Dive Brief:
- A shift in how organizations prioritize occupancy metrics, away from traditional space density metrics like square foot per person to indicators like employee sentiment and in-office attendance, is leading commercial real estate operators to upgrade their technology to better support hybrid work environments, according to CBRE’s Workplace & Occupancy Management Technology in 2024 report.
- While portfolio optimization and cost reduction remained top objectives for participants in CBRE’s Global Workplace & Occupancy Insights surveys from 2021 through 2023, leaders are also prioritizing workplace experience. Two-thirds of respondents reported that improving workplace experience was a goal for commercial real estate teams in 2023, up 26% from 2022.
- To support new focuses on hybrid workplace experiences, organizations are expanding their traditional toolkits to include solutions that support both physical and virtual work environments, the report says. Over 80% of participants said they integrate workplace technology tools, either directly through APIs or indirectly through data warehouses, to create a connected eco-system that eliminates manual data entry, simplifies workflows and expands access to standardized data.
Dive Insight:
CBRE, which gathered workplace technology data from clients representing more than 350 million square feet, notes that conducting a diagnostic assessment, documenting a technology roadmap and establishing a data governance program are crucial for informed decision-making that will make workplaces more attractive.
The report notes that traditional real estate occupancy metrics, like square feet per person and square feet per seat, are no longer among the top five occupancy metrics that matter most, trailing behind utilization rates, vacancy rates, show-up rates, employee sentiment and target sharing ratio, the report says. The integration of space management systems, space utilization analysis tools and employee experience applications that aggregate data is central to this shift, CBRE says.
Still, 92% of respondents said they utilize space management systems for tracking floor plans, managing space allocations and scenario and demand planning, similar to the rate seen in 2021. Over 80% of participants now have automated integrations that push or pull data from these space management systems, according to the report. CBRE says these integrations expedite the flow of work and improve data quality by providing a “single source of truth for information.”
The report found that 89% of respondents’ computer-aided facility management or integrated workplace management systems have automated data feeds to receive insights from upstream systems, with 86% and 68% citing human resource feeds and organization hierarchy systems as the destination for this data, respectively.
Meanwhile, 69% of respondents automating CAFM or IWMS data feeds are automatically feeding occupancy data to downstream systems, up 21% from 2022. Among these, 47% of participants send this data to employee directories and 35% are integrating it with room or space reservation systems.
In 2023, 81% of survey participants reported measuring space utilization, with 96% of respondents capturing badge swipe data. The use of badge swipe data among respondents increased 21% since 2021, reflecting a growing importance of utilization data, driven by the availability and relative costs to capture, the report says. In contrast, the use of Wi-Fi and network data declined by 19% since 2021, while the use of desk and chair sensors decreased by 42% and 68%, respectively. However, participants plan to enhance their Wi-Fi and network sensor data in the future to accomplish secondary objectives, the report says.
These data points highlight a trend where companies are “now inclined to track not just the presence of individuals in a building or on a specific floor, as indicated by badge swipe data, but also the actual utilization and manner of space use,” the report says. Network data can provide insights on presence within a spice, while sensor data can clarify the specific activities and usage patterns within that space, CBRE says.
Real estate teams are also increasingly turning to space reservation systems to manage shared and hoteling workspace. Of the 88% who use a space reservation system, 85% use the system to book meeting space and 62% use it to book workspace, the report found. CBRE says the use of these systems is expected to increase throughout 2024, as organizations rebalance and reconfigure underutilized office space to support hybrid work patterns.
Despite a majority of commercial real estate respondents citing workplace experience as a goal for their teams, only 8% of participants reported using an employee experience app. Although these apps have gained traction over the past five years, data integration and change management challenges have hindered their widespread adoption, the report notes. CBRE says the implementation of these applications will grow in 2024 as organizations look for ways to attract employees into the office “through connection to their peers and teams and an elevated workplace experience.”
