Space utilization is occupied divided by provided, and almost every argument about it is really an argument about the denominators. Provided desks or provided seats. Peak day or average day. Business hours or the two hours when everyone is in. Each choice moves the answer by ten points or more, which is why a utilization figure without its method attached is a number somebody can dismiss. This page sets out a method that survives being questioned, the metrics worth reading alongside the headline, and where the free sheet on this site turns your counts into the figures a lease conversation actually needs.
Measuring floor space utilization with a method that survives questioning
Count the same thing, the same way, on the same days, for a fortnight. Fix three choices before you start and write them down: what counts as provided (desks, not seats in the canteen), what counts as occupied (a person or their belongings at a desk, judged the same way each time), and when you count (two or three fixed times a day across the working week). A fortnight of consistent counting beats a quarter of inconsistent sensor data, and it costs nothing but somebody's attention twice a day.
The figures worth reading together
Utilization alone under-sells the case. Read it with the empty desk count, the cost per desk provided against the cost per desk used, and the releasable area. On the sheet here, 180 desks with 108 occupied is 60% utilization and 72 empty desks; the space costs $2,333 per desk provided and $3,889 per desk actually used; $168,000 of the $420,000 running cost is carried by desks nobody sits at; and 5,600 of 14,000 square feet could in principle be released. The percentage starts the conversation; the dollar figure and the square feet finish it.
Peak and average tell you different things
The average decides the lease and the peak decides the layout. An estate at 60% average and 95% peak on Wednesdays does not need less space so much as it needs the Wednesday problem solved, and cutting to the average would produce a building that fails one day a week. Record both from the same counting exercise, because they come free once you are counting anyway, and present both: a utilization case that ignores the peak is the one a facilities manager loses in the room.
What office space utilization cannot tell you
Whether the space that is used is the right space. A floor at 90% utilization full of desks nobody wanted, in a building people travel an hour to reach, scores better than a half-empty floor people actually choose. Utilization is a measure of the fit between what you provide and what gets used, not of whether the provision is any good. Use it to size the estate and to price the empty part, and use something else, including asking people, to decide what should be in it.
Rentable area, usable area, and which one belongs in the denominator
The two are not interchangeable, and mixing them is how a utilization figure gets dismissed in the room. Rentable area is what the lease charges for and includes a share of lobbies, corridors and plant. Usable area is the floor you can put a desk on. Utilization belongs on the usable one, because a percentage that counts the lift lobby as space nobody sat in is measuring the building rather than the decision. Cost per square foot is the opposite case and belongs on rentable area, because that is the area being paid for. Write down which one each figure uses and keep it the same both times, or the cost and the utilization cannot be read together.
Questions people ask about space utilization
How is space utilization calculated?
Occupied divided by provided, over a defined period and with the definitions fixed in advance. The arithmetic is trivial and the method is everything: fix what counts as provided, what counts as occupied and when you count, then keep all three constant. On the sheet here, 108 occupied of 180 desks is 60%.
What space utilization metrics should I report?
Utilization, empty desks, cost per desk provided against cost per desk used, releasable area, and the peak alongside the average. The percentage opens the conversation, the cost of the empty desks and the releasable square feet carry it, and the peak stops the case being lost on the Wednesday objection.
How long should a space utilization analysis run?
A fortnight of consistent counting is enough for a first figure and is what most small estates should do before buying anything. Avoid holiday weeks and unusual events, count at fixed times, and record the method with the number so the figure survives being questioned later.
Is a low utilization figure bad?
Not by itself, and this site publishes no benchmark. What it is, is expensive: on the worked example, 60% utilization puts $168,000 of a $420,000 running cost against desks nobody sits at. Whether that is worth acting on depends on whether a lease event is near and whether the peak would survive the change.
Do I need space utilization software to work the figure?
No. A fortnight of consistent counting against fixed definitions gives a first figure, and the arithmetic is occupied divided by provided, which the free sheet here does without an account.
Does occupancy sensing give a better utilization figure?
Not a better headline figure, which is the usual disappointment. The percentage is occupied divided by provided, and a fortnight of consistent counting already fixes both. What occupancy sensing adds is resolution: a specific desk at a specific hour, which is what a layout change has to be designed against and what no manual count will ever produce. Work the figure by hand first, then decide whether the pattern underneath it is worth instrumenting.