Office space and meeting room optimization are essential due to several factors. Essentially renting an office space comes at a considerable cost, and optimization helps businesses reduce the required space while improving the overall work well-being and efficiency. Optimizing your office space will save a significant amount of money and space.
The first step to optimizing your office space is determining how your workforce utilizes the available space. The formula for calculating the basic space utilization rate is as follows:
Number of employees ÷ Total workplace capacity
The occupation metric paints a whole picture of your workplace utilization strategies. You can identify the peak usage times and variables affecting how your staff uses the available office space. You can then take the necessary actions to improve the efficiency and productivity of the acquired space.
Getting the most out of each square footage is critical to improving office space efficiency. It means reducing unused spaces, enhancing the functionality of your entire real estate, and implementing policies to boost employee productivity while working. Using your office space is not enough metric to measure its efficiency. You may have large unused spaces in the office layout that will affect your bottom line and revenue.
Read on to learn the importance of space utilization analysis, the metrics you should calculate, and where to find the right solution to optimize office space and meeting room utilization.
Importance of Office Space Utilization Analysis in Modern Businesses
A positive cash flow is the most important consideration for running a successful business. In recent years, modern companies have been proactive in optimizing their real estate expenditure and operating office spaces with the smallest budget possible. The ideal office space should offer maximum flexibility and suit the current business demands without affecting revenues.
Office spaces have also adapted and can accommodate the increasing number of remote workers and flexible schedules. The traditional 9-5 work routine where employees spend every hour in the workplace is changing. Over 70% of modern employees work remotely and only show up to the office once or twice weekly.
Companies can limit wasted space when employees are away to lower utility bills and save money for clients with flexible office working spaces. Others let their employees choose the environment and work schedule they want for improved productivity, performance, and lower staff turnover. The journey to achieve this starts with a comprehensive analysis of accurate data you get from your existing office space.
How to Leverage Space Utilization Metrics to Improve Efficiency
The occupancy rate is essential since it shows the number of people occupying a space at a given time. You can use it to improve workplace scheduling by identifying peak times and spreading them evenly to maximize usage.
The formula below shows the occupancy rate for desks in your office space:
Number of occupied desks ÷ Total number of available desks
Or calculate the office space utilization rate using the formula:
Number of staff ÷ Total capacity x 100
Business leaders use the metric to know the number of desks that can fit into the office space and get the maximum value. Each company will utilize a unique metric, so it’s important to determine the type of utilization data available and the occupancy trends in your industry and then apply it to your setup.
Calculating Office Space Utilization
Determining your office space utilization requires you to understand how office space usage and office space occupancy differ. Office space usage shows the time your employee spends in the office. You can get it by dividing the square feet occupied and total square feet for the various categories you have, such as open spaces or cubicles.
On the other hand, office space occupancy is the number of people who occupy a specific type of office space at a given time. The metric offers the baseline for developing future office layouts or optimizing your current workspace according to employee requirements and job functions.
Otherwise, if you want to optimize your office space depending on workstation locations, then use the desk utilization metrics. You can also calculate the office space utilization rate by comparing how much space you need for each employee against the industry standard average value.
Various examples of how to calculate office space and optimize usage exists. The main goal is to maximize the capacity or occupancy ratio with the utilization rate for each metric. Additionally, you can ensure flexibility in open spaces to increase utilization and worker productivity. This is possible by developing flexible work arrangements like teaming up, personal offices, and networking. The best way to achieve this is through dedicated office space software and productivity metrics to optimize efficiency.
Implement Space Utilization Sensors to Gain Insights
One part of the optimization initiative is identifying the right metrics to calculate. The next and most crucial step is to get the data that fuels the metrics. The solution relies on using reliable space management systems & occupancy sensors. They are effective in optimizing office spaces by:
- Tracking and measuring employee movements in the building automatically. The sensors work 24/7 to gather data instead of a snapshot at a particular time.
- You can calculate office space use metrics based on accurate and reliable data, such as percentage overcapacity, occupancy, room usage, and more. Using sensor analytics, you can use the insights to make the right decisions and optimize your workplace.
Equally important, depending on the placement of the occupancy sensors, they can monitor desks, meeting rooms, and office floor areas. Managers will use this data to determine underutilized spaces and how to improve them to maximize usage. You can optimize the spaces further by integrating the data from occupancy sensors with other smart office systems.
The key integrations include:
- Meeting room booking systems to alert when rooms are vacant and available for use instead of waiting for someone to update the systems manually.
- Building management systems to automate lighting and HVAC systems to improve the energy efficiency of the office space.
- Desk booking systems to enable easy implementation of hot desking for better office space utilization with hybrid working.
Modern companies must learn to optimize their office spaces to reduce the cost of underused spaces. FM’s space management systems help organizations access, manage, and measure every aspect of their real estate portfolio. Schedule a demo today to see it in action and learn more about how we can help with space management.
