Even the best companies in the world rely on outdated, anecdotal data — or no data at all — to make real estate decisions, despite it being their second biggest expense after payroll. That’s not acceptable in 2022.
So we dove into a subset of our customers’ recent Return To Office data — looking at a mix of industries, space types like large and small meeting rooms, collaborative open spaces and phone booths, and RTO approaches — to understand how our current customers’ spaces are performing, and to show you the kinds of insights companies can unlock with Density.
We found that the majority of spaces (71%) could support four times their actual usage, indicating that either the space or its usage is about to change.
There were some surprising examples of how people are actually returning to office: multiple 22-person spaces are being used by just one person; three communal spaces meant for 100+ consistently used by three people; a conference room that’s worth $87,000 annually yet empty 83% of the time.
To help companies understand how their spaces are actually used, we’re launching our new software platform today, Density Atlas. Insights from Atlas will help companies determine if (and where) return-to-office policies and initiatives are succeeding, find real estate savings, and compare the performance of their buildings to that of their peers’ or their industry at large.
Using data from our anonymous-by-design sensors, Density Atlas provides comprehensive insights of how physical space is used. It lets companies understand if employees are choosing focus space or collaborative space, which floors are the most popular (and why), and which types of spaces could be reallocated to other functions, among other insights. The end result is a more cost-effective real estate strategy, a better understanding of employee experience, and a smaller carbon footprint.
Watch our on-demand event, Unlock Your Workplace ROI, to see how Atlas helps companies optimize their workplace ROI here.
Our customers manage hundreds of millions of square feet of space. These office space portfolios range from 250k square feet to 50M+. When you’re operating at this scale, it’s easy to lose track of how it’s used and the datasets can be overwhelming.
We believe that in measuring and understanding how we use space we can have an impact on how not just buildings are designed, but whole cities. Accurately measuring and analyzing how offices are used is a major step in that direction.
Existing Density customers can request to join the Atlas Beta starting today. Any company interested in unlocking workplace insights can request more information and a demo at www.density.io.
Density analysis included more than 502,000 working hours (8 am-6 pm) of customer utilization data across roughly 2,000 spaces in 13 cities, of which ten are in the US.