What is Dynamic Workplace Management?

Change is a good thing. But not so much when can’t ride the waves of change without capsizing. 

Workplace leaders have found themselves at a fork in the road with two options when it comes to workplace management: 

• Attempt to change the workplace back into what it was pre-2020, so what worked just fine before will (hopefully) keep working that way

• Admit that you don’t have all the answers, that perpetual change is the only “new normal” (hands up if you hate that phrase), and that a new set of tools and approaches is needed. 

This post is for people who want to explore the latter option. 

Global office attendance levels have increased to 39%, with weekly peak utilization coming in at 64%. So one of the main challenges facing workplace leaders is spreading that utilization over the average week – a challenge that workplace management is key to solving.  

The catch is that the best ways to boost office attendance without mandates, which the data shows us don’t have much impact anyways, will change. So the processes, data and strategy required for effective workplace management will be subject to constant change. 

Enter dynamic workplace management – the answer to constant change by working these three realities into approaches and tools: 

• What employees want and need will change

• There is no one-size-fits-all

• Constant experimentation reveals the answers

Workplace Management: a Definition

Workplace management is the processes organizations use to improve the physical workplace, including design, technology and the culture people experience in the office. 

In a static workplace (aka the pre-pandemic status quo), working environments, technologies and processes are designed to be stable and predictable with minimal interference from internal or external sources.

In a dynamic workplace, working environments, technologies and processes are subject to constant change from both internal and external sources.

Maintaining and managing a static workplace may seem infinitely easier and more familiar, but willfully or unintentionally ignoring the fact that dynamic workplaces are now the status quo has some unpleasant consequences, to say the least.

Just like Aesop’s old fable of the oak tree and the reed, the forces of change are becoming so strong that only the most flexible, adaptable organizations will avoid being uprooted.

Dynamic Workplace Management: a Definition

Dynamic workplace management is a process for improving the workplace by adapting to changing work environments, employee and employer expectations and organizational priorities. It’s powered by flexible, connected systems, accurate data and automation of manual processes.

At the core of dynamic workplace management is the reality that what people want and need from the workplace will change, and it ways that go against the grain of what you’d expect. 

Work-life balance, for example, now outranks salary as the deciding factor for staying in a current job or accepting a future one.

But there’s an incredible range of variation within companies and age ranges, a lot of which runs contrary to what you’d expect. Gen Z, for example, is the least likely of all age groups to prefer working fully remotely.

Figuring out what configuration of spaces and functionalities match and exceed preferences for all the generations and demographics within your organization is what makes workplace management so challenging. 

Like optimizing your website so more people click that big yellow buy button, or understanding Gen Alpha slang, dynamic workplace management is a continuous, seemingly never ending process. 

It requires an acceptance of nuance, which history is not humanity’s strong point. 

Continuous iteration is a much better option than failing to do so – the result of which is archaic, expensive workplaces that aren’t worth the commute. 

There’s a lot of boxes to tick to pull off dynamic workplace management. But a few we’ll focus on here are: 

• Workplace decisions that make the workplace better
• Individual control over workplace experience
• Plans that are built to be changed

Static Versus Dynamic Workplace Management

Back in the day, people came in five days a week and sat at the same desk. As long as you had enough space, enough meeting rooms, and some nice perks, you were probably all set as far as workplace management went. 

Any big decisions like acquiring more space came with months of advanced warning and visual confirmation. Changing up floor plans was done once a year or even less. 

But today, some people come in twice a week. Others come in five days a week. Some come in whenever the urge strikes them, and others are fully remote except for quarterly kickoffs with a free happy hour afterwards.  

Employees falling under each of the schedules above have completely different workplace expectations, likes and dislikes. Static workplace management will be woefully inadequate at giving different employees the right spaces that elicit their best work. 

And that’s not the only thing. The right floor plans and the right size real estate portfolio are also in a constant state of flux, making it even tougher to figure out which decisions to make with the data you have.

Not to mention everything else that’s beyond anyone’s control, like economic realities, changing environmental regulations, and more.

Dynamic workplace management helps workplaces adapt to uncertainty and provide the same quality of workplace experience, organizational performance and cost minimization, no matter what happens.

But how can you manage a workplace when today’s decisions could be obsolete six months down the line? 

The answer is workplace data.

Data fuels the dynamic workplace management engine and, when it’s acted on, eliminates anything that throws a spanner in the works like uncertainty about the right course of action, making decisions based on gut feel and making decisions based on what the CEO thinks is right (which often it isn’t, no offence). 

How to Shift from Static to Dynamic Workplace Management

Dynamic workplace management requires three interconnected capabilities. Miss any one, and the system breaks down.

1. Attract: make the office worth the commute

Why this matters: If people don’t show up, you’re managing an empty and expensive building. Or you’ll have to default to return-to-office mandates, which create resentment and Employees aren’t going to come in unless they actually want to. 

What this looks like:

• Office events, team gatherings, and perks that create genuine demand
• Help employees coordinate so they’re in on the same day as colleagues
• Provide the right mix of collaboration and focus spaces
• Match people with the spaces they need
  

Research shows employees are 3x more likely to collaborate effectively face-to-face than virtually, but only if the right people are there at the right time.

2. Measure: track what’s actually happening

Why this matters: This is where you measure whether the office is earning the commute and if changes are actually working. 

What this looks like:

• Track space utilization rates across different days, times, and space types
• Measuring weekly attendance patterns by team and department
• Measuring employee feedback on workplace experience

This reveals how to execute your workplace management strategy and what specific changes to make. 

3. Adapt: use workplace data to manage your workplace

Why this matters: This is where the actual workplace management happens, based on quantitative and qualitative workplace data. 

What this looks like:

• Allocating spaces based on how teams use them 
• Sharing data across teams (CRE, HR, IT, facilities) so everyone works from the same facts
• Workplace design changes in areas with low utilization rates 

Every adaptation should create better spaces and policies to bring more people in, which generates better data and smarter adaptations. The cycle compounds.

The Dos and Don’ts of Dynamic Workplace Management

❌Don’t: trust inaccurate workplace data for making big decisions 

Pre-2020, badge swipes, manual walkarounds and meeting room occupancy sensors were sufficient data sources for big decision making. That’s because in an office with static attendance, comparing space capacity to employee demand was a one-and-done exercise. Growth plans or increased hiring were the precursors to deciding a new floor was needed. If an office building was nearing capacity, badge swipes could tell you that. 

Variable attendance patterns have made these data sources insufficient. 

Since office attendance is dynamic over weeks, months and years, walkthroughs only capture occupancy at one moment – not how it’s evolving over time. 

Badge swipes tell you how many people are coming into the office, but not what they’re doing once inside. 

And while highly accurate, sensors only tell you how a small portion of your portfolio is being used and are usually too costly to install everywhere. 

These data sources are no longer sufficient for dynamic workplaces, and create occupancy blind spots. 

✅Do: constantly measure workplace data from a wide range of sources.

Pulling workplace data from sources like occupancy sensors, WiFi signals, badge swipes and data from booking systems provides coverage that’s granular and broad. 

❌Don’t: Expect the same hybrid policy to work for everyone. 

The data is pretty solid on the impacts of hybrid policies employees don’t agree with. 

One in five employees ignore RTO mandates, and 40% of managers ignore employees ignoring RTO mandates. 

S&P firms with strict in-office policies saw higher turnover rates for senior, skilled and female employees skyrocket.

91% of employees were dissatisfied with Amazon’s 2024 full-time RTO mandate. 

And a stat that will perk up the ears of the most emotionless CEO – firms with flexible work policies saw 16% higher revenue growth than their inflexible peers. 

Employees are more likely to comply with policies they agree with, and they’re more likely to agree with a policy if it benefits them. Different things are beneficial to different people, so a one-size-fits-all is beneficial to no one and will likely incur all the negative consequences listen above. 

✅Do: Frequently reassess and change hybrid work policies. 

Life, uh, finds a way, similarly to how people will always find workarounds to an RTO mandate they disagree with. 

Creating a policy or policies that employees think are fair is a better shout in the long run than buckling down inflexibly and creating a monster of resentment and looking for a new job. 

The quality of workplace experience dictates whether or not employees will agree with spending more time there, and whether or not they comply with a hybrid work policy.

JLL’s 2025 Workplace Barometer found that the majority of employees who are happy with their workplace experience are also happy with their hybrid attendance policies.  Policy is intertwined with the rest of the workplace and can’t be created in isolation. 

 “The best way to handle hybrid working is to sit down and handle it with the people who are doing the working as a team,” says organizational psychologist Craig Knight. “The best form is the one that suits the team.”

❌Don’t: Use PDF and paper floor plans to plan design changes.

One person occupies one workspace five days per week. This one-to-one sharing ratio of employee to desk has been the backbone of space management for decades – but it’s not anymore. 

Today, one person occupies one workspace, but only one day per week. A different person occupies the same workspace two days per week, and a third person makes the desk theirs on the remaining two days. That’s a sharing ratio of three to one. 

One humble desk now has to work pretty hard to meet the needs of three different people.

Since space planning tools were built for space sharing ratios of one to one, adapting them requires a lot of workarounds. Updating floor plans and running reports take an unrealistic amount of effort, since changes are happening constantly. 

Legacy systems leave space planners unprepared to answer inevitable questions from the C-Suite and real estate leaders, like: 

• Will we have enough space to accommodate everyone if we change our hybrid work policy?
• Will we have enough space to accommodate everyone if we reduce our office square footage by X amount?
• What’s the ideal ratio of individual to collaborative workspaces? Space allocated to individual working decreased to 41% in 2024, down from 50% in 2021 according to CBRE, but the right ratio for your office could be different

Legacy space systems can’t match workplace supply to employee demand. This leads to excessive maintenance costs and underutilized, overcrowded spaces that don’t provide the workplace experience employees want. 

✅Do: Use a hybrid space management tool that’s built for constant floor plan changes and seating assignments.

Three things are key when it comes to hybrid space management: 

• Aligning changing occupancy patterns and floor plans
• Faster uploading and editing of floor plans 
• Interoperability with other systems (e.g. HR and workplace booking)