How much is too much? How to achieve your occupancy goals

Today’s modern companies are tasked with a common real estate challenge: planning for growth.
 

Overestimate and you’re left with a surplus of space that doesn’t get used. Underestimate and your space is overcrowded, inefficient and frustrating for employees. How do you accurately gauge what you need and what you don’t?

Many companies struggle with occupancy planning for today’s evolving workforce and the appetite for a competitive space poised for growth. 

When you begin to understand how your space works, you gain valuable insight that can inform smarter layouts, enhance employee productivity and make more efficient use of your resources.

Connect space usage with human behavior

Monitoring your space utilization is easier than you may think.

The workforce continues to steer away from traditional desks or assigned offices, and instead choose a work area based on the activity or project. Paying attention to how and where your employees choose to work can shed more light on areas that may pose a future conflict or inefficiency, allowing you to address it early on.

Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, companies must design for a variety of activities, scenarios and work styles based on employee behavior. This can include breaking down silos and (some) walls to encourage collaboration, while also creating dedicated offices or conference rooms for quiet focus and privacy.

So, how much space do you need?

It all depends on the business question you need to answer.

• Is your business growing or shrinking, or are you shifting to a new business model?
• Do you support mobile work inside or outside the office?
• Do you need to encourage more collaboration and engagement to enhance your organizational culture?
• Is space being underutilized? Or, is your space often overcrowded?

By identifying a goal or objective, you can more efficiently allocate your attention and resources toward identifying a solution that will have the best lasting impact on your space.

Don’t forget about the dollars

An inefficient workplace is an expensive one.

Ideally, your space utilization strategy should spur higher ROI. But, a poor one can often lead to higher per-person costs, pricey operations and drops in productivity, and additional expenses and growing pains.

Before investing in multiple tools to analyze your workplace data, refer back to the business question you’re trying to answer in the first place to determine the best approach.