Facility and workplace leaders at large enterprises must adapt to changing workplace trends while also maximizing real estate return on investment. Finding the best balance between delivering exceptional employee experience and optimizing space utilization starts with allocation decisions backed by reliable, real-time workplace analytics.
What is workplace allocation?
Workplace allocation is the process of strategically assigning and managing physical spaces within an organization to ensure optimal use of resources, enhance employee productivity, and align with overall business objectives.
To successfully manage allocation, a workplace or facility manager at a large enterprise with multiple locations needs to track and balance:
- Space utilization: Ensure every square foot of office space is used efficiently, whether it’s individual workstations, meeting rooms, or collaborative areas
- Cost management: Minimize real estate costs by identifying underutilized areas and adjusting the layout or rightsizing
- Employee needs: Match the right type of workspace to the specific needs of different teams and roles, including quiet zones for focused work, collaborative spaces for team projects, and flexible areas for ad-hoc meetings
They must also ensure scalability and flexibility by setting up spaces that can adapt to changing business needs and accommodate rightsizing projects across multiple locations.
What are the main challenges for workplace allocation?
Workplace leaders often find themselves having to satisfy competing demands.
The midweek mountain, where hybrid employees tend to come into the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, can lead to overcrowding and put a strain on available resources, such as meeting rooms, workstations, and common areas. Onsite employees, who are present every day, may find their usual workspaces and routines disrupted, leading to decreased productivity and increased frustration. The sudden influx of hybrid workers can also overwhelm the office’s technology infrastructure, such as Wi-Fi and video conferencing systems, which may not be designed to handle peak usage during these days. The result is connectivity issues and delays, affecting collaboration and efficiency. But if a company overinvests, it sees drops in utilization metrics.
Balancing cost and functionality
Another challenge is finding the right balance between reducing costs and maximizing productivity in the office. An organization can reduce real estate costs by minimizing underutilized space and optimizing the layout, but this must be done without compromising the efficiency and comfort of the workspace. Taking cost-cutting measures too far can lead to cramped, poorly designed spaces that reduce productivity and employee satisfaction. It’s important to invest in smart, flexible solutions that maximize space efficiency while still providing the necessary amenities and resources for employees to perform their best.
At an intelligent worktech product announcement event, Kev Jones, vice president of product management Eptura, spoke about these challenges directly. Companies can create a seamless employee experience, adapt to changing workplace needs, and maximize their real estate investments by investing in technologies that deliver real-time analytics, he explained.
How can enterprises use workplace analytics to maximize allocation?
Workplace analytics is a data-driven approach that helps organizations optimize their physical and digital work environments to enhance productivity, collaboration, and employee well-being. By collecting and analyzing a wide range of data, such as employee movements, meeting room usage, and communication patterns, companies can gain valuable insights into how employees use workspace and how that impacts work processes.
There are many sources of workplace data organizations can use to improve allocation, including desk booking, visitor management, and technology use like Wi-Fi. When comparing multiple locations to plan expansion and consolidation, companies can calculate cost per employee to see which spaces currently deliver the best return on investment. When looking at a single location, there are many ways they can leverage room booking data to improve allocation.
Analyze meeting room usage
By tracking the frequency and duration of meeting room bookings, organizations can identify which rooms employees use most frequently. They can also see the types of meetings, like small team meetings or large presentations. A company might find that small huddle rooms are in high demand, while large conference rooms are underutilized. Insights inform actions like adjusting the number and size of meeting rooms to better match the needs of the team. If small meetings are common, the company might need to increase the number of small huddle rooms to ensure teams have the space they need.
Track overbooked rooms
By monitoring which meeting rooms are consistently overbooked, organizations can identify the times and days when overbooking is most common. For example, a company might discover certain rooms are frequently double-booked during peak hours, such as mid-morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They might make more meeting rooms available during these peak times or adjust booking policies. For example, the company could limit the number of back-to-back bookings or require a buffer time between meetings to ensure smooth transitions.
Monitor room utilization
By tracking usage, organizations can determine if employees are using rooms to capacity. For example, a company might find that large conference rooms are often only partially occupied, while small huddle rooms are consistently full. The workplace leaders could then decide to adjust the number and size of rooms based on actual usage. If large rooms are often underutilized, the company might consider converting them into smaller, more versatile spaces to better meet the needs of the team and optimize resource allocation.
Allocation in action: An Eptura success story
Met Office, the UK’s national weather service, is a leading organization in meteorology and climate science. With a workforce spread across multiple locations, they faced significant challenges managing meeting spaces efficiently. One of the primary issues was the underutilization of their 75 meeting spaces across multiple floors, often leading to double bookings and wasted resources. The lack of real-time data on room usage made it difficult to allocate spaces effectively, resulting in employee frustration.
Reduce double bookings to ensure availability
To address these challenges, Met Office implemented an advanced meeting space management solution. The primary goal was to optimize the use of their meeting spaces and improve overall collaboration and productivity. The solution includes a range of features like advanced analytics and presence detection sensors, which provide real-time insights into room occupancy and usage patterns. Met Office needed to reduce double bookings, ensure that meeting rooms are available when needed, and create a more efficient and user-friendly environment for employees.
Meeting space utilization up 30%
Met Office has seen a 30% increase in meeting space utilization, which means employees can hold more meetings in the same number of rooms, maximizing the use of available resources. They’ve also seen a 90% reduction in double bookings, greatly improving the reliability and accuracy of room reservations. Employees report significant time savings, as they no longer need to search for available meeting spaces or deal with the frustration of double bookings. These improvements have not only enhanced productivity but have also contributed to a more positive and collaborative work environment.
“We can now see which spaces are used most, peak usage days, average bookings per week, no-shows, meeting durations, and attendance rates. This data helps us make informed decisions about how to optimize our space,” explains Sophie Parkhouse, facilities management coordinator at Met Office.
By Erin Sevitz
Erin has 15 years of experience, including 10 years in thought leadership on workplace management and the built environment. In her current role she oversees teams responsible for worktech insights and engaging Eptura’s 16,000 customers worldwide. Previously she led communications for the International Facility Management Association, a global industry nonprofit dedicated to professional development for workplace strategists, building managers, and corporate real estate.
