Occupancy Metrics: Key Performance Indicators for Workplace Management

By understanding and optimizing these occupancy metrics, organizations can effectively manage workspace utilization, improve operational efficiency, and enhance the overall workplace experience.

Occupancy

The total number of occupants in a given space at any time. This fundamental metric is essential for various Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) provided by Basking.io.

• Hourly Occupancy: The count of people present in the office each hour. This metric provides detailed insights into the office usage patterns throughout the day.
• Daily Peak Occupancy: The maximum number of occupants observed in the office simultaneously within a single day. For example, if two people are present from 8 AM to 3 PM, and three people from 3 PM to 5 PM, the daily peak occupancy would be three.
• Average Peak Occupancy: This is the average of daily peak occupancy values over a specified period. It helps determine the typical highest occupancy level on a daily basis.
• Daily Unique Occupancy: The total number of distinct individuals observed at the site each day. Using the previous example, if two people visited from 8 AM to 3 PM and three different people from 3 PM to 5 PM, the daily unique occupants would be five.
• Peak Unique Occupancy: The highest number of unique daily occupancy recorded over a specific period. This highlights the busiest day in terms of unique visitors.
• Weekly Average Peak Occupancy Rate: The weekly average of daily peak occupancy as a percentage of the site’s total capacity. This metric helps in understanding the utilization of office space relative to its capacity.:

• Occupancy by Time of Day: Occupancy by Time of Day tracks the number of people occupying a space at different times throughout the day. This metric helps sites understand peak usage times, allowing for better resource allocation, scheduling, and space management. By analyzing occupancy patterns, businesses can optimize cleaning schedules, HVAC use, and other operational aspects to improve efficiency and employee comfort.

• Mid-week Occupancy: Mid-week occupancy measures the number of employees present in the office typically during the middle days of the week, such as Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. This metric helps understand occupancy patterns and can assist in planning with resource allocation and space utilization during these peak workdays.

Space Utilization

• Density: Density is the measure of the number of people per unit of space, typically expressed as the number of employees per square foot. This metric helps offices understand how crowded a space is and can influence decisions about space allocation, office layout, and comfort levels. High density can indicate efficient use of space, but excessively high density might negatively impact productivity and employee well-being.

• Office Utilization-Rate: Office Utilisation Rate is a key metric that indicates how effectively the office space is being used. It is calculated by comparing the number of occupied workspaces to the total available spaces over a specific period. High utilization rates suggest efficient use of space, while low rates may indicate underutilization and potential areas for optimization

• Frequency of Visits: Represents how often individuals visit the site within a week. For instance, if a person visits once in two separate weeks, the 'once a week' category would include both visits.

• Duration of Visits: The total time individuals spend at the site over a defined period. For example, if a person visits the site for one hour on two different days, the '1 hour' bin includes both visits.

• Weekdays for Visits: Indicates the most popular weekdays for site visits over a defined period. For example, if a person visits on a Tuesday in two different weeks, the 'Tuesday' bin includes both visits.

• Occupancy Variance Index: The Occupancy Variance Index (OVI) provides insights on how different occupancy behaves during the week, by looking into the weekly distribution of site occupancy. The OVI is a rate that goes from 0% to 100%. 

Space Planning

• Total Seats: Total Seats represents the total number of seating accommodations available within an office space, including desks, meeting rooms, and common areas. This metric helps in understanding the capacity and planning for future occupancy needs.

• Workstations: Workstations are individual or shared spaces equipped for employees to perform their work. This does not include spaces designated for other activities, such as collaborative zones or common areas. Effective management of workstations ensures optimal use of space and resources.

• Capacity: Capacity refers to the maximum number of people that a given space can accommodate. This metric is essential for understanding the potential of an office space and for planning its layout and use. 

• Total Seats / Workstation Capacity: The total number of available seats or workstations at the site. This metric is crucial for capacity planning and space management.

• Rentable Area: Rentable Area encompasses the total space available for lease within a property, including all floors, adjacent buildings, or annexes. It is the gross area that tenants can rent and use, often including shared spaces like lobbies, restrooms, and hallways.

• Usable Area: Usable Area refers to the portion of office space that is directly utilized by tenants for their operations. This includes workspaces, meeting rooms, private offices, and other areas where employees perform their tasks, excluding common areas shared with other tenants.

• Underutilised Area: An Underutilised Area refers to sections of office space that are not being used to their full potential. These areas may be consistently vacant or infrequently occupied, indicating opportunities for reconfiguration, repurposing, or consolidation to improve overall space efficiency and reduce costs.

• Vacant Space: Vacant space signifies areas not currently in use by a tenant, irrespective of lease obligations. This category encompasses both available and unavailable spaces. For instance, subleased areas currently paid for but unoccupied, as well as leased but unoccupied areas, fall under vacant space.

Optimization Opportunities

• Space Opportunity: The Space Opportunity insight shows the amount of workstations that are not required in an office space, based on how the space is being used. The space utilized by those workstations can be repurposed for different things, like adding break-out areas, collaboration spaces, or meeting rooms. In those cases, there is an opportunity to claim space in order to create new spaces, which you would have otherwise needed to rent in addition to your existing footprint. Alternatively, the space can also be decommissioned, which actually reduces your footprint. 

• People Opportunity: People opportunity focuses on optimizing the office environment to enhance employee productivity and satisfaction. This includes creating spaces that cater to different work styles, promoting well-being, and ensuring that the office layout supports effective collaboration and individual work.

• Environmental Opportunity: Environmental opportunity in the context of office occupancy refers to the potential for reducing the environmental impact through optimized space utilization. This includes saving energy by adjusting heating, cooling, and lighting based on real-time occupancy, thus contributing to sustainability goals.

• Occupancy Expansion Potential: Occupancy Expansion Potential measures the ability of an office space to accommodate additional employees or activities. This metric assesses available space, current utilization rates, and flexibility in workspace configurations to determine how much more occupancy the office can support without significant changes to its infrastructure.

Return to Office

The term "Return to Office" (RTO) refers to the process and strategies employed by companies to transition employees from remote work back to a physical office environment. This shift has gained significant attention post-pandemic, as organizations navigate the complexities of workplace preferences and operational needs.

• RTO Goal: The "Return to Office Goal" is a target set by organizations for the employees to work from the office after a period of remote work, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. This goal is critical for planning the transition back to office work, ensuring that the office space can accommodate the returning workforce while maintaining flexibility for hybrid work models.
• Adherence Rate: A composite measure that evaluates how well different sites comply with Return to Office (RTO) policies. It factors in both the duration and frequency of visits.
• Hybrid work: Hybrid Work is a flexible work model that combines remote work and in-office work. Employees have the option to switch between working from home or other remote locations and coming into the office, based on the office polity or their tasks and personal preferences. This model aims to provide a balance that maximizes productivity, job satisfaction, and work-life balance while optimizing office space usage.
• Remote work: Remote Work refers to the practice of employees working outside the traditional office environment, typically from home or other remote locations. This model leverages technology to maintain communication and productivity, allowing employees flexibility and reducing the need for physical office space​.

Cost Savings (CAPEX & OPEX)

• CAPEX Savings: CAPEX (capital expenditure) savings in office occupancy metrics refer to the reduction in long-term investments in physical office space and infrastructure. By optimizing space usage, companies can decrease the need for large-scale investments in new office buildings, renovations, or extensive IT setups, ultimately saving on capital costs​.
• OPEX Savings: Opex Savings (Operational Expenditure Savings) refers to the reduction in ongoing operational costs achieved through optimized office space utilization. By effectively managing resources such as utilities, maintenance, and services, organizations can significantly decrease their recurring expenses, leading to substantial cost savings and improved financial performance.
• Partial Closure: Partial closure refers to the temporary or permanent shutdown of certain areas within an office space. This can be due to various reasons such as maintenance, cost-saving measures, or adjustments in space utilization strategies. Tracking partial closures helps in understanding the impact on overall space utilization and can inform decisions on space reallocation and optimization.
• Space Optimization Potential: Space optimization potential refers to the capacity of an office to improve its space utilization. This involves analyzing current usage patterns, identifying underutilized areas, and making adjustments to maximize efficiency and accommodate various work styles, such as flexible workstations and activity-based working environments​,
• Portfolio Rightsizing: Portfolio Rightsizing involves strategically managing and adjusting the real estate assets across the portfolio of sites to maximize value and efficiency. This process includes evaluating and reconfiguring the use of office spaces, reducing underutilized areas, and potentially divesting or repurposing real estate to better align with the organization’s needs, particularly in a hybrid work environment.
• Consolidation: Consolidation involves optimizing workspace use by merging or streamlining office locations, departments, or functions. This strategy aims to boost efficiency, cut real estate costs, and foster a cohesive work environment. Consolidation metrics track progress, measuring factors like space reduction, cost savings, and employee satisfaction.

Workplace Experience

• Headcount: Headcount is the total number of employees working for an organization, regardless of their presence in the office. This value is usually static or changes very slowly over time following staff fluctuations.

• Effective Headcount: In contrast to the traditional Headcount, the Effective Headcount is not static. It depends on how people use the space and represents the number of employees that regularly visit the office.  To be counted as Effective Headcount, an employee needs to visit the office at least four different weeks over a period of three consecutive months. It does not matter how frequent and how short the visits were during those four weeks. 

• In-Office Visits: In-Office Visits refer to the number of times employees physically enter the office over a specific period. This metric helps organizations understand how often their office spaces are being used and can indicate the popularity of different office areas or resources. Tracking in-office visits can assist in planning and optimizing workspace utilization to meet employee needs effectively.

• Workspots: Workspots represent the primary work location of individuals, categorized based on how often and how long they visit.

• Mobility Personas: Mobility Personas are used to classify people based on their consistent mobility patterns when visiting an office, namely the Duration of Visits and the Frequency of Visits.

  • Occasional Visitors: The share of people visiting the office occasionally and for short visits, known as Occasional Visitors, typically spend short durations of four hours or less and visit 2-3 days per week.

  • Regular Visitors: Regular Visitors differ from occasional visitors in that they visit the office more frequently. Both types of visitors spend short durations of four hours or less, but regular visitors come to the office 4-5 days per week.

  • Hybrid Employees: Hybrid Employees are those who visit the office 2-3 days per week and stay for more than four hours. This category represents typical hybrid employees who go to the office on certain days per week and stay for longer durations.

  • On-site Employees: On-site Employees are those who visit the office frequently, almost all week, and stay for more than four hours. This category represents typical on-site employees who are present in the office 4-5 days per week for long durations.

  • Infrequent Employees: Infrequent Employees visit the office rarely, about once per week, and the duration of these visits can vary. This category includes both short and long visits.

  • Flexible Employees: This category represents employees whose office attendance does not follow a consistent pattern, exhibiting various behaviors over time. For instance, an employee who sometimes behaves like an on-site employee, a hybrid employee, and a regular visitor will be categorized as flexible, as no single mobility profile is predominant.

• Office attendance: Office Attendance measures the number of employees physically present in the office during a given time period. This metric is crucial for understanding space utilization, planning office resources, and ensuring that health and safety standards are met in the workplace.

Sustainability

• CO2 Emissions Savings

Data Quality and Calibration

• Calibration: Calibration involves refining Basking’s workplace occupancy analytics algorithms by adjusting them against the manual counts or badge data from specific office sites. This ensures accurate data alignment and enhances the reliability of occupancy metrics for informed decision-making.
• Badge data: Badge Data refers to the information collected from employee badges used to access office buildings. This data provides insights into patterns of office attendance, entry and exit times, and overall space utilization. Note that Badge data can be inaccurate.

Automated Reports

• Return To Office: This report provides relevant KPIs, including RTO policies to the real estate and workplace management teams, facilitating people’s return to the office.
• Workplace Management: This report empowers local facility teams with daily occupancy trends, office usage patterns, and highlights insights and future site opportunities.
• Portfolio Management: This report enables real estate managers with an overview of office utilization trends across their portfolio, while identifying sites with optimization potential.
• Business Unit Space Analysis:  This report aids workplace managers in resource allocation optimization and fostering a productive environment by analyzing space utilization across various business units.