Pay.UK is the operator and standards body for UK retail payment systems, including the Bacs Payment System, the Faster Payment System, and the Image Clearing System, facilitating billions of transactions annually.  Requiring a smaller and modern office that would support a reduced environmental impact, the organisation relocated from a 30-year-old, 48,000 square foot building to a 27,000 square foot single-floor office in August 2025.

HubStar’s desk booking platform and advanced functionality for booking near colleagues helped Pay.UK enhance cross-matrix working behaviours, accommodate employees in almost half the space, and create a flexible, appealing workplace where teams naturally collaborate, all while achieving efficiencies in line with their 40% portfolio reduction.

Challenges

• Accommodating the same headcount in 40% less space without changing the existing hybrid work policy
• Enhancing cross-matrix working behaviour and increasing collaboration opportunities
• Extensive change management requirements from introducing an entirely new way of working

Pay.UK’s existing office was 30 years old and the organisation chose to relocate all colleagues and visitors into accredited single floor office location. The property was EPC-B accredited and compliant with 2030 energy legislation that supported environmental requirements. The single floorplate also increased opportunities for collaboration. 

Relocating an entire company, especially one managing sensitive and operationally critical financial transactions, would require extensive change management and stakeholder buy-in. 

Pay.UK’s colleagues usually worked with their immediate teams in the same office with desk allocation based on team headcount (typically 10 people using 7 desks or less) in neighbourhoods. Working across three floors reduced opportunity for cross-team interaction and impeded knowledge transfer across the organisation.

The head of Pay.UK’s facilities management team who led the project from start to finish, Jason Roseaman, saw an opportunity to redesign how people work in closer proximity with a wider variety of colleagues across a more dynamic space. This would mean more knowledge sharing and ultimately, a more vibrant, efficient and flexible workspace.

Pay.UK downsized from 48,000 to 27,000 square feet in their August 2025 move, going from 354 desks to just 168 newly standardised desktops but offering a total of 278 different work points across the single floor. 

Rather than mandating specific days in-office, Pay.UK’s hybrid work policy requires employees to attend the office 40% of their working time, flexibly across each month. Jason’s team needed to ensure everyone had the option of somewhere to work, especially on peak demand days like Tuesdays. 

Implementing Jason’s idea for dynamic neighbourhoods, where teams would organically sit in potentially different neighbourhoods adjacent to different colleagues every time they came in, was a totally new way of working that would also require extensive change management and employee involvement. 

Although Pay.UK was already using HubStar’s desk booking solution in the old office, a surplus of space meant employees were virtually guaranteed a desk whenever they attended the office.

However, desk booking would be central to accommodating everyone in almost half the space and successfully delivering dynamic neighbourhoods. 

Why HubStar?

• QuickBook and “book near me” functionalities to drive organic collaboration

• Advanced booking for large team gatherings

• Visual, intuitive booking interface

With HubStar’s QuickBook feature, employees can book desks near specific colleagues, whether it’s a manager, department member or a key collaborator, creating natural team clustering without the need for rigid seat assignments and fixed space allocation. 

Whole teams of up to 75 people can coordinate office days and book space together in advance, ensuring teams have the facilities they need to collaborate while maintaining booking flexibility.

Employees can see available desks near their chosen colleagues in real-time, making the booking process painless and transparent.

The HubStar Solution

Pay.UK kept HubStar in place as the desk booking platform for their new 27,000 square foot office when the move was completed. The new building supports 168 standard desks and a total of 278 work points across various space types, including executive meeting pods, coffee breakout areas and co-working style spaces.

Colleagues can access a variety of presentation spaces, quiet spaces and acoustic meeting pods providing for a wide range of daily tasks. Meeting rooms were re-sized to match usage data and carefully soundproofed, addressing a key challenge at the previous location.

The project delivery team opened the booking system a month before the move, giving colleagues time to familiarise themselves with the QuickBook feature and book their first days in the new space well in advance. They conducted training sessions to demonstrate how to book desks near colleagues and answer FAQs. Working with the architects, the project team created four equally resourced work zones that teams can move between freely.

Rather than assigning departments to permanent areas, HubStar desk booking facilitates natural clustering around team members. The project team coined the term ‘dynamic neighbourhoods’ when pitching the idea to Pay.UK leadership. Regularly changing adjacencies would be at the heart of increased collaboration and increased transfer of knowledge and information across the business.

“We explained to the business that they would come on this journey with us and it is new,” Jason commented on Pay.UK’s engagement approach with everyone before, during and after the move. “We were transparent in advising that if the approach didn’t work we would use learnings and data to adapt and change it”.

Early in the planning process, Pay.UK invited ten volunteer colleagues to collaborate with the architect and project team to help design the space concept, set up a dedicated email address for concerns prior to the move, and shared regular updates on technology, the booking system and dynamic neighbourhoods. A 3D digital design helped employees visualise the new space before moving in.

The Result

• Significant cost efficiencies from a smaller footprint while improving workplace experience

• Enhanced cross-matrix working without rigid booking rules

• Better workplace collaboration and knowledge sharing 

Pay.UK achieved significant cost efficiencies with their 40% portfolio reduction. Even after consolidating colleagues into almost half the space, the team estimates the new office could accommodate a higher headcount, with capacity for 600 additional visits per week.

Only two spaces in the entire office are permanently allocated – the CEO and Chair’s offices. Even these become bookable when unoccupied. The executive team, who all had private offices in the old building, book executive meeting pods in advance, or sit in open spaces alongside other colleagues, modelling the collaborative and inclusive culture and behaviours Pay.UK wanted to create.

The dynamic neighbourhoods concept succeeded beyond expectations. Although they anticipated they might have to, Pay.UK didn’t need to implement any booking restrictions because employees naturally move around the office. On occasion Teams book into familiar zones, but different teams fill remaining spaces, maintaining that diversity of adjacency.

“There seem to be key people in each department that drive who books around them, but certainly the ‘book near me’ function was critical for us to get this right,” Jason commented on the natural magnetism of wanting to sit near colleagues. 

Employee feedback on the dynamic neighbourhood’s model, a seamless transition and the office design was overwhelmingly positive.

“I’ve never had the opportunity to work with so many people,” one employee commented.

A breakthrough moment came when a training session outgrew its booked meeting room capacity. The facilities team took the opportunity to quickly move the group into one of the nearby open plan presentation areas enabling a wider audience to hear the discussion. Other employees watching this interaction realised they could use the new office spaces in new, collaborative ways beyond the typical patterns of only using desks and meeting rooms.

Most employees now book up to 4 weeks in advance, the maximum allowed by the system. Using HubStar has already enabled two large directorate team days where more than 50 colleagues came together on site, without negative impact on other colleagues.

Since the move, attendance patterns have settled into peak occupancy on Tuesdays with a more balanced demand across the remaining week and lighter demand on Fridays. The facilities management team use data from HubStar as guidance to understand demand, how the building is being used, FM resource planning and to understand how different colleague events like All- Colleague Meetings impact attendance.