What is space management?
Space management involves monitoring, tracking, and managing physical space inventory.
It includes understanding your spaces, optimizing them for current or future users, and managing occupancy information.
Efficient space management helps organizations with:
- Occupancy management: Controls visitor flow and venue occupancy to ensure that there’s little-to-no wasted space.
- Move management: Executes different phases of moving people, assets, and equipment to a new location.
- Maintenance management: Tracks and manages physical assets to improve asset life cycles, minimize deferred maintenance, and reduce maintenance costs.
- Property management: Oversees regular real estate operations and addresses tenant concerns.
- Asset management: Optimizes tangible and intangible assets’ operational performance.
Now, space management isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Things can easily fall through the cracks when you oversee multiple spaces, starting from loading docks to mail rooms to laboratories and factories.
Worry not! We’ve got you covered with a step-by-step process for managing your space.
Occupancy and space data are key to creating smart, agile work environments.
Imagine an office space that controls lights, temperature, and doors with motion sensors and voice commands.
All that’s hunky-dory but doesn’t necessarily help you manage spaces better.
You need a system for managing all spaces, from meeting rooms to parking lots to desks to floor plans, to keep employees productive.
Thoughtful space management drives employee efficiency.
Businesses use workplace management software or space management software to track office space usage, analyze occupancy data, maintain physical spaces, forecast real estate needs, and strategize floor layouts.
Space management tools also help you with industrial and manufacturing facilities management (FM).
If you want to use space efficiently, contain costs, and build spaces that employees will love, this article walks you through everything you need to know to scale effective space planning.
Schedule a demo and learn why Facilio is the best space management solution for your business.
How does it work?
Space management is about managing facilities to meet safety regulations and business objectives while supporting user needs.
If you want to align people, places, and processes, follow the space management process below to get started.
1. Take inventory of your space
Managing spaces starts with understanding them. Take a good look at your office space and facility to understand what can be better.
Start by finding out:
- Total workplace capacity
- Different workplace technologies
- Total square feet of space you own
- The function of individual spaces and the technologies they have
- The capacity of individual spaces, i.e., meeting rooms, kitchen, common area, reception, etc.
Now, time to enhance your space with the right tools.
2. Integrate space management tools
Having the right tools makes creating an environment that meets business and employee needs easier.
Using space management software solutions, you can collect and analyze spatial data to better understand how people use the workplace.
Keep an eye on those trends and preferences to support employees.
To cater to peoples' needs, you can also integrate space management systems with desk booking, meeting room scheduling, visitor sign-in, and parking reservation solutions.
3. Understand employee preferences
People-first organizations prioritize surveys to better understand how employees use workspaces.
You can also do so gauge what people need to be more efficient. Below are some common questions you can use.
- What do you like most about the workplace?
- What spaces do you use the most and least at the office?
- Which space helps you to remain productive at work?
- Can we improve the workplace in any way to help you be more efficient?
Now that you know what it takes to engage occupants, it’s time to outline goals, monitor, and make continuous improvements.
4. Set goals, monitor, and improve
Start by setting key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success.
For example, you may want to keep enough meeting rooms available at all corporate facilities.
You can track this by letting people reserve rooms ahead of time, so there’s no conflict.
Also, monitor if people are using the right tools. Don’t forget to ask employees for feedback as you make iterative changes to your spaces.
Want to take space and occupancy planning to the next level? Keep reading.
Suggested article: Reduce Idle Time and Improve Productivity
Space management principles
The right space management tool tells facility managers where best to let employees sit.
Once you’ve done the initial space planning, implement these space management principles to get the most out of workplace environments.
1. Assess properties annually: Analyze each facility annually to see if your workplaces need a new strategy.
2. Evolve workspace with each project: Consider each change activity as an opportunity to improve the workplace environment.
3. Plan well for all projects: No matter how small changes are, always use computer-aided facilities management (CAFM) to plan day-to-day operations better. Consider doing this pre-project planning thoughtfully because you can do little once you start execution.
4. Analyze space data: Use an integrated workplace management system (IWMS) to collect and interpret space consumption and use data. Gather relevant data that forecasts potential changes to present a strong business case to stakeholders. Also, remember to spot duplicate data entries to avoid errors.
5. Use recognized industry standards: Applying recognized space management standards from the Open Standards Consortium for Real Estate (OSCRE), Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), or International Facility Management Association (IFMA) will help you define and manage portfolio rules better.
6. Fuel decision-making with real-time data: Use real-time occupancy change data to provide users with accurate reports and stay compliant with workplace policies.
Facility and office managers follow these principles to supervise business real estate or physical assets and ensure peace of mind for their employees or tenants.
Once you go through all these with space management software, you will reap multiple benefits – let’s take a quick look.
Recommended Read: O&M Manuals: A Complete Guide
Benefits of space management
A strategic approach to space management helps you boost space efficiency, improve workforce productivity, minimize vacant space, better expand or shrink office space, save operational costs, and remain compliant.
Below are some benefits you can expect from space management software solutions.
1. Save overhead costs
Poor space planning adds to business expenses.
Space management tools analyze space utilization data to help you find how much money you’re wasting on underperforming or unused spaces.
For example, you can use building entry, room booking, or smart building sensor data to find the right-sized space for your team.
Additionally, you can share a location with another business to save money on resources, equipment, facility management, and parking space.
2. Boost workplace efficiency
Space management makes you constantly look for opportunities to improve the flow of things around your workspace.
Creating a baseline for improvement begins with auditing your floor plan configuration.
Then you can consider whether you need to adopt cloud storage programs like Google Drive, update other technologies, or make better equipment choices.
3. Improve employee productivity
An overcrowded space or too much isolation can hurt employees’ productivity levels.
Configuring spaces and building facilities right from the start is key to building a successful business.
Space management software helps you design office layouts in a way that saves you money and keeps employees productive.
4. Creates a thriving company culture
A great space design fosters employee interactions and helps you build a great company culture.
Think about all the team bonding events, collaboration, and happy hours that happen at your workplace.
Employees will feel more connected to your company culture when you have the right space to host those experiences.
5. Keeps you adaptable
Gone are the days of crammed-in cubicles and locked-down desks. As more employees opt for flexible working, you must be ready to keep up with changes. Plus, workplace regulations change all the time.
Space management software provides you with the right office space planning tools to handle such changes. With real-time data, workplace admins can predict situations and make necessary adjustments to ensure the best workplace experience and safety.
Unsure if you should prioritize space optimization? Check out why organizations use space management systems.
Finding the right space management software can be hard. Get in touch with us today to learn more.
Why is space management important?
Space management helps companies strategically solve space utilization challenges and create a better workplace experience. Space management software collects and tracks real-time occupancy data from occupancy sensors. Now, you can integrate with a building management system to interpret that data and generate usage reports.
Prioritize space management planning to:
- Understand how your company uses physical space.
- Access and analyze real-time space data for insights.
- Ensure efficient space use and reduce operational costs.
- Create a pleasant and productive environment to attract and retain talent.
Now, space management has changed ever since the pandemic. If you’re having a hard time embracing new space management strategies, we’re here to help.
How has space management changed since COVID?
The pandemic has forced companies of all sizes to adopt new working methods. Check out these hybrid space management approaches to create a productive, safe, and enjoyable workspace for employees.
- Help remote employees: With more people working at home at least once a week, you need to help them be productive. Start by implementing flexible space management strategies such as hot-desking, office hoteling, and activity-based working.
- Adopt new technologies: It's best to use technologies to manage space occupancy when limiting office occupancy due to distancing norms. For example, you can start using visitor management systems to track visitors or desk booking software to help employees find workspaces quickly.
- Create the right mix of space: As some employees return to the office to meet and collaborate with colleagues, you need dedicated spaces for work and collaboration. Consider creating huddle areas and meeting room booking systems to help employees get the most out of collaboration.
- Reserve desks for teams: Some teams may visit the office together on specific days for collaboration and team building. Allowing them to reserve space or desks ahead of time will help you limit capacity on those days.
- Open satellite offices: Employees want to avoid daily commutes to save time and money but want more in-person interactions. That’s why businesses are looking to create smaller office spaces in the suburbs. As a result, employees will be able to reduce commuting expenses while still getting to meet colleagues once in a while.
Create places of magic, not cubicle farms
Every company owns offices, but very few see them as opportunities to create human-centric workspaces. With the right space management tool and strategy, you can combine remote and on-site work seamlessly and create a culture people love.
