How Often is Your Office Occupied?

When it is time to evaluate square footage needs, companies have become increasingly interested in how they are utilizing their office space.  With heightened economic pressures to prove all expenses, we have found that corporate America is asking for more metrics and measurements to assess how effectively their current space supports employee’s daily functions.

Ericsson asked us to perform a space usage measurement prior to completing programming efforts for one of their Southern California regional offices. We monitored who was in their workstation during four different time periods over the course of a week to get a sampling of how these spaces were used.  Interestingly, the study confirmed that many employees occupied their office spaces less than 50% of the time, and several more were present even less than 30% of the time.

This type of benchmarking exercise can help you make an early assessment of how space is occupied. It will also give you cues to candidates for potential alternative work environments, an innovative solution to more efficient and effective use of space.  This type of study can be another great way to measure what you have before planning what you need in a new space.  If you can save even 10% space your CFO will thank you!

Ted Heisler, CID, IIDA | Principal, Interior Architecture & Design