working together, the insurance firm was able to get more out of its desk ratio while making office days more useful for employees:
- helped make their existing 1:3 desk ratio work better for employees
- deployed across 9 buildings and 30 floors
- gave 6,600 employees a simpler way to find and use space
- made it easier for teams to plan productive office days
- improved access to available desks through floor-level kiosks ]
- replaced two years of first-come, first-served seating
- added occupancy sensors to support future workplace planning
- helped support a workplace model tied to ~$20M in annual real estate value
elia also turned out simple enough that employees started using it without any formal training. In hindsight, the team said they could have planned a much lighter training program. CTA
Why it matters
For enterprises managing hybrid work at scale, booking is only one part of the puzzle.
A 3:1 desk ratio can create major real estate value, but it also changes how employees experience the office. If people come in and spend the day disconnected from their teams, the office becomes just another place to do virtual work.
In this case, elia helped make the workplace more intentional. Booking, colleague visibility, kiosks, and occupancy technology all played a role in helping employees plan better office days and get more value from face-to-face time.
