Investing in new growth is now at the top of the agenda for leading companies in the West Midlands, with the employment rates reaching record highs at 71.2%, according to the latest ONS figures.
Leading workspace utilisation specialist Condeco Software has discovered that average office workspace utilisation is only 38 per cent, leaving companies investing in millions of pounds of premium real estate that routinely goes unused by staff increasingly out at meetings or working remotely. Research from HR company Robert Half recently revealed that flexible working has increased 37 per cent in the last three years alone.
Paul Statham, Founder and CEO of Condeco Software, comments: “The high level of employment across the UK reflects growing confidence from businesses that are eager to invest in new staff to expand their operations. However, they must ensure their workplaces are equipped to make the best of their new hires.”
“Alongside new staff, investment in new workspace previously stood as one of the strongest indicators of performance, but with the fixed desk becoming increasingly irrelevant, aggressively expanding into larger office space is no longer a requirement for successful growth. With the UK standing as the most expensive office location in the world, it is vital for the leading global companies based there to ensure they make the most of every last inch of their facilities.
“We have found very few business leaders have any visibility of real time data on how their offices are used day-to-day. Most believe they have a high level of efficiency, but our research has found it to be almost half of the expectation. The huge disparity is caused by reliance on outdated manual surveys – clickers and clipboards – which are very time consuming and prone to inaccuracy, and provide no indication of the day-today use of the space.”
To meet this challenge, Condeco Software has created Condeco Sense, a market first in sensing technology that enables business leaders to access accurate, real-time data on how their workspaces, meeting rooms and breakout spaces are used. Sense uniquely deploys mesh networking technology, enabling hundreds of devices to run through a single gateway to create a sensor of unparalleled cost-effectiveness and size. Unlike manual surveys, which can be mislead by items left on desks and provide no visibility of a working day, the devices collect motion and heat data, with a complex algorithm identifying the actual usage of a given space.
A single Condeco Sense study with 1,000 sensors produces 22 million lines of data in one month. Over a year of deployment in 13 different countries, Sense has identified over 600,000 sq ft of wasted office space – an estimated $198,000,000 in real estate savings for businesses globally.
