Resources
Occupancy rate
The occupancy rate is the share of available workplaces or areas actually used in a given period – the core metric of workplace utilization.
In short
The occupancy rate is the share of available workplaces, rooms or areas that were actually used within a defined period. It is calculated as used resources divided by available resources, and it changes meaning depending on whether "used" means booked, checked in or measured by a sensor. For capacity planning the peak occupancy rate matters more than the average.
Calculation
Occupancy rate = used resources ÷ available resources, within a defined time window. Three choices decide what the number means: which resources count as available (all desks, or only bookable ones), what counts as used (booked or confirmed), and which window is measured (a day, a working hour, a quarter).
Two organizations reporting "62 per cent" may be measuring entirely different things.
Average against peak
An average occupancy of 55 per cent sounds like an invitation to reduce space. If the same site reaches 85 per cent every Tuesday, reducing to 55 per cent of desks creates a shortage on the day teams actually meet. Capacity follows the peak; the average describes the cost of that peak.
Typical values
Reported office occupancy in hybrid organizations commonly falls between 40 and 70 per cent of nominal capacity, with a pronounced mid-week peak. Benchmarks are of limited use, because they depend on the definition above and on attendance rules that differ per organization.
From the definition to your own offices
Terminology is where an evaluation starts, not where it ends. Thirty minutes with the product open turns the concept into your floor plan.