lady typing on keyboard in the office
Data is the new oil, so they say.  A few years ago, we were introduced to the concept of ‘big data’. The hype around that has since been replaced by the hype around ‘AI’ and ‘machine learning’. Whatever you call it, the premise remains, broadly speaking, the same.

 

Data allows us to make better decisions.

Every aspect of business – from the workplaceto the technology we use, to the way we manage staff, to the sales & marketing process – is being optimized through the use of data. By analyzing historical data we’re able to see what worked and what didn’t. And do more of the former and less of the latter.
Organizations’ physical office space is often its second largest investment after staff. If you want to maximize the value of that investment, you need hard data on how it’s being used.
After all, as they say, if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.

 

Are occupancy sensors hard to install and use?

Previously, gathering workplace data was a mostly qualitative process, involving surveying staff and gathering first-hand insights. When occupancy sensors were used, they were a temporary, specialist solution bought in by outside consultants and removed at the end of the project.
Recent innovation has made occupancy sensors easier to install and DIY sensor packages make it easier to install and use sensors without training. The units are small, unobtrusive and can be fixed to most surfaces using peel-and-apply sticky pads. The data is then pulled into live dashboards for easy interpretation.
What used to be a costly, specialist service is now accessible to almost all organizations.

 

Can’t I use meeting room calendars to check occupancy?

I’ve heard this a few times. It’s a fair question, but I always give the same answer:
Calendars don’t measure occupancy. They measure intent.
Often scheduled meetings don’t end up happening in the room they’ve been booked to take place in.
Which means your calendars could tell you that your meeting rooms are at capacity and that you need to invest in more space. When in reality, you just need to stop your staff booking rooms they’re not going to use.
If you’re making financial decisions, you want to base those decisions on actual, real-world data.
With that in mind, here are four key workplace metrics to track and improve using occupancy sensors.

 

Meeting room occupancy

This is the most common one – and for good reason.
Remote and flexible working may be on the rise, but face-to-face meetings are still the best way to solve problems and tackle creative challenges. It’s crucial for businesses to create spaces which facilitate these tasks.
Analyzing meeting room occupancy can tell you, objectively, whether the number of meeting rooms you have is enough for your workforce. But it can also tell you which of those meeting rooms are the busiest. And, by association, which meeting rooms need some attention.
If your occupancy rate is typically +70%, but one of your meeting rooms is languishing around 35%, clearly there are issues with that space that need to be resolved.

 

Desk occupancy                                                            

The combination of hot-desking and remote working have made the concept of desk occupancy more fluid. Some days the office will be busy, some days less so.
It’s important to track desk occupancy and understand the rhythm of remote and in-office working. After all, no one wants to come into the office only to find out that all the desks are full, and they’d have been better off at home.

 

No shows

As I’ve already said, just because a meeting has been booked, doesn’t mean it’s definitely going to happen. Things change. That’s just a fact-of-life.
In an ideal world, the room booking will be cancelled and the room freed up for someone else. But it doesn’t always happen that way. Tracking no-shows allows you to track wasted meeting room time. It can also highlight repeat offenders who may need a friendly reminder to cancel their bookings when they cancel their meetings and improve their office etiquette.
It’s also important to track the length of time that has been booked compared with the actual length of the meeting. If people are in the habit of booking 30-minute or one-hour meetings and only sticking around for 10 minutes, that’s an issue.

 

Peak utilization by week or month

Finally, keeping track of your peak times can help you manage staff expectations and encourage teams to schedule your meetings for less busy periods where possible.
The ideal is to spread your meetings out to create a solid baseline of occupancy across the week, instead of peak periods which then drop away to nothing.
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Want to learn more about occupancy sensors?
What will the workplace of the future look like?  Frost & Sullivan predicts that by 2025, the world will have at least 3.7 billion smartphones, 700 million tablets, and 60 million unified communication platforms deployed.
This Ricoh white paper focuses on how the future of office communication is set to become a gateway to digitally empowering smart societies as seen through the lens of technological and socio-demographic megatrends in the years ahead.
Download Now: Frost & Sullivan’s  ‘Redefining Office Communication: Technology and Socio-Demographic Convergence Trends Driving Workplace Evolution