Data making employees smile again

One of the facility manager’s main tasks is to optimize the office in terms of costs and employee satisfaction. In modern offices, the job can however be challenging since the employees are more mobile and jump between different desks and zones in the office. In this article, we discuss what office space utilization and space occupancy is, why it is important to keep track of the data, and how Flowmanager can assist you in the process.

What is Office Space Utilization and Occupancy?

Let’s first go through the two different metrics. Space utilization indicates how often a space is used, who uses it and what the purpose is for it being used. Knowing this metric is essential to improve headcount accuracy and discover important details about the prioritization of office spaces and their actual use-cases.

Office space occupancy on the other side, refers to the number of people in an office at a given period of time. By analyzing the total building capacity, number of employees using the space and square footage of the workspace, facility managers can determine how much space the facility can support.

Why should facility managers keep track of the data?

There are many reasons, but here we have listed three of the main motives.

More accurate decisions

Without analyzing the space utilization and occupancy, the facility management team cannot make educated decisions about spatial requirements, forecast for the future, budget, support operational goals and find opportunities to cut costs. To achieve this, they need reliable data, which you will get from analyzing the two metrics!

The employees become more efficient

The facility management can easier develop the office in favor of employees’ behavior and wants, by analyzing statistics of which desks or zones that are popular versus unpopular. Poorly used areas can be replaced with more appreciated environments. This leaves the dead zones to a minimum, making the staff less exposed to friction, and more productive and creative. One can therefore say that facility managers can generate more money to the company - by optimizing the office!

Attract and retain talent

According to recent studies, the office environment is a major contributor that determines if top talents are attracted by your company and if the company can retain employees long-term. An office filled with friction, can therefore push your staff to look for another job. A facility manager can, by analyzing the occupancy and movement in the office, prevent negative friction causing stress or frustration among colleagues. This way, companies can also gain happier and healthier employees.

How can Flowmanager help?

Flowmanager is a statistical dashboard, that collects data about the flow of people and the usage of rooms and desks. This data is displayed in graphs and heatmap, making it possible to optimize interaction by analyzing movements in real-time or chosen intervals.

Red indicates heavily trafficked areas, while green indicates calm areas. These are features in the heatmap provided by Senion. 

With Flowmanager, facility managers can get access to a broad spectra of data. Below are a few examples of areas and questions the data can answer.

Utilization of bookable and non-bookable rooms

• How often are rooms, such as bathrooms or conference rooms, used?
• Are the employees using the rooms they have booked?

Utilization of desks

• Are there enough desks with dual screens in the office?
• How often are desks used in different zones? For example, how much is the desk in the quiet area next to the lower corridor corner used?
• Can any desks be replaced by an other design, such as a relaxing lounge area with flowers?

Office popularity

• How popular are the different zones in the office?
• Which zones are almost never used?

User’s real positions and desk reservations

• Does the number of reserved desks map the number of users in a certain zone?
• How does the desk data map the positioning data?
• Are any desks reserved, but not used?

With Flowmanager you can analyze the office by choosing time intervals

With Flowmanager, you can develop the office of your dreams, replacing the friction with flow. Are you interested in finding out more?