How can companies provide greater flexibility for their people, maintain a widespread presence across the country and, at the same time, reduce the costs associated with a network of physical offices?
This is the challenge faced by Grenke Italia, which in recent years has profoundly transformed its organizational model, moving from a network of local branches to a distributed system of coworking spaces accessible through NOTONLYDESK.
A change that has involved not only the workplace itself, but also the way the company approaches autonomy, collaboration and local presence.
Founded in 1978, Grenke is a German multinational company specializing in financial services for businesses and in the operating lease of equipment and business technologies, with a presence in 33 countries.
In Italy, the company has 220 employees: 80 work at the Milan headquarters, 30 at the Rome office, while the others are distributed across the country.
Before the pandemic, in addition to its two main offices, Grenke’s organizational model included 18 local branches. These were small, autonomous commercial units, each with a branch leader and a team dedicated to managing local customers.
However, with the widespread adoption of Smart Working, this model began to show some limitations.
On the one hand, managing a network of branches would have made it more difficult to give people greater autonomy in choosing when to work remotely. On the other, maintaining permanent offices that were used only a few days a week generated costs that were increasingly out of line with their actual use.
Grenke, however, did not want to give up an element it considered strategic: proximity to customers and the presence of its people across the country.
The question therefore became: how could the company maintain a nationwide network without continuing to bear the costs and rigidity of a traditional branch network?
The choice: replacing branches with a flexible coworking network
In 2020, grenke Italia began rethinking its organizational model.
The decision was to gradually close most of its local branches and replace them with a network of partner coworking spaces, launching a collaboration with NOTONLYDESK. Through the platform, the company can access a network of coworking spaces across the country, while NOTONLYDESK manages relationships with the locations and enables employees to book workspaces easily and independently.
However, the transformation was not rolled out across the entire organization immediately.
The new model was first tested through a pilot project in Bari. And it was precisely during this initial phase that an important choice was made: rather than imposing a centrally selected list of coworking spaces, grenke directly involved its people.
Managers and employees were able to visit the spaces, test them and identify those best suited to their needs, based on a set of criteria defined by the company.
An approach that reflects one of the key principles behind the new model: giving people greater autonomy, including in choosing where they work.
How the model works today
As the network gradually expanded, Grenke was able to replace almost all of its former local branches.
The company policy now requires at least one day of in-person work per week, with the aim of maintaining relationships among colleagues and reducing the risk of isolation.
Employees are free to choose the day and they are also free to choose the coworking space.
Through NOTONLYDESK, each employee receives 10 monthly credits, which can be used to book the same number of desk-day accesses at partner coworking spaces. Managers can also access meeting rooms.
The network is not static: employees can suggest new coworking spaces, for example when there is a need to work in a new city or meet a colleague at a convenient halfway point. NOTONLYDESK then checks the space’s availability and manages the potential activation of a new agreement. In this way, the network grows in line with people’s real needs.
The spaces are used on average once a week, but they can also become meeting points for colleagues coming from different cities or places for collaboration among people who perform the same role.
Coworking therefore does not simply replace the branch: it becomes a flexible component of the organization.
A consistent work experience, wherever you are
However, a distributed model brings a new challenge: ensuring people have as consistent a work experience as possible.
For this reason, Grenke developed a branded “coworker kit”, consisting of tools designed to help people work effectively regardless of the equipment available in each space.
The same principle was also applied to working from home, ensuring continuity across different work environments.
The kit also produced an unexpected result: when used inside coworking spaces, it became an additional tool for strengthening Grenke’s brand visibility.
The real change goes beyond the workplace
Moving from traditional branches to coworking spaces does not simply mean changing location, it also means changing the organizational culture. Grenke has focused on empowering its people, asking them to take greater responsibility in managing their autonomy and addressing challenges.
At the same time, the company has had to tackle one of the main risks of distributed work models: the physical distance between those working at headquarters and those based across the country.
To reduce this gap, initiatives such as the “HQ Experience” were introduced, allowing employees based in different locations to periodically spend time at the Milan headquarters, along with “HR in Tour”, through which the Human Resources team meets employees directly in coworking spaces.
The logic is reversed: it is not always people who have to come to the company; the company also moves closer to its people.
The results: greater flexibility and a broader local presence
The new model has generated benefits on several levels: the first concerns geographical presence.
Thanks to the coworking network, Grenke has been able to establish a presence in cities where it previously had no branch, including Agrigento, Catania and Palermo. From an economic perspective, the closure of local branches generated significant savings by reducing real estate costs associated with spaces that were only partially used.
Some aspects of workplace management also changed, while periodic assessments were maintained to ensure that the spaces used continue to meet the quality standards required by the company.
But the most interesting results concern the people.
Over the course of the project, the engagement index measured through internal surveys with a 90% participation rate increased by 10% over two years, before stabilizing at high levels. The company also reports positive levels of organizational identification and willingness to recommend the employer, together with low turnover and a reduction in absenteeism.
Smart Working has delivered benefits above all in terms of work-life balance, allowing people to organize their time with greater autonomy.
Sustainability also depends on where people work
The transformation has also had an impact on the environmental front.
The possibility of working remotely or from coworking spaces closer to home has reduced the need to commute every day to a specific branch.
Shorter distances mean fewer journeys and, in some cases, also make it possible to use more sustainable forms of transport.
The distribution of workspaces therefore becomes not only an organizational and economic choice, but also a tool for reducing the environmental impact of work-related mobility.
From distributed work to a truly distributed organization
Grenke’s journey shows how coworking can play a role that goes far beyond the occasional use of a desk.
It can become an integral part of a company’s workplace infrastructure.
A network of flexible workspaces makes it possible to maintain a local presence without necessarily replicating the traditional branch model, while at the same time giving people greater freedom to choose where they work.
Grenke is already working on new communication and collaboration initiatives to be hosted directly within coworking spaces, with the aim of further strengthening employees’ sense of belonging.
Because in a distributed organization, the challenge is not simply enabling people to work from different locations.
It is ensuring that geographical distance never becomes cultural distance.
Do you want to build a network of flexible workspaces for your company?
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Grenke, which chose NOTONLYDESK to transition from branch offices to a network of coworking spaces, giving its people greater flexibility. This journey is documented by the Politecnico di Milano’s Digital Innovation Observatories.
Coworking and workspaces starting from €22 per dayWith NOTONLYDESK you can book coworking spaces, workstations, private offices, and meeting rooms throughout Italy, with solutions starting from €22 + VAT per day and with no city-specific surcharges.
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1 DESK WORKSTATION for the entire day, per employee1 MEETING ROOM for 1 hour, per employee
