What occupancy data should I collect for hybrid working decisions?
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Triangulate three primary data sources, plus an AV usage signal, before making any hybrid working decision. Single-source data overstates real utilisation by 40 to 70%, which is enough to keep a half-empty floor on the lease for another five years.
The four signals worth collecting:
| Source | What it measures | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Booking platform | Reserved desks and rooms | Cheap, already in place | Counts ghost bookings as "used" |
| Occupancy sensors | Bodies actually present | Ground truth on attendance | Capex and install per zone |
| Workplace badges | Entry counts at floor or building level | Already collected by security | No granularity below the door |
| AV usage | Teams Rooms, Zoom or Webex call counts | Confirms rooms ran a meeting | Misses face-to-face only sessions |
Sensor choice matters. PIR is cheapest at around £100 to £150 per zone but only confirms motion. Time-of-flight (ToF) at £150 to £250 gives accurate occupancy without imaging the user. mmWave radar at £250 to £400 returns people-count without cameras, which is the privacy-acceptable option for legal and financial sector floors. The room and desk booking platform feeds the booking signal; occupancy analytics layered on top combines sensor and AV usage data into a single dashboard.
The metrics that actually drive decisions:
- Peak vs average occupancy (the gap is what you can release)
- Day-of-week pattern (Tuesday is the typical UK peak)
- Neighbourhood-level utilisation rather than desk-level (people sit near their team, not at the same desk)
- Meeting-room utilisation by capacity bucket (huddle, standard, boardroom split out separately)
Use this data to right-size the estate, not to enforce attendance. Sensors that get repurposed into surveillance produce union grievances and data breaches, neither of which help the hybrid working business case.
Quick reference: booking platform + occupancy sensors (PIR cheap, ToF accurate, mmWave for privacy) + workplace badges + AV usage; report peak vs average, day-of-week pattern, neighbourhood not desk, room utilisation by capacity bucket.
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