A new survey of workplace leaders, facilities managers and HR directors — conducted by hybrid workplace solutions provider HubStar — has found that, despite hybrid models becoming the ‘new norm’ across workplaces worldwide, office occupancy rates are peaking at not more than 50% on typical workdays.

This suggests that up to half of many offices remain unused on a regular workday — resulting in consequential amounts of workspace, budget and carbon emissions going to waste.

Such huge underutilization of space presents a major challenge for space planners in 2025. 

It raises questions about what space planning really means in the age of hybrid work. What makes space planning effective? And what steps should space planners be taking to model future workspace in the age of hybrid, flexible, and remote working?

What is Space Planning?

In an explainer video for Study.com, teachers Stephanie Przybylek and Sasha Blakeley define space planning as “the in-depth analysis of how physical space is used in structures. It considers the purpose of spaces and who will use them. Space planning is a process that takes several steps, and it is an important component for the work of interior designers and architects. Space planning helps ensure efficient use of floor space without wasting it.”

Workplace space planning is an analysis of how office space is currently being used, as well as a detailed plan for how everything that comprises office space — from desks to kitchenettes — will be configured moving forward.

Effective space planning carries out the organization’s business objectives, makes sure employees have the resources they need to do their best work in the office, and — last but not least — is dynamic and adaptable.

The benefits of effective space planning

• Reduced costs from a rightsized real estate portfolio
• Reduced costs from avoiding the waste of facilities management on underused spaces
• An improved employee experience and more employees coming into the office as a result
• Stronger employee performance
• Increased energy efficiency through better use of space
• A workplace that adapts to work habits and preferences
• A workplace that scales dynamically as the company grows
• Data-driven decisions that inform office layout and office design.

Five Steps to Effective Space Planning

1. Measure how all workspaces are being used and occupied.

The starting point for any organization’s space planning guidelines should always be bringing together all office floor plans and tracking how every square inch of space is being used by employees.

This could be done through consolidating CAD plans, Excel spreadsheets, or using a workplace analytics platform. The goal is to distil measurement down to what is actually usable (desks and conference rooms, for example) and, significantly, what is actually being used.

Do employees flock to the conference rooms for brainstorming or stick to the desks, for example? Without measuring past and present space utilization, implementing the office layout and design that keeps people coming back into the office will be a shot in the dark. Effective space planning relies on accurate data.

2. Understand your workplace strategy and how it will guide space planning.

A workplace strategy aligns work patterns and preferences with work environments. It also supports the organization’s objectives, such as cutting costs or retaining and attracting top talent. That’s why space planning falls under the umbrella of workplace strategy. As the plan for how space will be used in the future, it is the physical embodiment of that strategy.

It is therefore critical for space planners to take time to explore the full scope of the workplace strategy to ensure the right objectives are reflected in the plan.

Effective space planning is dynamic and evolves at the same pace as the organization. For that reason, aligning the space planning process with your organization’s workplace strategy will set you up for success from the outset.

3. Define occupancy profiles and create an occupancy strategy.

Effective space planning quantifies both supply and demand: the supply of existing workspaces and the demand employees put on those spaces. Measuring all owned and occupied space down to the square inch is what quantifies supply, while utilization data and occupancy profiles (the ways different employee groups occupy workspaces) make up the demand side of the equation.

Before the Covid pandemic, there was only one employee occupancy profile: people who come into the office five days a week. There may have been the odd employee who occasionally worked remotely or out in the field several times a week — or a particular team who collectively decided to come in at 10am every morning — but nothing major enough to alter a space plan. In those days, space planning was not as relied upon as it is now. 

Today, hybrid working has created multiple occupancy profiles. We have the keen beans who come in every day; the Tuesday through Thursday hybrid crowd; the out-of-towners who only come in for client meetings … the list goes on. To serve the needs of every employee, all office floor plans must now be tailored around how each of these multiple employee occupancy profiles uses the workspace.

As a result, it is now imperative to take the time to thoroughly scope out what each occupancy profile needs from the workspace in order to produce a space planning strategy that improves the employee experience and doesn’t waste space.

For further reading, find out more about the five different types of hybrid working.

4. Deploy space planning software that is built for hybrid work.

Most organizations will be using space management software, because doing everything manually when you’re dealing with millions of square feet is a recipe for a migraine.

However, most space planning systems were built before Covid, when employees were directly assigned to one desk only — without hot desking, desk hoteling or semi-permanent remote working anywhere in sight.

Now that hybrid and flexible work is the norm, space planning systems have to assign multiple occupancy groups to different spaces that are used in different ways at different times. Planners must then model the best way for the workspace to accommodate each group. Using a space planning system that can model a hybrid occupancy strategy and space plan will make sure office layout and design meets the needs of employees — no matter how their work habits and preferences change in the future (which they definitely will).

5. Consistently measure the success of the space planning strategy and adjust it over time.

The most concise space planning strategy is all for nothing if spaces are not used in the intended way after the plan is deployed. Effective space planning is an iterative and cyclical process, not just a one-stop shot. The single biggest measure of success can be found in utilization data.

Are people using the new conference rooms? If it becomes apparent after a few months that they are being used for meetings of three people instead of the 15 people they were designed for, it could be time to break them down into smaller rooms to make the best possible use of the space (and avoid wasting money on utilities and cleaning).

Furthermore, at some point every workplace will reach a state of equilibrium — where occupancy reaches a steady state and becomes predictable. This is the right moment to take those important real estate portfolio decisions that CFOs keep urging real estate and facilities teams to make.

Measuring the success of a space planning strategy with the help of utilization data provides the means to make decisions based on data rather than observation … decisions that can have a massive impact on any company’s bottom line.