The challenge: creating new home offices within a circular policy
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is an international accounting and tax consultancy with several offices in the Netherlands. Headquartered in Amsterdam, a total of about 5,000 people work for PwC in the Netherlands. And then came Corona. Companies were ordered to close their doors and employees had to work from home whenever possible. But how do you make sure all those home offices are set up correctly? After all, every home is different. Within its circular operations, PwC also wants to use only refurbished furniture. PwC took on that challenge with Alvero, with pay per use for five years.
The challenge of Rob Klinkert
"A completely different way of working, but there are many possibilities," said Rob Klinkert, Senior Portfolio Manager Facility Management within PwC. Transactional or still circular procurement, that's a question many companies struggle with. Rob is convinced that as a Sustainable Impactmaker he can mean a lot. In the field of circular procurement and also in the field of procurement, health and vitality. "It does revolve around whether you are able to connect with colleagues on these topics. To address it first and then make a plan together."
Deliver quickly and continue to adjust where needed
On June 1, 2021, PwC employees throughout the Netherlands ordered home workstations. The first delivery followed two weeks later. Alvero employees place the home workstations on the desired floor so work can begin immediately. Because PwC leases the furniture for five years, deployment remains flexible and circular: home workstations of employees who leave service are used elsewhere.
A giant operation with room for employees' wishes
Together with PwC, we put together an assortment. Through a customized home office portal, employees can select and order their furniture. This way, every employee gets a home office that fits into the interior in style and dimensions.
Never before have home offices been needed on this scale and at this rate
Alvero then delivered the ordered items to all employees. If someone left service, the furniture was also picked up again. The peak of the Corona period was quite a challenge for us, too, because home workstations had not been needed on this scale and at this pace before. With more than 20,000 home workstations delivered, we have now become experts in this field. We are prepared for a new wave of homeworking, should it ever present itself. Incidentally, even if it involves smaller numbers.
Tailored portals and a dashboard drive the process
Specially for this project, we built a portal in Dutch and English. To have furniture picked up, there is a return portal, also in two languages. In addition, PwC has access to a real-time dashboard that provides 24-7 insight into the ordered home offices: numbers, types and locations. Employees can choose from an electric sit-stand desk in 18 different variations (size, top colour, frame colour), an ergonomic office chair, desk lamp, footrest, laptop riser and sit-stand work aid. The latter is of interest to employees with smaller homes, so they can still work ergonomically at the kitchen table.
Extra service: temporary solution back to office
As a temporary solution, many employees had brought home an office chair from the office. As an extra service, we took these back with us when the home offices were delivered and cleaned them in our warehouse in Oosterhout. We then returned these office chairs to one of the seven PwC offices in the Netherlands.
This is how we make working from home circular
credits
PwC
Rob Klinkert
Amsterdam Westgate
Thomas R. Malthusstraat 5, Amsterdam
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