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Organisations are turning to experimental ‘pilot working labs’ to monitor working patterns of their employees before making changes to the actual office, according to data from Freespace, which reveals that global office occupancy rates decreased in June compared to May as organisations introduced strategies to tackle the resurgence in Covid cases.
The research, which provides insights into global workplace trends using anonymised data from over 100,000 occupancy sensors in offices around the world, suggests there has also been a shift away from using social spaces in managing the safety of those in the workplace.
June office occupancy data includes:
- 23 per cent of offices globally returned to work in June, down 2 per cent compared to May. This 2 per cent stopped returning to work due to strategies to tackle the resurgence in Covid cases.
- 16 per cent of these offices are only a fifth full. 6 per cent are a third full, and just 0.5 per cent are half full.
- The global average office occupancy in 2021 is 20 per cent. In the US it is 19 per cent; EMEA 18 per cent; and Asia & Australasia 34 per cent.
- Offices continue to keep social distancing policies a priority with a visible decrease in social space and meeting space usage.
- Just 22 per cent of those in the workplace are using meeting rooms (55 per cent before the pandemic), and just 6 per cent are using workplace social areas (31 per cent before the pandemic).
Commented Raj Krishnamurthy, Freespace CEO:
“Whilst we are seeing a shift away from using social spaces in managing the safety of those in the workplace, we are also witnessing an increasing demand for ‘pilot working labs’ or what some call ‘living labs’.
“These are areas in the workplace, supported by sensors, which are kitted out as an experimental workspace to anonymously monitor how people are behaving, such as the way they are moving or what work they are doing on a specific day.
“These labs could be one room, a floor, or an entire building depending on the size of the organisation. This helps them establish how to configure their actual offices to support the results of the experiment and to safely integrate their employees back into the workplace.”
In order to understand how FMs have navigated their way through the last year and their plans for meeting stringent waste and recycling targets we’ve posed a series of questions – aided by the advice and experience of our editorial steering committee.
The results of the 2021 survey will be published in FMJ magazine and form the basis of a white paper co-written by FMJ and the experts at Grundon on how to approach waste and recycling strategies.
To take part in the survey click here.
