Evolving workplace and workforce norms and trends have created a crucial demand for modern occupancy planning methodologies and technologies.
The technologies and methodologies workplace teams utilized for occupancy planning before the pandemic are losing relevance for many reasons. In this blog post, we will explore:
- What’s “broken” about how occupancy planning was approached in the past and why new technologies and methodologies matter.
- What tools occupiers and workplace teams have at their disposal for occupancy planning, as well as the outcomes they can achieve by leaning into new ways of approaching occupancy planning.
- Who exactly benefits from modern occupancy planning technologies and methodologies.
What is “broken” about how occupiers and workplace teams used to engage in occupancy planning?
From pre-pandemic workplace strategies, to legacy systems that don’t support the ever-evolving needs of workplace teams, these approaches and tools workplace teams used to rely on for occupancy planning aren’t conducive to hybrid work or fluid workplace strategies.
Additionally, these legacy tools tend to be clunky and inherently siloed. Most teams use separate tools for design, workplace strategy, HR management, and occupancy planning, in order to be responsive to our current, hybrid times.
As a result, the main challenges organizations face are fragmented data sources, data integrity issues, and consistency problems between different data sources. This not only hinders the decision-making process but is also time and labor intensive, resulting in hours upon hours of wasted time to simply align on data inputs and outputs to get the crucial insights necessary to make changes to the built environment.
Occupancy planning is already complex enough; however, vertically integrated systems can help workplace teams “navigate the intricacies of managing and fully utilizing an ever-increasing amount of flexible workspace.” They can also streamline the collection and analysis of “the data needed to optimize space based on changing needs, effectively perform moves, and allocate space back to the organization.”
Why do modern occupancy planning methodologies and technologies matter in today’s evolving office landscape?
1) Workplace teams are dealing with a lot of uncertainty
Many occupiers are unsure on just how to accommodate the hybrid needs of their workforce. Because of this uncertainty, new methodologies and technologies that foster an iterative mindset to space—i.e., looking at office space as an evolving entity rather than a one-and-done initiative—can help workplace teams learn what will bring employees back to physical workspaces.
Relying on real-time utilization data for occupancy planning allows occupiers to “accurately predict growth and effectively plan ahead” as spatial needs fluctuate—enabling workplace teams to make on-the-fly decisions to properly optimize office space.
2) Different, post-Covid stress points for employees
From the employee’s physical and mental health, to their emotional and overall well-being, legacy technologies don’t have a means of capturing the entire employee experience. These tools were built in the context of people to desks who were in the office, Monday through Friday, regardless of how they felt about the office.
Hybrid work has changed this and new age tools must allow workplace teams to get a better understanding of the whole employee. Post-pandemic technologies and methodologies have to be nimble, responsive, and intelligent enough to capture the pulse of employee stressors and their perception of office space, in order to obtain the actionable insights that reveal true workplace usage patterns. This helps workplace teams make better informed and iterative design decisions.
What tools do workplace teams have at their disposal to better understand and execute on occupancy planning?
IWMS is the most widely accepted tool as it provides a combination of different capabilities.
Occupancy planning tends to be one of the key features and organizations often customize and buy IWMS to fit their needs.
However, many occupiers are unhappy with their occupancy planning tools because they often have to use other separate tools for tasks which should ideally be accommodated in their IWMS. This leads to:
- Tech stacks that don’t necessarily talk to each other. In the case of data collection and analysis, fragmented technology stacks cause data discrepancies, outdated data, data integrity issues, and a lot of manual tasks to ensure all systems are in sync.
- Individual technologies that don’t do everything you need. Each tool has some overlapping capabilities but none have the entire feature set necessary to address hybrid work. Oftentimes tools provide slightly more than the others but that doesn’t mean they provide the full capabilities for serving all of the needs of the occupier.
The right technology stack should be vertically integrated and provide a single system when it comes to programming, designing, occupancy planning, office utilization, and the employee experience.
What sort of outcomes can be achieved by moving from the old ways of occupancy planning to new ones?
Workplace teams that utilize vertically integrated technologies can achieve three major outcomes:
1) Reduction of time on costly manual tasks
As previously mentioned, trying to get fragmented technology stacks to talk to one another is time consuming and costly. It is estimated that 70% of corporate real estate projects are delayed by over three months, with budget overruns occurring as often as 25% from disparate datasets and manual processes.
By leveraging vertically integrated technologies, workplace teams can streamline internal workflows and increase effective collaboration by having all facets of programming, design, occupancy planning, the employee experience, and utilization data all in one place.
2) Optimization of real estate portfolios by way of space iteration
The needs of the workplace and dynamic worker behaviors are fluid–making the optimization of space an evolving endeavor.
Occupancy planning and spatial design is no longer a one-and-done initiative. What the office should look like now is oftentimes gray and workplace teams must combat this ambiguity by iterating space to continually optimize their real estate portfolios as the spatial demands of employees ebb and flow.
3) Promotion of employee happiness
At the end of the day, better occupancy planning technologies and methodologies should work towards the increase of employee satisfaction and happiness with office space.
The right technology will allow workplace teams to take in real-time information and data that’s reflective of how people actually work, as well as their behaviors and preferences. In order to provide employees with engaging and productive office spaces, workplace teams need to know as much about employee behavior as possible. Occupancy planning must be rooted in employee behavior in order to ensure employees are happy and satisfied with their office space.
Who benefits from modern occupancy planning practices?
Modern occupancy planning practices ensure you manage your space to the needs of your employees. And while the employee is the ultimate beneficiary, other roles—and their specific functions in the business—will also reap the benefits of modern occupancy planning practices:
- Human Resources: HR teams are increasing the amount of initiatives tied to employee well-being. A vertically integrated technology stack will help HR professionals get a better understanding of how employees actually feel about office space by way of real-time data that reflects the employee perception of office space.
- Executives and the C-suite: While 64% of CEOs “expect a 100% return to in-office” attendance, merely having an office won’t drive in-person attendance like it did during pre-pandemic times. Executives and the C-suite must truly understand occupancy planning and be engaged in the design process in order to get the best return on their office space.
- Occupancy planners and managers: Workplace teams are tasked to accommodate the dynamic needs of the workforce and workplace in a timely manner. Never before have occupancy planners and managers had such a focus on them and business leaders want informed decisions to be made quickly. The right technology helps occupancy summarize relevant data points quickly.
- Facilities managers: Those who are tasked to maintain space and ensure it is kept to the highest health and safety standards can use utilization data to better understand how frequently spaces need to be cleaned. Facilities managers can also better respond to maintenance issues by viewing real-time feedback from employees.
In conclusion, as workplaces evolve, modern occupancy planning methods and technologies are vital. Traditional approaches lack efficiency due to fragmented data and outdated tools. Vertically integrated systems help manage flexible workspaces effectively. By utilizing real-time data and iterative optimization, organizations can streamline workflows and enhance employee satisfaction. These advancements benefit not only employees but also HR professionals, executives, occupancy planners, and facilities managers. Embracing modern occupancy planning is crucial for fostering agility and efficiency in today’s workplace.
Enjoying our blog? Be sure to subscribe to stay up-to-date on Saltmine's original content with the form below!
