Research Note

Why Occupancy Is Not Workplace Strategy

Audience

CRE leaders, FM, workplace strategists

Core question

What can occupancy data decide alone — and what can it not?

Thesis

Occupancy explains observed use, never demand, preference or cause. Strategies built on utilisation alone systematically confuse adaptation with preference and cut the space people needed rather than the space they avoided for fixable reasons.

Suggested structure
  1. The seduction of the utilisation number
  2. What occupancy measures and what it cannot
  3. Three real misreadings and their costs
  4. Occupancy's proper role: validating and challenging demand evidence
Research sources
  • Occupancy measurement validity studies
  • Triangulation methodology literature
  • Post-occupancy evaluation research
Workplaced relation

References Occupancy's positioning: validates, challenges and enriches demand — never replaces it.

Related methods
Full article body — in development.