Tebi: making the move count, against the clock

When a fast-growing hospitality-tech company moved offices, Workplace Experience Manager Stacy Bergener built the new space around how her people actually behave, and made a REFILL+ Series 2 the healthy, low-hassle centre of it.

At a glance

Company

Tebi: building tools for the hospitality industry with around 130 people

Why a REFILL+ Series 2

A healthier default in place of a fridge of sugary cans, far less hassle than bottled deliveries, and a social centrepiece for the new kitchen

The result

The healthy choice made the easy one, and a kitchen the whole team gathers around

When Stacy Bergener joined Tebi, it had around 40 people; within eight months it had more than doubled. The old office wasn’t keeping up and it was time for a change.

"Over the last four years we'd gone from a few desks on one floor, to a full floor, then a second floor, then a third," says Stacy. "That created a lot of physical division between us, and we saw it affecting the culture." 

So the company moved, with a simple goal: get everyone back onto one floor, visible to each other and able to connect. The new office was a turnkey space leased from another company, not a perfect fit, and hers to make Tebi's.

Reading the room

Stacy doesn’t design from a template. She customizes a space to suit the people it’s for. She starts by asking managers and team leaders what they need, but observation of the wider team is just as important. 

"I see it and I know what needs to be done based on how people behave," she says. 

At Tebi that meant designing around a coffee culture. "I know I've got my coffee connoisseurs, so I need at least two machines, two grinders, and counter space for their toastie machines." 

At her last company the same instinct had pointed somewhere else, "they needed a beer tap." 

Different crowd, different answer, but the same discipline underneath: work out who you're building for before you build it. "It really depends, you have to know your people: how they work, what they need, what they like."

The kitchen at the heart

For a company that builds tools for hospitality, one space mattered more than any other. 

"In the kitchen you run into everybody from every department," she says. "It's one of the most important parts of the office. It really is over food, drinks and snacks that connections are truly made." 

So the kitchen was where Stacy put her attention, and where the choice about what to put in it carried the most weight. 

The healthy choice

That choice started with what to leave out. When Stacy gathered feedback before the move, there was one team who asked for the usual: sodas, energy drinks, all the canned sugary things. She'd offered exactly that before, and watched it go to waste. 

"At my last company I gave everybody all the options, and a lot of the time it just sat there unused," she says. So this time, she made a deliberate call. "I decided we're doing away with that, I'm making the healthy choice for my people." 

Rather than a fridge of cans, the office got a hydration point with flavors, giving people variety without the sugar. 

"Making the healthy choice was important," says Stacy. 

Built in, not bottled

A built-in system beat ordering in bottles for a reason any office manager will recognise. "In a growing company, in a workplace-experience role, you're stretched; you wear so many hats, you're managing vendors, you're the one doing the invisible work, the heavy lifting," Stacy says. 

"Right now (pre-move) I've got sparkling water coming in as bottles, and it's me reloading and moving them. Anything that saves me time and takes work off my plate, I'm all about. The last thing I need to worry about is bottles."

The move was meant to feel like a genuine step up, not a sideways shuffle, and Stacy knew a proper hydration point was the kind of thing her people would notice. "I wanted to make sure we were leveling up. I wanted people to feel this is better than what we had,” she says. 

"That's when someone recommended Aquablu. I looked at it and thought, ‘this is great: one machine, we're all on one floor’." 

Once she tried the REFILL+ Series 2, she didn’t sit on the decision. "Aquablu was a must for me. It was one of the first contracts we signed once we knew where we were going and what we were doing."  

Part of that decisiveness came down to finances. With the Pay-Per-Drink plan, Stacy knew upfront how much the system would be costing and it made financial sense to lock the budget in from the beginning. "The last thing I wanted was to be adding another monthly cost at the end."

The payoff

With almost everyone in the office every day, Stacy’s after the compounding daily-return of the small decisions.  

Questions like "'Can I make you a coffee? Do you want some sparkling water?' It creates a family moment," she says. She expects the hydration point to earn its place in exactly that spot. "I really think everyone will realise what a game changer it is," she says. "It's like the watering hole where all the animals come together to drink. It's going to elevate the space."

"I see it and I know what needs to be done based on how people behave." — Stacy Bergener, Workplace Experience Manager, Tebi

"I'm making the healthy choice for my people."

"It's like the watering hole where all the animals come together to drink. It's going to elevate the space."

Stacy's advice for anyone doing the same

"Realise as soon as possible that you're not going to please everyone all the time; it can sometimes feel like an impossible job," she says. "Really use the vendors and services that make your job easier and provide the healthier option." 

Trust your read of the room, too: "You have intuition about what people need, and if you don't, you ask and find out. Make the decisions you'd want people to make for you, and take care of yourself at the same time."

Planning a move? [See how a REFILL+ hydration point fits into a new office →]

Planning a move?

See how a REFILL+ hydration point fits into a new office