Industry: Technology 

Number of employees: 18,000

Portfolio size: four million square ft, 30 offices, 76 floors

Challenges: 

• Insufficient space for teams to sit together on busier days
• Meeting room no-shows, resulting in wasted space and increased operating costs
• No standardized process for allocating neighborhood space to different business units

After the adoption of hybrid work, office layouts shifted from assigned seating to flexible. Unpredictable occupancy patterns across the 4 million square foot portfolio made it difficult to find the right size for each neighborhood.

The CRE team lacked visibility into when neighborhood desk usage was approaching capacity. This led to overcrowding. Employees struggled to find desks near colleagues on busier days. As a result, collaboration suffered and employees came into the office less frequently.

The CRE team had no standardized process for allocating space to departments that requested it. Without the data to measure each department’s space utilization, the team couldn’t prioritize requests or justify decisions. Allocated space often sat empty, while other teams faced shortages and overcrowding.

Meeting room no-shows were a problem, especially when rooms were in high demand. Without the data to correlate room usage to bookings, the CRE team couldn’t address the no-show issue, leading to wasted space and higher costs.

Badge swipe data wasn’t granular enough to illuminate neighborhood and meeting room usage. The CRE team considered installing occupancy sensors, in each neighborhood. However, the high cost across four million square feet made this option unfeasible.

The organization needed workplace data that was more accurate than badge swipes and less costly than occupancy sensors.

Why HubStar? 

• System and hardware agnostic – HubStar pulls utilization data from WiFi access points and occupancy sensors, unifying all data in one place

• Data-driven decision-making – HubStar visualizes utilization trends and patterns in intuitive dashboards, so impactful office design decisions are always based on data

• Secure, anonymous data – Since HubStar integrates with Aruba access points, all Wifi data stays secure and anonymous. 

The HubStar Solution

The organization deployed PresenceIQ, HubStar’s space utilization solution, through Aruba access points. The HubStar team used existing floorplans to map each access point coordinate to cloud data.

HubStar aggregates and analyzes data from WiFi access points in each neighborhood. The data PresenceIQ receives from Aruba is anonymous, so security and privacy aren’t compromised.

After deploying PresenceIQ in neighborhoods, the CRE team expanded the solution to meeting rooms. The objective was to measure conference room occupancy and reduce no-shows. 

HubStar integrates with all occupancy sensor brands. so XYSense sensors were deployed across meeting rooms. Since PresenceIQ unifies sensor and WiFI data, the CRE team can track neighborhood and room usage in one place.

PresenceIQ’s Microsoft Exchange integration automates email notifications when meeting room no shows happen. No-shows are then flagged to the appropriate team. 

The Result

• Increased attendance and an improved workplace experience

• Efficient space allocation decisions based on data

• Reduction in meeting room no-shows by 30% 

The organization now has full occupancy visibility across rooms, neighborhoods, floors, and buildings. The CRE team monitors actual occupancy levels in HubStar’s workplace analytics dashboards. Neighborhoods nearing capacity automatically trigger threshold alerts. Previously, the CRE team only learned of capacity issues when employees complained.

Measuring utilization at the neighborhood level enables comparison of each space’s performance . A key finding was that flex spaces had 20% higher utilization rates than spaces with assigned seating. Using this insight, the CRE team repurposed assigned seating into more flex spaces.

HubStar data revealed that renovations led to significant occupancy increases. Correlating renovations and amenities with occupancy changes identifies what works and what doesn’t.

Workplace analytics enable data-driven decision making. Overcrowding has decreased and teams can always sit together on in-office days.

Analyzing meeting room usage and sending automatic notifications has reduced no-shows by 30%.

Moving forward, the CRE team is continuing to experiment with new space types. HubStar minimizes the risk of investing in unpopular layouts and amenities.

The organization added half a million square feet to their portfolio last year, and plans to add more. HubStar data empowers the organization to make effective portfolio decisions with certainty.