Workplace BI Use Scenarios

Having a thorough understanding of how real estate is being used and whether new programs are being adopted can go a long way towards identifying areas of operational inefficiencies.  PeopleCube’s Workplace BI provides the unique ability to help companies visually dissect and analyze how their rooms and resources are being utilized and whether or not their initiatives, such as alternative workspace programs, are being adopted correctly. By proactively leveraging this insight, organizations can make adjustments to increase workplace efficiency while reducing costs. 

Below are some of the many ways Workplace BI solutions can help an organziation improve their workplace efficiency.

Alternative Workspace Program Analysis

More organizations than ever before are developing strategies to allow employees to work remotely. Whether it’s to cut costs, maximize existing resources, or attract/retain top talent, alternative workspace programs can significantly improve an organization’s bottom line. Leading companies with successful alternative workspace programs have learned that measuring and tracking key metrics against strategic goals is critical to the success of the initiative. The following are a few of critical elements of flex work programs that can be measured and analyzed to help maximize program performance and ROI.

Program Adoption

Participation is the first step in getting any alternative workspace program off the ground. Tracking user adoption can help an organization understand who is using the system and who is not. Workplace BI provides the ability to analyze adoption rates and trends over time, which often leads to insights regarding work styles and motivational factors for the various groups within the organization. This is vital information for any organization, but especially those that are rolling out a solution across many locations and want to improve their process with each new launch.

No Show Analysis

Undoubtedly a certain percentage of your mobile workers will fail to show up for the space they booked. Even the best employees can make a mistake and forget to cancel a reservation on occasion. So how do you minimize the number of No Shows without constantly sending out messages to the entire company? Workplace BI tracks No Show trends and identifies the habitual abusers from the occasional mistake maker, allowing organizations to target messages to individual abusers or identify groups within the organization that need retraining. This reduces the frustrating company-wide emails, while reinforcing proper behavior and ultimately reducing wasted space.

Utilization Analysis

A key element to the success of any alternative workspace program is providing enough of the right workspace to satisfy the needs of the mobile worker community. Understanding what spaces are being used by which types of employees is a requirement, not a luxury. In order to continue to provide the highest level of employee satisfaction, alternative workspace managers need to anticipate the needs of the mobile worker. Workplace BI highlights booking patterns by department or role, showing weekly, monthly, or seasonal habits. Workplace BI can also let you know which spaces are the most coveted and which ones employees continually avoid. All this information allows real estate managers to build the right amount and types of spaces in order to provide the highest level of employee satisfaction.

Booking Source

While most mobile users will be looking to perform many of the same activities, their preferences will vary when it comes to how they perform them. Some users want to book everything through Outlook, some like the convenience of using a web-based application, while road warriors may prefer using a mobile phone or kiosk to book a space or to find a seat by a co-worker. Understanding how people are booking space and performing other activities helps to identify the behavior of your workforce. Workplace BI tracks where users perform activities and can show trends over time to help understand shifts in behavior or identify potential workflow issues. Understanding the preferences of your user community and providing them with the tools they desire is just one more way in which Workplace BI can help increase satisfaction with your alternative workspace program.

Late Versus Early Comparison

While we all try to show up on time, some days that just doesn’t happen. Whether we hit the snooze button or traffic is heavier than normal, we may show up to the office later than expected only to find that the space we reserved is now being used by someone else, making a bad day even worse. Don’t let this happen at your organization. Using Workplace BI can help you identify the appropriate amount of time to allow someone to be late before cancelling their booking. Do certain people in certain locations tend to show up on time or need a longer grace period, and have you identified the right grace period for each of your locations? Let Workplace BI help you maximize the use of your space without ruining someone’s day.

Space Utilization Analysis

Real estate is the second largest expense for most organizations, surpassed only by labor costs. While most organizations have numerous approaches to track and measure employee performance, few apply the same discipline to evaluate the performance of their real estate and other resources. Workplace BI provides the means to make sure your real estate and resources are being fully utilized by allowing your real estate executives to access critical utilization information in order to compare performance among multiple locations and make business decisions based upon real information instead of hunches.

Peak Utilization

What day of the week is the busiest? What time of the day is every seat filled? Are there seasonal demands for space? Understanding when space is most in demand helps with planning and can allow hibernation of space during periods of low demand, reducing energy consumption and emission of greenhouse gases. Workplace BI allows organizations to identify peaks and valleys in utilization trends and develop more advanced systems that satisfy demand and save energy costs.

Planned versus Actual

Most organizations understand how people intend to use meeting rooms or other resources, but how many can say they know how they are actually used? All too often space is booked and then not used, or used inefficiently. It’s a common frustration amongst employees who struggle to find available space and then later see that the space they wanted to use was vacant. Worse yet, the two-person meeting in the conference room with a capacity of 20 took precedence over a 15-person meeting, which was unable to book that space. Using Workplace BI in conjunction with PeopleCounter allows you to identify space that was not used as planned. With Workplace BI you can analyze why this happens within your organization, identify abusers, and take corrective action.

Occupancy / Presence Detection

It takes accurate data to create precise information for analysis. Without quality data, you’re simply making educated guesses about how space is actually being used. PeopleCounter allows organizations to collect accurate presence and occupancy data to identify planned meetings that didn’t happen and inefficient meetings where small groups meeting in large rooms. Workplace BI uses the data provided by PeopleCounter to help ensure that your valuable resources are being used to their maximized potential.

Traffic Volume

Offices are a much more dynamic place today, with an almost constant shift in the number and types of employees at each location. Your busiest location today might be a candidate for retraction in a couple of years. Tracking traffic volume in and out of an office is a great way to measure how busy one location is compared to another. Using Workplace BI you can see trends and patterns about the comings and goings of employees that will help you make informed decisions about your real estate overhead.

Resource Utilization

Tracking utilization is the basis for understanding how effectively resources are being used. Without this information, it is difficult to assess if the right resources are available to meet the needs of the workforce. Workplace BI not only provides the ability to track utilization, but it also allows you to interactively drill down into data to understand the details behind usage patterns. Whether you’re evaluating the utilization of individual resources, isolating a period of time, or filtering by resource characteristics, Workplace BI can provide the detailed analysis you need to make more intelligent decisions going forward.

Floor Plan Analysis

Designing an effective workspace starts with understanding how space is being used. Having the ability to understand which spaces are in demand and which spaces sit vacant allows space designers and planners to better understand the needs of the workforce. Workplace BI allows you to see this utilization information superimposed on your floor plan, allowing you to understand usage patterns by specific location. This enables facilities managers and space designers to differentiate between poorly designed spaces and those that are not properly equipped.

Vacant Space

No space, regardless of how well it is designed, can ever be used 100 percent of the time.  However, identifying spaces that are frequently left vacant is vital. Workplace BI helps monitor and compare daily vacant space at each location. This information can also be used to help identify which locations have room for growth before acquiring more space.

Inefficient Usage

Evaluating reservation history is a great way to understand how space was used, but what about looking forward in order to better plan space usage? Being able to identify space that is not going to be used efficiently before it is used is critical in preventing space from being used inappropriately. Workplace BI helps identify spaces that are not being used to their full potential by comparing planned attendance against room capacity. This allows room administrators to monitor their spaces and identify users who continually book spaces larger than their actual needs.