How the space is really used — measured, then planned for.
Ask people how they work, count who actually comes in from the badge and network data you already have, and read the weekday shape. Then choose the work model that fits and turn it all into one justified number to plan space for.
People are counted, never tracked: names and card numbers are pseudonymised as the data is read.
From how people say they work to how much space they need — on the evidence.
Each step reads the step before it, so the work model, the activity profile and the dimensioning all rest on the same surveys and the same presence data.
More about Surveys ↓
More about Presence connectors ↓
More about Presence & occupancy ↓
More about Work model ↓
More about Office activity profile ↓
More about Dimensioning ↓
What each step takes in, does and hands on
Space plans usually start from a guess about how many people come in. Every step below replaces part of that guess with something asked or measured. Here is what you bring, what each step does and what you get out.
Surveys
Ask how people work before deciding how much space they need — and see while the survey runs which teams have yet to answer.
64 of 150 answered (43 %). IT is behind — it sorts to the top of the share list.
You bring
- Permission to send one link to everyone
- Headcounts per department
- Your team leaders
- Optionally a Leesman export, or an order for a new Leesman survey
What it does
- Asks employees where and how they work, which activities need quiet, who they work with, their commute and what matters in the workplace — anonymously
- Asks team leaders about their team's activity mix, collaboration, security, space needs and expected size
- Shows live response rates per department against real headcounts, teams that are behind first
- Hides results for any group under five answers
- Reads open comments with AI only when you ask
- Imports Leesman results — or sends Leesman a brief; Leesman runs the survey and contracts with you directly
What you get
- An activity mix weighted by department
- Workplace personas
- What people want from the office, ranked
Presence connectors
The presence data most companies already have — door badges, network logs, occupancy files — turned into one daily count of people per site, without keeping who they are.
- Rows read
- 2 140 swipes
- Counted
- 430 people-days
- Two cards
- counted as one person
- Names and card numbers pseudonymised as read
- Personal columns masked before the AI sees a sample
- Network counts are devices — shown as indicative
You bring
- Badge or turnstile exports
- Network (DHCP) device counts
- Daily occupancy files with booked and present desks — by API, CSV or Excel
What it does
- Counts distinct people per site per day — two cards are one person, each visitor card counts once
- Pseudonymises names, employee and card numbers as each row is read; only daily counts are kept
- Masks columns that look personal before an AI sees a sample of the file
- Takes the day's network peak and subtracts the weekend always-on baseline — devices, marked indicative
- Picks one source per site automatically, or the one you choose
- Merges several exports for the same day without counting twice
What you get
- One daily presence record per site
- Hour by hour where network data exists
- A refresh on the schedule you set
Presence & occupancy
How full each office is, day by day and week by week — the shape planners need rather than a single average that hides Wednesday.
Occupancy over 13 weeks: average 57 %, P85 74 %, peak 78 %. Forecast accuracy ±8 %.
You bring
- The daily presence records
- Desks and headcount per site
- Optionally your holiday calendar
What it does
- Shows average, peak, P85, the busiest day and the weekday shape per site over 30 to 180 days
- Switches between utilisation (present ÷ desks) and occupancy (present ÷ headcount) across the portfolio
- Averages days or takes the busiest one — never adds days together
- Forecasts 13 weeks from weekday, season, trend, holidays and bridge days, with its accuracy on the last 8 weeks
- Shows the quarter as measured and with weather evened out
- Writes a reading of the patterns with AI — the figures themselves are computed
What you get
- A P85 planning number
- The weekday shape
- Under-used sites with a lease event coming
Work model
Decide the way of working on the evidence — what policy says, what people prefer and what the data shows — and make every sizing tool use that decision.
| Concept | Fit | Desks / person |
|---|---|---|
| Activity-based | 82 | 0.7 |
| Hybrid assigned | 71 | 0.8 |
| Hot desking | 58 | 0.6 |
| Assigned desks | 34 | 1.0 |
Target: three office days a week. Decided once, used by every sizing tool.
You bring
- Your company work model, and any site exceptions
- Measured weekday presence
- Survey preferences and appetite for change
What it does
- Sets current and target attendance from policy, employee or team-leader preference, activities or occupancy
- Turns the agreed actions into tracked tasks
- Scores four concepts 0–100 with reasons: activity-based, assigned, hybrid assigned and hot desking
- Shows the desk ratio each implies
- Locks the chosen model in Space Estimate, Dimensioning and Space Program
What you get
- A target attendance with its desk and area effect
- One decided workplace concept
- What it takes to run — booking, lockers, clear desk
Office activity profile
What people will actually do in the office, as a mix of activities — the basis for how much of the space is desks, rooms and places to meet.
- Individual 60
- Collaborative 35
- Other 5
You bring
- Survey or Leesman results — or a choice of personas
- Headcount per department
- Optionally a growth plan
What it does
- Sets nine activities that always add up to 100 % — focus, routine, digital collaboration, co-creation, small and large meetings, gatherings, dialogue and other
- Blends the employee and team-leader surveys with a weighting you control
- Profiles each department by headcount, today and after growth
- Sets how open, screened or enclosed each activity needs to be
- Shows how far the profile sits from each source
What you get
- The individual / collaborative / other split
- A weighted enclosure mix
- One profile every later tool reads
Dimensioning
How many of the people the office should be built for — chosen between strategies you can see, not a rule of thumb.
| Strategy | % | People |
|---|---|---|
| Peak occupancy | 78 % | 117 |
| Peak-day exclusion | 71 % | 107 |
| Activity-based norm | 70 % | 105 |
| Average + 20 % buffer | 68 % | 103 |
| Average occupancy | 57 % | 86 |
Peak-day exclusion plans for the second-busiest day: 107 people go to Space Program.
You bring
- Headcount and expected growth
- The work model
- A buffer and a space factor
What it does
- Projects office headcount from growth and the share you plan for
- Uses the measured weekday shape where it exists, a modelled one where it doesn't
- Sets strategies side by side: peak, peak-day exclusion, average, average plus buffer, the model norm and your default
- Warns when the choice sits well above the model's norm
- Sizes desks, rooms and area from the people planned for
What you get
- One justified share to plan for
- Desks, rooms and area from it
- Numbers that reconcile with Space Program
The difference between a utilisation chart and a number you can build on
Measured, then asked
Presence data says when people come in; surveys say what they do there. Together they replace the rule of thumb a space plan usually starts from.
EvidencePeople counted, not tracked
Identities are pseudonymised as each row is read and only daily counts are kept. Survey groups under five answers stay hidden.
PrivacyOne figure, carried forward
The work model you decide and the share you plan for lock into the space tools after them — no retyping, no second version.
Hand-offThe people who decide how much space the organisation needs
Which sites are full — and which aren't
Occupancy per site against desks and headcount, and the under-used sites with a lease event coming.
A work model on the evidence
Policy, preference and measured presence side by side, with the concept that fits and the desk ratio it implies.
Hear everyone, track no one
Anonymous surveys with response rates per team, and presence counted without identities.
Read the Workplacer product story
What Workplacer is, the value it creates, and how the platform fits together — in brief or in full. Read it online or download the PDFs.
Know how the space is used — and how much you need.
Send us a quarter of badge or network exports. We will show you the weekday shape and what it means for the space.