Hybrid work didn’t just change where people work; it changed how organizations must prove how space is actually used. In 2025, global workplace occupancy averaged around 43%, reflecting the lasting impact of hybrid roles on office use and underscoring why accurate measurement matters.
For IT leaders, occupancy is no longer a facilities-only concern or a once-a-year planning exercise. It’s a data integrity problem. Executives expect confident answers on utilization, portfolio efficiency, and cost. Workplace teams expect reliable inputs for planning. And IT is often responsible for stitching together the systems that generate those answers.
The challenge? No single data source tells the full story. Badge swipes, Wi-Fi connections, and sensors all offer signals, but none deliver occupancy truth on their own. That’s where presence architecture comes in.
Key takeaways for IT leaders
- Occupancy truth is an architectural challenge, not a tooling gap
- Badge, Wi-Fi, and sensor data are complementary but incomplete on their own
- Space management and occupancy analytics turn raw signals into decision-ready insight
- A single source of truth reduces friction between IT, facilities, and leadership
- Scalable presence architecture supports long-term workplace and portfolio decisions
Why occupancy truth is now an IT responsibility
As organizations adopt hybrid and flexible work models, leadership decisions increasingly depend on accurate occupancy data. Real estate and workplace research has found that employers expect ~3.2 days in office per week in 2025, while employees actually show up around 2.9 days — reinforcing the hybrid norm rather than a full return to office.
Questions that once relied on assumptions now demand evidence:
- Which offices are truly being used?
- How often are desks and meeting rooms occupied?
- Where can space be consolidated without disrupting work?
When presence data is fragmented across systems, answers vary by team. Facilities may see one version of utilization, finance another, and leadership none they fully trust. The result is hesitation, rework, and stalled decisions.
This is why many IT teams are being asked to establish a single source of truth for workplace data — one that leadership can rely on and workplace teams can defend.
The limits of single-source presence data
Each presence signal has value, but each also introduces blind spots when used alone.
Badge data confirms identity and access but says little about duration or actual space use. Wi-Fi data reveals patterns and dwell time but is easily inflated by multiple devices, guests, and background connections. Sensors confirm physical occupancy but often lack identity or context.
But the stakes are real: even as workplace attendance climbs, office usage remains well below pre-pandemic levels — e.g., some indices show 2025 office visits ~33% below 2019 baselines.
Relying on any single source leads to incomplete or misleading conclusions, eroding trust when different teams report conflicting utilization numbers.
This is where occupancy analytics becomes essential — not as another data feed, but as a way to reconcile, normalize, and validate multiple inputs before they’re used for decision-making.
What presence architecture really means
Presence architecture is not a product or a deployment checklist. It’s a scalable data foundation designed to combine multiple signals into a coherent, governed model of workplace use.
At its core, presence architecture prioritizes:
- Centralized governance with distributed data inputs
- Configurable logic that adapts across buildings, regions, and policies
- Long-term scalability without heavy customization or rework
For IT, this distinction matters. Custom-built integrations often solve today’s problem while creating tomorrow’s technical debt. A configurable platform allows presence logic to evolve as work patterns, portfolios, and leadership questions change.
Layer 1: Badge data (identity and intent)
Badge systems remain one of the most reliable indicators of who entered a building and when. They establish identity and intent, making them critical for access control and compliance.
However, badge data alone can’t answer key occupancy questions. It doesn’t reveal where people go after entry, how long they stay, or whether they use assigned or shared spaces.
Badge data becomes significantly more valuable when aligned with space management systems that understand floors, zones, and workpoints. In this context, identity data supports — not replaces — utilization insights.
Layer 2: Wi-Fi data (connectivity and patterns)
Wi-Fi data offers a passive way to observe presence over time. It helps identify trends in dwell time, peak usage, and overall activity across locations.
But Wi-Fi data also introduces complexity. Employees often connect multiple devices. Guest networks and IoT systems generate noise. Signal strength varies by building design and infrastructure.
Without proper normalization, Wi-Fi data can distort utilization metrics. This is why mature occupancy analytics environments apply rules and thresholds before Wi-Fi signals influence reporting or forecasting. The goal isn’t raw volume — it’s usable insight.
Layer 3: Sensors (physical reality)
Sensors ground digital signals in physical reality. They confirm whether desks, rooms, and shared spaces are actually in use, providing critical validation for badge and Wi-Fi data.
In 2025, sensors became more than motion detectors — they now provide granular, anonymized data on not just presence, but when and how office spaces are used.
When deployed thoughtfully, sensors strengthen confidence in occupancy insights. When unmanaged, they can overwhelm IT teams with maintenance and data fatigue.
Managing sensor insights within the same space management and analytics environment used for planning and reporting helps ensure sensor data supports decisions rather than complicating them.
How multi-source data creates occupancy truth
Occupancy truth emerges through triangulation:
- Badge data answers who
- Wi-Fi data explains patterns
- Sensors confirm actual use
When these signals align, confidence increases. When they conflict, analytics logic helps resolve discrepancies rather than passing uncertainty downstream.
Unified occupancy analytics dashboards give IT teams a defensible way to present consistent metrics across locations, departments, and leadership audiences. The result is less debate over data and more momentum toward action.
Scaling presence architecture across the enterprise
Presence architecture must scale with the organization. That means supporting:
- Multi-location portfolios with different building types
- Mergers and acquisitions that introduce new systems
- Policy changes without reimplementation
From an IT perspective, this also means prioritizing platforms with secure APIs, role-based access controls, and pre-built integrations for badge systems, networks, and sensors. Configuration should scale. Custom code should not.
What IT enables when occupancy data is trusted
When occupancy data is consistent and trusted, IT unlocks far more than utilization reports.
Facility teams can optimize space with confidence. Finance can forecast costs with fewer assumptions. Workplace leaders can align space strategy with employee experience goals.
Most importantly, trusted occupancy data becomes the foundation for broader workplace analytics, supporting long-term portfolio planning and smarter investment decisions.
Frequently asked questions
By Amanda Meade
Amanda Meade is a content creator at Eptura, specializing in workplace experience, meeting productivity, and emerging trends in workspace planning and visitor management. With a background in content marketing and SEO, she crafts clear, actionable content that helps teams work smarter through in-office collaboration. Throughout her career, Amanda has worked across industries, including home services, healthcare, real estate, and SaaS, developing a unique ability to distill complex topics into practical insights.
