3 types of office space utilization metrics ranked

5 min read

How busy is your workplace? Or is it empty? Business owners can start to improve the efficiency and quality of their office spaces by measuring workplace usage, but some types of data are more useful than others. Here are 3 types of measurements ranked from least to most valuable. 

#3: Observation of workplace usage 

For the longest time, the corporate real estate industry was stuck with anecdotal evidence. Before smart workplace technology existed, the way to “measure” office attendance and usage patterns was by watching it happen with your own eyes and taking notes. Either that, or you could choose to conduct surveys with employees to ask them about their preferred working areas. 

Even if you employ a consultancy, these metrics leave companies with a flawed understanding of when their spaces are used. You can only observe a handful of areas and a handful of times, even though occupancy trends can change drastically from week to week. It’s an incomplete picture. Still, it’s quick and dirty, which is why many companies still rely on these base-level metrics. 

#2: Occupancy detection for rooms and desks 

For companies with thousands of square meters and thousands of employees, many workplace dynamics can go completely undetected. A rough idea isn’t enough. Luckily, a new range of modern technologies can pick up on occupancy in a more objective way. Occupancy sensors let you know when workspaces or rooms are being used in real time. (Or even better: true real-time.)  
 
After you install these sensors throughout a building, two things happen. First and most importantly, this data can be shared with employees to make it easy to spot available places to work. Second, occupancy metrics can help companies, to some extent, begin to grasp space utilization. Still, these metrics alone miss a couple of key insights: over-utilization and under-utilization.  

#1: Capacity utilization across the workplace 

Is your office being used too much? Or too little? These are vital things to know before deciding to downsize or invest in more office space. In fact, it’s one of the main use cases for utilization monitoring. To get these answers, you need a way to measure capacity utilization. While occupancy metrics can reveal if a space is being used, capacity utilization also tells you how much.  
 
These valuable measurements are possible using a well-designed analytics platform that collects data about utilization from all your smart office sensors, and compares it with information about the facility. This comparison of actual usage with planned usage shines light on your top improvement areas, which is why capacity utilization metrics provide instant value to companies.

Which type do you need?  

Utilization monitoring has come a long way and the future looks even brighter. The metrics your company needs will depend entirely on your ambitions. What’s important is that you define your company’s specific challenges with office space utilization, as well as define the questions you need answered to solve those challenges.  

How do you get started with utilization monitoring?
Here’s our trusted 3-step process.

Want to know more?