How well is your space really being used?
Buildings are usually the most poorly used assets an organisation can possess.
It's true, next time you're in the office count how many workplaces are actually sitting idle!
But with an innovative approach there are ways to use some of that underutilised capacity, increasing occupancy and improving the working arrangements for staff at the same time.
But before you can get anyone interested in doing anything innovative, you have to quantify the opportunity and that's what our Workplace Utilisation Study is really all about.
Usually people get interested in a Workplace Utilisation Study when their organisations are...
- growing (and quite rightly do not want to take on more fixed costs in the shape of office buildings)
- trying to rationalise and shrink down their office portfolio
- facing a decision brought about by a lease expiry
- considering taking on a new office building
The Workplace Utilisation Study
Our Workplace Utilisation Study (WUS for short) is a quick and cheap way of capturing information about the way your space is actually used hour by hour, throughout the day, usually for a 2 week period. It allows you to gain a real understanding about how every workplace resource (workstations, meeting rooms, offices, quiet spaces, social spaces, break out areas, restaurants) are really used.
From this we can come up with a shopping list of opportunities to improve the effectiveness of your space and create a powerful case for change, which senior managers will listen to.
How does it work?
We set up data capture tools which your people will use to capture the data. Most clients prefer to do the data capture themselves perhaps using the post room or security staff to undertake the observations. Then we brief them on how to carry out the collection of data.
We usually run the study over a 2 week period during which your people observe every workspace, meeting room, social space and often restaurant/cafeteria every 2 hours throughout each day.
Then we take away the data and analyse it in relation to your specific needs. Typically we'll provide graphs that relate to the building as a whole, each floor, departments and even job types.
For each we provide analysis for the workspace as well as utilisation of all other shared spaces. We also provide our unique ‘White Space Analysis' tool which enables you to see at a glance the size of the opportunity to improve the use of space and get the answer to a range of questions in a second.
What can I do with all the results?
- You can identify opportunities for increasing occupancy of your existing space
- You can provide compelling and high impact information to encourage senior managers to explore the case for a move to Advanced Working
- You can identify new opportunities to rationalise and consolidate your portfolio
- You can unearth ways of tuning the workplace to the needs of users, removing wasted resources and replacing them with workplace elements that are more in line with what the business needs
- You can identify what you really need ahead of acquisition of a new building
- You can prove the case conclusively for more space if your buildings are truly well utilised
What sort of analysis can I have?
We've a range of methods. The most powerful analyses and presentations are graphical.
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This graph shows the percentage of time the workstations in one particular department were seen in use each day during the period of observation. |
The graph to the right shows the capacity of each meeting room and the average demand, maximum demand and minimum demand over a 2 week period. |
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The graph to the left shows the utilisation of meeting tables in offices. As can be seen the highest observed is 20%. |
White Space Analysis
AWA's unique 'White Space Analysis' allows you to see in a flash the way space is being used. Each line represents a workspace, each column one observation over the 2 week period. It can be sorted and presented in a number of different ways to create maximum impact and show the size of the potential opportunity. |
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What do I do next?
If you would like to chat though your current situation or would like to know more about the way Workplace Utilisation studies can be used, or the costs involved, please contact Andrew Mawson, Wes McGregor or Karen Plum on +44 (0)207 743 7110. Email details below:
Andrew Mawson: amawson@advanced-workplace.com
Karen Plum: kplum@advanced-workplace.com
Wes Mcgregor: wmcgregor@advanced-workplace.com
