Practical guide for calculating office capacity

Measuring the efficiency of office usage and occupancy is a matter of interest for any company, both in terms of security and productivity.

Calculating office occupancy enables us to assign the distribution of employees in an optimal way, make the most of common areas for internal and client meetings, and better plan the use of spaces such as dining rooms or cafeterias.

In this article, Foot Analytics will show how to calculate office space capacity, as well as explain the benefits of implementing the latest software for this purpose.

Key steps for calculating capacity in office environments

Office attendance data allows us to make provisions for a safe, pleasant, productive and efficient workspace.

To achieve this, we must first take a few key steps, which will help us to define the available capacity and adopt the appropriate strategies:

• Understand the current regulations on space capacity.
• Identify occupancy density values according to the technical code.
• Identify the intended use for each type of office area.
• Delimit the zones and the type of activity that takes place in each one of them.
• Associate the occupancy on the basis of the previous data (m2/person).
• Add up all the values.

How to calculate the capacity of an office by square metres

Taking into account the above indicators, it is clear that the available space is important, but we cannot consider how to calculate the office capacity per square metre in a uniform way.

Each office space can have a different capacity and, in each area, it is possible to make many distinctions. If you have a restaurant, for example, it is necessary to differentiate between seating and standing capacity, lobby area, toilet area, corridors, the kitchen area and utility room.

When office occupancy is calculated, the capacity associated with the square metres available for each space is identified, depending on the activity or use associated with it.

The sum of all the maximum capacities for each workspace will be the total amount of capacity that the office has.

Use of software for calculating the capacity of large companies

Knowing how to calculate office capacity does not make the task any easier. Even in a small facility, calculating official values of occupancy density can be complex.

There are online capacity calculators and mobile applications, which simplify the process and enable a rough estimate to be made very quickly.

However, when dealing with capacity issues, it is best to be as accurate as possible which is why we recommend the use of specialised software, especially when dealing with large companies with many different types of spaces.

Implementing software to estimate the occupancy of offices

One of the great advantages of Foot Analytics software for estimating occupancy in offices is the ability to implement it without having to deploy sensors so there is no investment or installation required. Instead the wifi network deployed by the client is used. 

At Foot Analytics we provide a SaaS platform that enables office managers to obtain all the occupancy data in real time, define capacity predictions and make appropriate decisions based on the information.

Additionally, the platform can be integrated with the company's space booking and management app which allows them to see, among other things, the capacity density of each working space.

Determining the occupancy ratio of offices: Techniques and tools

Knowing the occupancy ratio of an office offers great opportunities for optimising it as much as possible.

To do this, we have techniques and tools linked to our space management software iKnos Corporate which can be used to obtain and manage information such as the following:

• Identify the necessary desks, rooms and other collaborative spaces.
• Define detailed usage patterns by department or area to create the most appropriate work synergies.
• Understand user behaviour to anticipate demand for spaces and to optimise services such as catering, room availability, etc.
• Get to know the experience of employees based on their behaviour in the office with standardised indicator comparisons such as density per m2, use of space and time available, saturation time, etc.

This information, at the same time, lets us draw up actions based on real-time data to optimise space capacity in an efficient, productive and safe way. Some of the additional functions that you can benefit from with our software are the following:

• Smart Occupancy: provides capacity and waiting time notifications for congested spaces.
• Smart Cleaning: allows cleaning to be scheduled based on current space usage.
• Smart Climate: optimises hot and cold air based on real-time occupancy as well as future capacity forecasts.
• Hospitality: provides monitoring and alerts for scheduled visits.