Headspace is an app that makes meditation more accessible, it encourages mindfulness throughout the day. Meditation is a spiritual practice that research has shown can improve memory and focus, while reducing stress, anxiety, and depression—and Headspace aims to make it a regular habit for everyone. With 20 million downloads in 190 countries, their mission is gaining traction, and the Headspace team has grown to match.

Francis Aquino, Workplace Experience Manager, was brought on to help launch the expansion into a larger Santa Monica office. Shouting across their new 20,000-square-foot office whenever a visitor arrived just wasn’t an option. “Headspace started as a small company without a lot of visitors,” said Francis. “As we’ve gained popularity, our foot traffic has increased and we needed a way to scale up. Envoy means less paperwork for our front desk coordinator, and it lets us retain a warm and welcoming feeling.”

Balance culture with confidentiality

Headspace takes a lot of pride in their guest experience. “We aim to have every visitor taken care of within two minutes,” Francis said. Envoy’s visitor management system helps streamline the process with Slack, email, and SMS notifications for hosts to let them know about visitors arriving.

Headspace is also sensitive about confidentiality and how it fits within their company culture. “Our legal team takes a lot of pride in making sure the wording on our NDA is very conversational and easily understandable,” he explained. In the past, only contractors and short-term workers were asked to sign a NDA, but with the rise in visitors—and, like many open offices with ideas mapped out on communal white boards—Headspace wanted to make sure they were covered.

Envoy’s NDA feature incorporates signing NDAs into the check-in process: every visitor is emailed the form after checking in, and all NDAs can readily be accessed through Envoy. “It beats keeping stacks of NDAs at the front desk and trying to keep track of all the physical copies,” Francis said.

He adds that the ability to have multiple visitor types is another way Headspace can balance culture with confidentiality. The feature allows for visitors to sign different NDAs based on why they’re visiting. “We adjusted our ‘Purpose of Visit’ types to include ‘Meeting,’ ‘Interview,’ and ‘Hanging Out’—it’s very customized to fit us.”

Boost success of internal programs

Headspace has also tailored Envoy to fit their internal Bike Borrow program. “We don’t have many lunch spots nearby, so we created a bike borrow program for our employees to get around. However, people need to sign a waiver before they rent a bike,” said Francis.

Envoy’s NDA feature is completely customizable, which means you can insert other legal documents as well. When an employee wants to take a bike, they select “Bike Borrow” from the ‘Purpose of Visit’ list in Envoy and that specific waiver pops up for them sign electronically. Francis says the system is so easy to use that more people are taking advantage of the bikes. “It’s easy to track the forms in Envoy’s dashboard, and it’s completely digital, so you don’t need to manually enter information or scan and upload a form.”

Ultimately, Francis says Headspace is very happy with Envoy. “Not only is Envoy an easy way for us to make our front desk more hip and high-tech, it’s also a practical way for us to scale operations as we grow.”

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