Desk sharing ratio: what’s the magic number?

Calculating an appropriate office desk sharing ratio and occupancy rate is a complex task with numerous moving parts. Anticipating how much space to allot per employee, how best to plan for flex meeting spaces and meeting rooms, and when to expand or contract your square footage can lead to numerous headaches for facility managers. As employees embrace flexible schedules and remote work, gauging the optimal mix of chairs, desks, and equipment can feel uncertain.

In planning for the return to the office after the COVID-19 pandemic, companies need to be more careful than ever before, keeping workplace distancing and other safeguards top of mind.

Because of all these factors, finding an ideal occupancy or desk sharing ratio may seem more art than science. However, your business’s unique details—team size, business phase, and projected growth—can provide the context for finding a ratio that works for your company. Tracking these four data points can set you on a path to efficient occupancy.

1. Team size, function, and desk usage

Most businesses look to the size of the current employee list when considering an ideal occupancy or desk sharing ratio. According to design firm Knoll, the trend towards distributed work—where employees’ days include a blend of focused, collaborative, and informal work—has resulted in an average desk sharing ratio of 2.3 employees per desk. While this figure doesn’t include boardrooms, collaborative spaces, and the wholesale space a traditional occupancy rate is based on, it remains a useful sign of the direction office occupancy is heading.

To refine further, consider individual departments and their time in-office or at-desk. For example, a sales department that is largely out of the office may only need a few desks to support employees who drop in for office work: a ratio as high as 20:1 could be appropriate, depending on the amount of time employees spend on site.

If you’re unsure of your company’s current usage habits, source occupancy data from your desk booking and space management solution. Knowing the number of people relative to the number of desks plays a large part in determining the overall occupancy rate, and the more metrics you can investigate, the better.

2. Business phase and projected growth

Modern business theory says most businesses perpetually occupy one of four phases in a cycle:

• ​Expansion: The business scales and takes on more employees
• ​Peak: The tip of the expansion phase, where the business will expand no further until the next cycle
• ​Contraction: A period marked by slowed growth and decreased employment
• ​Trough: The lowest valley of the contraction phase, where the business’s shrinkage bottoms out and the cycle starts anew

Awareness of your company’s current phase in this cycle can help you assess its ideal occupancy ratio, as will anticipating the stage ahead. A business expecting to shift from peak to contraction will have a different long-term occupancy plan than one moving from trough to expansion. As a company grows quickly, the space allocated to individual employees will likely shrink. When this happens, strategies like hot desking and remote working can be useful, providing a desk sharing ratio of two or three employees per desk.

3. Industry

Another key influence on occupancy ratios is your company’s industry. For example, a recording studio and a call center occupying the same space will have very different occupancy needs. The studio will need soundproofed recording rooms and mixing floors; the call center will need desks and headsets. A space that fits two editing suites may be equally appropriate for 20 or more call-center employees.

Drilling down further, the industry question becomes an examination of what type of work your employees are involved in. Creative employees sharing a cowork area may benefit from the traditional 150 sq. ft. per person (or even a generous 200 sq. ft.); phone-based sales reps may get by on 100 sq. ft. per person or less, depending on cube design and space specifics. The roles in your company will also determine layout factors like management offices, small consultation rooms, boardrooms, and other space-taking features beyond the standard workspace. The right software solution can provide the metrics needed to make the best possible decisions; don’t ignore the power data-backed insights can offer while determining an optimal ratio. Industry trends can be useful, but data can help you understand your company’s unique needs and challenges.

4. Market competition

Unlike the other factors, market competition is more of a contextual informer than a direct decision influencer. Although you likely won’t know a competitor’s exact square footage per employee, insight into what others in your field are doing with their workspaces can be a great source of inspiration as you shape your own.

For example, if your company, which has always used a traditional one-per-desk design, sees a competitor’s press release describing their modern, renovated facility with an open cowork area, polling employees may reveal a willingness to explore a similar model. Since cowork spaces tend to require less square footage than traditional cubicles, your occupancy rate could shrink—and you might uncover space for morale-boosting features such as communal fridges and ping-pong tables. In this scenario, your competitor’s occupancy style has helped you rethink your own.

It’s good to know what others in your industry are doing for many reasons, occupancy planning included. Whether you’re moving into a new space or looking for ways to revitalize your current office, this knowledge—along with the other determinants on this list—should help as you home in on your ideal ratio.

See what else you can learn from occupancy data, and leverage best-in-class facility management software to help you get your calculations done.