Considering recent mandates across regions to return to the office 2-3 days a week, many companies struggle with overcapacity on certain days and underutilized spaces on others.
As indicated in the latest Freespace Index, 86% of offices are returning to work, of which the majority are at least half occupied. This is where solutions that simplify complex seating arrangements have become increasingly important for offices everywhere and where space management comes in.
Space management optimizes physical space utilization, addressing hybrid working and business budgets as well as introducing many more benefits like increasing productivity, encouraging collaboration and having happier employees.
Three Basic Elements of Space Management
If you want to understand space management more, here are the three basic elements:
- Effective Space Planning
- Effective Implementation
- Effective Tracking & Reporting
1. Effective Space Planning
The first element of space management is understanding your office space. This means looking at your total workplace capacity and square feet, individual workspace capacity and their purposes (i.e. pre-assigned departments / teams) and the different workplace technologies you use throughout (desk booking app, collaborations tools, wayfinding digital signage, etc.).
Another aspect of effective space planning is collaborating with other departments and employees to share inputs and determine specific goals for the office space. It is important to remember to keep it flexible to adapt to employee needs and trends. Changes need to be considered for future growth, technological advancements and evolving business needs.
By conducting thorough planning and revisiting this regularly, you will be able to ensure the office space remains functional, adaptable and efficient in the long-term.
2. Effective Implementation
Space management software can be used during the planning stage as well as throughout the implementation stage. Tools such as Desk Space Management, Shift Management, Capacity Planning and workplace occupancy sensors can help implement new layouts and space designs, as well as other new strategies.
As well as this, an office space management tool like Freespace’s Employee Experience App enables desk and meeting room booking, car parking allocation and team collaboration, so employees have full visibility. You can also check out our latest release, DNAi, to see our enhanced, intelligence-driven approach to space management. Our Digital Wayfinding Signage also emphasises this, helping employees navigate changes and day-to-day office life with ease, especially those that work remotely most of the time.
3. Effective Tracking & Reporting
During the space planning stage, when determining specific goals for the office space, KPIs should also be set in order to benchmark your progress. This way, you can use the data and insights retrieved from your space management software to indicate whether you are on track or if any improvements and adjustments need to be implemented.
At Freespace, our data and analytics offer real-time reporting so you can focus on optimizing operations and costs. By gathering this data, you will be able to understand your office space more in depth, and prepare for the future.
Space Management with Freespace
Space management involves a lot of planning, implementation and monitoring. By covering these three basic elements, you will be able to optimize your real estate to make sure you’re getting the most out of it.
By using Freespace workplace space management technology, you will be able to make complex simple by seamlessly integrating remote and on-site teams and creating an efficient, human-centric workspace that works for everyone. Book a demo or contact us for more information today.
