Space management: measuring what your office is actually used for

Space management is the work of matching the property a company pays for to the way people actually use it: how much floor area, in what layout, and which parts earn their cost. It became a live question when attendance stopped being uniform — an office sized for everyone attending daily is oversized for a hybrid pattern, but the same office often lacks the meeting rooms and quiet areas that hybrid work demands. Space management is mostly measurement followed by uncomfortable arithmetic.

What space management should measure

• Occupancy: how many people are in the building, by day and by hour.
• Utilisation per area: which floors, zones and rooms are used, and how heavily.
• Meeting room demand against supply, split by size — small rooms are usually the shortage.
• Cost per seat and per square metre, including rent, service charge, utilities and facilities staff.
• Peak versus average, because you pay for the peak and often plan from the average.

Reading the data without fooling yourself

Occupancy data is easy to misread in two directions. Averages hide the pattern: an office at 45% average utilisation may be full on Tuesday and empty on Friday, and closing a floor would break the busiest day. Badge data undercounts visitors and anyone who props a door, while room booking data overcounts — booked rooms that nobody uses are one of the most common findings when sensors are added. Where the numbers matter, corroborate one source with another before acting.

Never plan a reduction on the average day. Size the space for the pattern you intend to have, then change the pattern deliberately — for example by coordinating team days — before shrinking the footprint.

Acting on the picture

1. Fix the mix first: converting under-used open desks into the meeting and quiet space that is short usually beats any change in total area.
2. Consolidate onto fewer floors before considering a move, and check whether the lease allows subletting the remainder.
3. Time the decision to lease events — break dates and expiries are when change is cheap.
4. Model the cost per attended day, not per employee, so hybrid patterns are priced honestly.
5. Re-measure after any change, because behaviour moves in response to it.

Ettex Records suits the tracking side: one table for areas and rooms with capacity and cost, another for daily occupancy counts, and a view of utilisation by zone over time. Combined with data from desk booking, it turns a lease decision into one made from a measured pattern rather than from the loudest opinion in the room.