The value of workspace analysis Busting the workplace myths

The best workspaces are ones that are closely aligned to the real – not assumed – needs of the organisation and its people. This requires a clear understanding of people, processes, space, work settings and technologies, and the way these all interact, to build a true picture of your workspace needs.

In any business, it’s not unusual for workplace myths and preconceptions to spring up, which may not always fit with reality. It may be assumed that you’ve run out of space, when in fact space is underutilised over the course of the work week, but with bottlenecks on certain days and at certain times. You may think that you don’t have enough meeting rooms, when in reality some meeting rooms are oversubscribed while others are underused, or that the booking system doesn’t make it easy to cancel or reallocate bookings.

Separating fact from appearance requires a systematic approach, which is the goal of workspace analysis.

The workspace analysis toolkit

Workspace analysis brings together data from a range of sources to give a true picture of how your organisation currently operates and how space and technology is consumed. It combines quantitative and qualitative information to build up a holistic picture of your workspace needs and the beliefs and attitudes of your people towards the workspace.

Occupancy survey – quantifies the real usage levels of desks, meeting rooms, breakout spaces and other areas versus perceptions

Space utilisation – looks more broadly at how the space is divided up between individual desks, meeting rooms, breakout and social spaces, and other kinds of spaces and furniture, and how effectively this maps onto the day-to-day activities of the business

Storage audit – measures how much storage space you have, both shared and allocated to individuals, and how much of it is in active use

Process mapping – understands the different activities your teams undertake, how they interact and aims to build a picture of dependencies between departments and teams

Employee questionnaire – analyses the specific needs of different users and user groups, the work settings they use, their work styles and preferences, and the level to which they feel supported by the workspace

Stakeholder interviews – gather qualitative information about the attitudes and opinions of different users towards their workspace

Technology analysis – builds a picture of the technologies and devices currently used, how effectively they’re deployed, how easy or otherwise they are to access, and what might be missing from the technology overlay

These sources of data and insight are then combined to build a complete picture of how the workspace is used now, what is working and what’s not, and where the biggest opportunities for improvement are. This information is combined to create your ideal workspace blueprint.