Measuring Success For 5 Key Facility Management Metrics

We’ve talked a lot about the importance of tracking facility management metrics in your workplace. The right facility management data can tell you how many employees are actually in the office at any given time, whether you have enough conference rooms or too many and whether it’s time to expand your real estate portfolio.

Comparing your current data to your own historical data can help you track improvement. But how do you know how you compare to other companies?

In JLL’s 2018 Occupancy Benchmarking Report, Managing Director Susan Wasmund and Head of Occupancy Planning Julie Brown explore the top facility management metrics JLL’s clients track—including occupancy/vacancy, utilization level, density, cost per seat and mobility ratios—and share their findings from a survey of more than 100 corporate real estate leaders across the world.

Facility Management Metrics

This benchmark data can give you a better idea of what success looks like as you consider your own facility management metrics.

Occupancy

Over three-fourths of the respondents in JLL’s survey said a primary goal for their CRE team in 2019 is to improve space data accuracy, with nearly nearly 70 percent of JLL’s clients currently engaging in occupancy benchmarking.

Making smart decisions about your real estate portfolio and being able to forecast future space needs requires proactively capturing detailed occupancy metrics. (And this kind of data is only possible if you have a robust space management software in place.)

How To Track Space Utilization

Of the 66 percent of respondents who track space utilization, over 40 percent do so using a combination of visual observation and technology (such as badging and wearables, wireless internet activity and Internet of Things [IoT] sensors). Less than one-fourth rely solely on visual observation to gather space utilization data.

Using visual observations to track utilization is certainly better than not tracking utilization at all, but you need technology to get the most accurate facility management data.

What’s A Good Space Utilization Rate?

The global average for utilization rate of office/administrative space is 63 percent, with only 13 percent of respondents saying their employees utilize the workplace more than 80 percent of the time.

Unless you track space utilization, you’ll likely have a large discrepancy between how much you think your workforce is utilizing available space and how much they actually are.

Mobility

Between 2017 and 2018, the number of organizations who said they have a mobility program (in which a specific portion of employees don’t require assigned seats) jumped by 27 percent. And 30 percent of respondents say more than 20 percent of their workforce participates in their mobility program.

Flexible work arrangements such as activity-based working, office hoteling and hot desking are fast becoming the norm as more organizations encourage their employees to work remotely and choose their own schedules.

Workplace Design

Over 40 percent of respondents report private offices account for less than 5 percent of their sites, an increase of 23 percent.

The number of organizations moving away from traditional workplace layouts with cubicles and private offices in favor of more open office environments is steadily growing.

Why Are Facility Management Metrics Important?

Without data and advanced analytics, it’s difficult to develop a robust workplace strategy that increases efficiency, boosts productivity and enhances the employee experience.

But by taking advantage of technology and tracking these facility management metrics, you can create an agile work environment that is better utilized and also supports employee productivity and happiness.