Last year, Workspace Design Magazine published a very interesting article on workspace utilization. It discusses ways to monitor and manage facility usage:

• To lower energy costs (e.g., lighting and climate control) on a space by space basis
• To decrease the square footage needed for hosting a workforce of a given size by increasing the flexibility of the office environment
• To assess and reduce the number of workstations required for all employees to have a desktop when needed
• To increase the utilization of available space to maximize efficiency and productivity

The author suggests that the future will hold more and more granular inspection of workspace usage including at the individual workstation level. This is already taking place with seat occupancy sensors, adjustable lighting and electrical consumption management technology that can deliver real time reporting on resource usage.

What’s next? Perhaps you can start putting in decibel meters to track the level of sound in each area throughout the day. This could help you manage workplace noise levels by indicating which spaces could benefit most from acoustic shielding with higher cubicle walls.