Modernize workspaces for diverse employee groups (from customer service center to IT department) while keeping cost and sustainability in mind.

Opted to replace outdated workstations with 250 refurbished cubicles and Herman Miller furniture sourced through Staples Business Advantage.

Employees are more productive and more engaged in the new workstations.

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CHALLENGE

SOLUTION

RESULT

THE END RESULT

Workspace redesign for Travel and Transport. New cubicles boost productivity and style.

To Nancy Miller and her colleagues at Travel and Transport, it was clear that the furniture in the company’s Omaha, Nebraska headquarters location was tired.

The cubicles were over 20 years old. Although they had held up well, Miller, Senior Vice President of Operations, and her colleagues noticed subtle changes that gradually added up. The gray fabric of the office cubicles appeared dated, and filing cabinets were showing their wear. The size of workspaces in the customer service center was smaller than today’s workers prefer. And even though glass windows dominate the exterior walls, the high cubicle panels did not allow for the inclusion of natural light in the office.

For the employee-owned Travel and Transport, this issue of office furniture and use of space is about more than appearances. The company, which serves the global travel needs of corporate clients and consumers, sees the seven floors it occupies in a 15-story building as a projection of its corporate identity. The company wanted to display a professional working environment for visiting clients and prospective customers who tour the facilities, including the customer service center. The office environment is also a factor in recruiting, engaging and retaining employees at the company, Miller says.

As she and her colleagues began looking at the possibility of remodeling Travel and Transport’s offices to meet its current and future needs, Miller says their desire — there was no question they wanted to replace the furniture for as many as 250 employee workspaces — met up against a budget reality. The projected cost was simply too high.

Miller says the company estimated that it would cost approximately $4,000 per employee workspace to upgrade. “While we were remodeling the space, we really wanted to update the cubicles, while being budget conscious,” she said. The risk was that if they started installing new furniture, the company would exhaust its

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budget before finishing the job.

Going to a Trusted Source

Travel and Transport found a solution to its office furniture dilemma through its ongoing relationship with Staples Business Advantage®.

The company counts Staples Business Advantage as a corporate travel customer and a trusted supplier of office necessities. Miller says she and her colleagues were not aware that Staples Business Advantage offered services that help businesses redesign their workspaces and could connect Travel and Transport to a range of furniture suppliers.

Soon after a call from their primary Staples Business Advantage account manager, Miller and other leaders listened to a presentation by furniture experts Jon Rovniak and Sheri Shipman. It was here that Miller and her colleagues learned what Staples Business Advantage offered. For example, they could evaluate refurbished cubicle furniture, including models by well-known designers, that would cost about half as much as newly built pieces.

“The refurbished furniture caught our eye and we started to investigate that further,” Miller says. “We were able to budget this project in 2016, and for future years based on the cost.”

Staples Business Advantage also offered project management support, making sure that Travel and Transport was ordering the right pieces to meet the company’s design plans. The team was even able to work with a preferred local furniture installer that Travel and Transport had used in the past.

Refurbished Furniture: A Sustainable Option

After discussions with her account team, Miller and Jim Winterscheid, VP of Human Resources, visited the Albany, NY headquarters of Davies Office, a company that specializes in refurbished furniture, to see what options were available. That trip introduced Travel and Transport to the range of refurbished cubicle designs by Herman Miller. Before finalizing the decision, Rovniak and Shipman connected Miller and her team with customer references for Davies Office so that they could learn about their experiences purchasing and installing the refurbished workstations and Herman Miller designs.

Miller says the option to buy refurbished furniture goes beyond cost. Sustainable business practices are important to Travel and Transport. The company tries to reduce the waste it produces and recycles furniture and equipment it no longer

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needs. Recently, the company donated used materials from an office kitchen upgrade to a Habitat for Humanity project.

Sustainability is also an important issue for Travel and Transport’s corporate customers, some of whom ask for information from their suppliers, such as material use practices, that are included in their corporate social responsibility reports, Miller says.

These considerations made refurbished furniture a perfect option for Travel and Transport, and they were thrilled their Staples Business Advantage account managers made the connection. It was an opportunity to buy pieces with an eco-conscious footprint and furniture that incorporated reclaimed materials and paint that has a low impact on the environment. Staples Business Advantage also helped the company trade in its used furniture for reuse, rather than pay for it to be put in a landfill.

“Those were really the two deciding factors for us,” Miller says. “First were the cost-savings from buying refurbished workstations. And the sustainability factor of using something refurbished versus something new. No other furniture company had ever offered this, so I think it really showed Staples Business Advantage to be very innovative and customer focused.”

First Up: The Customer Service Call Center

The fresh cubicles installed in the customer service center at Travel and Transport are different than the ones they replaced. The desk areas are broader than before. Instead of gray fabric, there are bright panels framing employees’ workspaces. A number of the walls have glass panels that allow more natural light to reach workers’ desks. Rather than

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702501450%

Years Travel and Transport has been in business

Number of cubicles Travel and Transport was replacing

Number of inches added to the cubicle width in new design

Cost of refurbished cubicles compared to estimate for new ones

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Overview: One of the top five travel management companies in the U.S.

Key Facts:• Headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska• Founded in 1946• 100% employee owned

Website: https://www.travelandtransport.com/

Travel and Transport, Inc.

Company at a Glance

a uniform series of cubicles, there is some variation; team leaders’ spaces have higher walls to provide more privacy when needed.

Miller says it didn’t take long for her to receive appreciation messages. “I just wanted to say thank you for all of your time and effort with our new workstations,” said one email from a call center representative. “I LOVE IT! There is so much more desk space. It’s updated, modern, and very sleek! Thank you for the upgrade.”

Miller says comments like these show the reach of wise investments in office furniture that go beyond nuts and bolts and desks and chairs. An appealing office space benefits employees and helps in recruiting, retaining and engaging them. And while the organization emphasizes an employee-centric culture, the office space environment can validate it.

“Our culture and retention was already good,” Miller says. “But when you have a workspace that you are happy in — if it’s bright and has natural light — it just makes it a nicer work area for people, and you’re going to have happier employees.”

Future Plans: An Emphasis on Design Flexibility

The Herman Miller cubicle designs can vary in shape and size, in wall heights and in counter configurations, and this flexibility in design plays a prominent role of Travel and Transport’s office furniture replacement program.

With the customer service center finished, the company plans to roll out new furniture in spaces on five other floors. Miller says the Staples Business Advantage® team helped Travel and Transport come up with four different cubicle designs to suit different workers. The taller cubicle walls for team leaders is one example. Glass wall segments can vary in their placement to let more light in.

The variety of options for the Herman Miller furniture helps the company cater to employees’ needs, Miller says. “That was the challenge that Staples Business Advantage helped us with.” Because the needs are different between departments and floors — the customer service center, IT, human resources and others — “It took a lot of time for us going back and forth on design to come up with exactly the look that we had wanted.”

The IT department is one of the future upgrades. “This will be especially important when we redo the space in our IT area because it’s an area that supports a lot of different workforce styles and requirements,” she says. The company wants

each employee to enjoy a comfortable work environment. And the furniture options available means the company can create new styles of cubicles to meet employees’ needs.

An Innovative Partner

Miller says that Staples Business Advantage’s furniture experts and design services made the refurnishing project at Travel and Transport’s offices successful. The Staples Business Advantage team delivered creative approaches to address both cost and design challenges.

“Staples Business Advantage took a very innovative approach with our build,” she says. “We are very pleased with the furniture and will certainly revisit this option for future office expansion and remodels.”

BEFORE