Case Study: easyJet

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History and Context

easyJet is Europe's leading airline, offering a unique combination of the best route network connecting major European airports, competitive fares, and friendly service. The company operates more popular routes in Europe than any other airline and carried more than 96 million passengers in 2019, of which more than 16 million traveled for business. It has more than 300 aircraft, around 1,000 routes to more than 150 airports in 35 countries, and more than 300 million Europeans live within an hour of an easyJet airport.

For much of its 26-year history, the Luton headquarters was a hub of intense activity, where around 1,500 employees worked most of the week.

"Traditionally, our offices at the Luton Campus were always full of activity. As we grew, finding available meeting rooms or desks became a challenge. Even before the pandemic, we were already exploring ways to adopt smarter working practices and make more efficient use of our workplace to foster greater collaboration," explains Simon Cunniffe, Director of Employee Services at easyJet.

Business Challenge

To move toward a more flexible model, easyJet planned a hybrid work program and set out to rethink the workplace based on a few fundamental questions:

Would people change their work habits when they were in the office?

How could easyJet help its employees make better use of their in-person time?

Would the company still need the same amount of physical office space?

The success of the project depended on actively listening to employees and adapting the workplace to teams' changing needs. The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated the hybrid work program, changing the needs of both spaces and people: although the airline temporarily stopped operating flights, its teams continued supporting affected customers and preparing for the resumption of operations.

As an airline, safety has always been easyJet's top priority. The company identified managed desk booking as a key component for employees' safe return to the office and sought a solution that would allow flexible workspace booking while its specialized biosafety team redefined safety standards.

"As soon as our employees were able to start returning to the workplace, we wanted to make sure they had the opportunity to spend time in the office again. That meant acting quickly to manage and enable a new way of hybrid working, encouraging conversations within teams about flexibility while respecting the guidelines needed to keep everyone safe," noted Charlie Rainer, Director of Corporate Technology at easyJet.

RICOH Solution

To select the right partner, easyJet issued a request for proposal with specific technical requirements. In addition to desk and collaborative space booking, the solution needed to offer a high level of accessibility, integration with the company's Microsoft environment, and the ability to understand and analyze workspace usage. After evaluating several alternatives, easyJet chose RICOH Spaces.

"Given the importance of our hybrid work program, we wanted to work with a partner with a proven track record on time-sensitive implementation projects. We have a long-standing relationship with Ricoh, which had already successfully managed several programs for us," said Simon Cunniffe.

"RICOH Spaces proved to be an extremely strong solution during our comparative analysis. What's more, since it's a relatively new solution, we saw a unique opportunity to help shape its roadmap. Most importantly, it goes far beyond desk booking; it's a comprehensive workplace enhancement platform, with potential for future projects such as IoT sensors and meeting room management," added Charlie Rainer.

After extensive user testing, easyJet worked together with Ricoh to implement the solution initially as a pilot and later roll it out across the entire organization. During the pilot phase, weekly surveys were conducted to gather feedback, identify improvements, and share them with Ricoh to optimize the platform.

To book a workspace, employees use the RICOH Spaces mobile app or web version and then scan a QR code at the reserved desk to check in. Employees are currently recommended to come into the Luton campus up to three days a week, depending on the needs of each role. The Property Management team, in turn, uses RICOH Spaces' reporting tools to analyze current and historical space usage and plan future changes.

"Ricoh was extremely valuable during implementation, especially their core developers. The project had unique requirements that made the process demanding, but Ricoh was always available to provide support. They even went the extra mile by joining meetings when needed to keep the project moving," noted Charlie Rainer.

Results

Thanks to RICOH Spaces, easyJet achieved a safe and reliable return to in-person work. The solution-built trust among employees by demonstrating that solid measures were in place to reduce risk and protect their wellbeing, making it possible to manage the number of people on-site and block off certain desks to ensure physical distancing.

"Since implementing hybrid work with RICOH Spaces, we've seen a very positive level of adoption. When people are in the office, they especially value the greater flexibility, including the ability to choose desks near key colleagues to foster more effective collaboration," said Simon Cunniffe.

Through the platform's built-in analytics tools, easyJet is gaining valuable insight into space usage that helps guide future work and real estate decisions.

"RICOH Spaces helped us uncover some unexpected aspects of hybrid work. For example, collaboration in the office now means much more than formal meetings. For people who work mostly from home, an important part of collaboration consists of informal encounters with colleagues, grabbing a coffee, and talking about projects or day-to-day topics," noted Charlie Rainer.

"The analytics provided by RICOH Spaces also allowed us to better understand our space needs. We quickly identified that hybrid work meant we no longer needed such large office footprints, which allowed us to use our facilities much more cost-effectively," added Simon Cunniffe.

easyJet now plans to expand its use of RICOH Spaces to continue its workplace transformation. Upcoming projects include:

Meeting room booking.

Collaboration and communication tools for employees.

Smart parking space management.

"Ricoh continues to be an excellent partner for easyJet. It delivers truly agile service, and RICOH Spaces will be a central piece of our future way of working as we continue refining and developing increasingly effective and collaborative ways of working," concluded Charlie Rainer.

This case shows how Ricoh continues to redefine the way people work in the transportation and logistics industry, creating smart spaces where meetings start on time, communication flows without obstacles, and teams can focus on what really matters, a value proposition that delivers results across Latin America and around the world.

Ricoh Latin America, and easyJet acted together in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for a better future:

Ricoh at a global level is a company committed to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by solving social problems through business with the sole purpose of achieving economic growth, a better planet. and a better society.