The number of employees per unit of office space, typically measured in square feet or square metres per person, used to assess crowding and comfort.
Workplace density measures how tightly packed an office is. It is usually expressed as square feet (or square metres) per person. A density of 150 square feet per person is considered comfortable for open-plan offices, while anything below 100 square feet starts to feel crowded. Post-pandemic, many organisations have revised their density targets upward.
Density is not just about comfort -- it affects productivity, noise levels, air quality, and employee wellbeing. Building codes and health regulations set minimum space-per-person requirements that organisations must meet. Booking systems help manage density by capping the number of simultaneous bookings per floor or zone.
With hybrid work, density varies dramatically by day. Tuesday might feel packed while Friday is nearly empty. Dynamic density management through booking limits ensures that peak days stay within acceptable thresholds while still encouraging office attendance.
The process of determining how much office space, how many desks, rooms, and parking spots an organisation needs based on actual usage data and growth forecasts.
The percentage of available workspace being actively used, calculated as occupied hours divided by total available hours.
The proportion of available desks to total employees, used to determine how many shared workstations are needed in a flexible office.
A hardware device that detects whether a workspace is physically occupied, using infrared, motion, or other technology to provide real-time presence data.