Introducing Desk Analytics: Essential Workplace Engagement Insights

Counting humans and calling it “capacity data” simply won’t cut it anymore. 

You need more context. 

Especially as we enter an era where people-first and flexible work strategies continue to grow in popularity, workplace teams need to be able to slice and dice data to understand who is coming into the office and when in the short-term, and adapt their office to how their people get their best work done in the long run.

That’s where desk analytics come in. 

Teams need to go beyond just raw capacity numbers to comply with social distancing guidelines or plan for entirely new ways of work. With Robin's new collection of desk analytics, you can break down workplace engagement insights into the who, the what, the when, and the how. 

Specifically: 

• Who: who was in office (and who was around them) 
• What: what type of desks were used 
• When: when people came into the office 
• How: how many desks were used
  

Analyzing each of these layers — on a daily and historical basis — empowers workplace teams to get a full picture of their office. To reopen an office, set up hybrid work strategies, and proactively iterate within a workplace, understanding how employees engage with your entire floor plan is key.‍

Today: A live view of daily desk usage 

We broke our desk usage insights into two perspectives, real-time and historical, to give workplace teams a complete look into their office. 

“Today” provides a quick, at-a-glance summary of what’s happening in the office for the day. Easily glean how you stack up against capacity limits, what your desk availability is for the day, and what activity looks like across floors and buildings. 

Now it’s Easy to Answer Questions Like: 

• How many desks are being used today?
• What kind of desks are being used (assigned, hot, or hotel)? 
• How does desk usage today compare with the rest of the week?
• How are we stacking up against capacity limits (either reduced for COVID-19 or regular limits)?
• What does desk availability look like across different floors or buildings? 
• Which days of the week are the busiest?
• What floors are most popular today?
• And more
  

Timeline: A Historical View of Desk Usage 

Real-time data is key for daily functioning, but historical data is what really informs a proactive workplace strategy. To complement our insights in “today”, we made a “timeline” to analyze office trends over time. 

Timeline insights let you dig into floor plan usage across different floors, buildings, or your workplace as a whole over the time range of your choice. This helps workplace teams identify trends and plan for the future. With timeline reports, it’s easy to see how floor plan capacity, density, and overall desk bookings fluctuate. 

Quickly Find Answers to Questions Like: 

• How has capacity changed in the office over time? 
• How should I adapt my physical office to meet changes in capacity? 
• How should I plan out my seating strategy based on how desks are used? 
• Is it time to downsize? Is it time to look for a bigger lease? 
• Are people not coming into the office because we’ve been at our capacity limit for X weeks in a row? 
• Which days of the week tend to be the busiest for our office? 
• Are different floors or buildings busy on different days? 
• Which building or floor is our busiest on average? Why? 
• How have the total number of desks booked in the office changed over time?
• And more 
  

What Desk Analytics Unlock for Your Office

Combined with desk check-in functionality and exportable reports, Robin’s desk analytics empowers workplace teams to be nimble on a daily basis and adaptive on a long-term basis. With historical and real-time workplace engagement insights workplace teams can: 

1. Return to the office with confidence: Easily monitor and confirm who’s in the office when. This data is essential for contact tracing should someone recently in the office fall ill. Continually monitor capacity limitations across your socially-distanced floor plan to be within safe levels. 
   

2. Optimize your office:  No one wants real estate to go to waste. Now more than ever, it’s important to understand what desks and spaces are actually needed in your workplace. Without accurate data, it’s difficult to fuel ideas for the next version of your office or even clarify when it makes sense to minimize resources.
   

3. Adapt and plan for new ways of work: Slicing and dicing data to understand what desks are utilized and whether they’re flexible or assigned seats, which floors and buildings people tend to work from most, and how office usage changes over time are the insights needed to proactively create a great workplace experience. As flexible and hybrid work grows in popularity, office usage will ebb and flow. 

PS. Robin customers — interested in finding out more about desk analytics? Check out our help center article here or reach out to your account manager. 

PPS. We also have a full set of space usage analytic reports. For more information, check this out.