How do you measure office occupancy rates and real estate requirements?

Measuring office attendance: tech at your service

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Let's be honest, the question "How do I measure the number of square meters needed per employee?" can be a daunting one. But don't panic, there are plenty of tools to help you! Explore emerging technologies to gather data on how many people use your offices. You'll find out which days are the most popular for face-to-face work, and the actual occupancy rate of your workstations.

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Attendance management tools

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New ways of organizing the office, such as zone booking, require solutions to manage the presence of employees on site. Platforms such as provide valuable information on workspaceoccupancy. This data can be used for both workspace planning and attendance scheduling.

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Intelligent sensors

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Some companies are taking new technologies a step further by installing presence sensors. These provide a more detailed, real-time analysis of the occupancy of different workspaces. 

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There are various types of presence sensors:

• camera-based people counting;
• infrared sensors ;
• ultrasonic sensors.

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The good old score

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Let's face it, it's not the most modern method. Employees sign in and out to indicate their arrival and departure. They use an electronic access card, whose data can be collected to measure office attendance.

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Identify office traffic trends

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Analyze previously collected data to identify trends in the use of your workspaces:

• Are there peak or off-peak times?
• How are the different spaces occupied?
• Should the use of certain spaces be reviewed?

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Do you use a zone or desk booking system? Find out which spaces or workstations are most in demand, and investigate the reasons for this popularity. You'll gain valuable insights.

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The attendance trends identified should be correlated with and may influence company policies. For example, to ensure an even distribution of office attendance, you may choose to impose attendance days by shift.

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Occupancy figures

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The occupancy rate varies according to the day of the week. Tuesday leads the way, with an occupancy rate of 63%, closely followed by Wednesday and Thursday(62%). Offices are much less busy on Mondays and Fridays(1).

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To remember

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A word of advice: when analyzing these data, be sure to take into account teleworking days, the natural rate of vacations and sick leave. Otherwise, your results may be misinterpreted.

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Integrate external factors having an impact

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Many factors can influence your real estate requirements:

• your hybrid work policies ;
• your remote working initiatives, including the provision of satellite offices or off-site workspaces for your employees;
• your forecasts for theevolution of your payroll (recruitment, turnover, etc.).

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Go through them with a fine-tooth comb to get an overall view of your workplace strategy.

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Define strategies for optimizing workspaces

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You've collected and analyzed a wealth of information and data on your office traffic. Now you can define strategies for optimizing your workspaces. 

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These should focus on three key points:

1. office flexibility and shared workstation management ;
2. adapting the real estate footprint to the company's changing needs;
3. workspace profitability.

Here are a few examples of strategies for optimizing your real estate space:

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• Set up corpoworking to make the most of unoccupied workspaces;
• Reduce your office space to maximize occupancy;
• Open a satellite office in a geographical area where your employees are very busy.

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Assess your real estate needs with a data-driven approach. Gather all the data you need using new technologies. Analyze this data to determine your employees' behaviors. Integrate external factors into your decision-making. Optimize your workspaces. And that's all there is to it!

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<font size="-1">Nos sources</font>

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<font size="-1">(1) https://www.savills.fr/blog/article/345205/france-commercial-fr/cp-occupier-occupancy-2023.aspx </font>