As a coworking space operator, filling up your space is a main priority. However, proper space management is required to make the most of your space and ensure optimal utilization. For this reason, having a complete understanding of your space, its capacity, layout and the features it can offer your users allows you to best know how to fill it up. Some other important concepts to understand and properly differentiate to best manage your space are space allocation and space utilization. Find out below how these terms are essential in allowing you to make the best space planning and management decisions.
Space Allocation
Space allocation refers to the assignment of a workplace, or desk. This provides information related strictly to how many desks are assigned to users, regardless of whether they are actually using them on a given day or not.
Space Utilization
On the other hand, space utilization provides you with real-time data regarding how many of your desks, whether allocated or not, are being used at a certain time. While you may have allocated a certain percentage of your desks to users, they may not all be used at a given time. For this reason, space utilization data allows you to know exactly how and when your space is used allowing you to know how to best manage the rest of the unused space.
Another term to consider understanding when looking into space utilization is space occupancy. This focuses on the maximum capacity of a space and the maximum number of individuals physically within it. Knowing this information is beneficial in determining when the upper limit of the number of users is present within your space, allowing you to determine how many individuals to allow at one time in the workspace to avoid overcrowding.
How to Determine Space Utilization?
With the current COVID-19 pandemic, analyzing space usage is even more important than before. As your space is likely to be used by individuals on a short-term basis, such as office hoteling, or even multiple such arrangements, rather than a permanent one, you need to have a thorough and complete understanding of your space utilization. This will allow you to not only manage the budget and resource allocation of your space but also to provide your members with the necessary safety and reassurance.
To achieve this, you need to look at the daily peak utilization, either overall or in a certain area within your space, the total square footage that is available to your users, the average peak usage, the total visitor traffic and high traffic areas. Very relevant is also the point-in-time occupancy, which is the total time of occupancy in your space, or specific area within it, divided by the time in a week that the space is available to your users. Furthermore, you need to consider the density in your space, which can be determined by multiplying the total number of occupants in your space by the average square footage allocated to a member. Using this information, you can better determine space utilization to better manage your space by improving the health and safety of your space, lowering costs, providing users with a better work experience and even supporting green initiatives.
Workspace Management Platform: Why You Need It?
Using a workspace management platform is essential in automating your space and better optimizing it for usage. Fortunately, with a coworking software, like the one provided by Yardi Kube, you can have access to all the necessary resources to not only optimize your space through the all-in-one platform but also to provide your members with all the necessary features and amenities to ensure a safe, healthy, comfortable and productive work environment for them. You can have real-time access to information regarding how your space is being used, who booked a desk for a future day and how many people are using it at a given time. For more information regarding how the Yardi Kube Coworking Software can help you better manage and optimize your space, book a demo here.