Plan for the working week.
The difference between a busy day and a quiet day changes how an office should be planned.
Read the insightTopic · Office occupancy
Understand office occupancy across the working week.
An average alone cannot explain how an office is used. Planning also needs to account for the differences between busy and quieter days.
Look beyond the average.
Office Report 2026/27 records average desk occupancy of 62%. It reaches 78% on the busiest day and 34% on the quietest. This range shows why one figure cannot describe the whole working week.
When planning space or introducing shared desks, organisations need to consider recurring patterns as well as peaks. Meeting rooms, quiet areas and workstations serve different activities. Their use cannot be inferred from employee numbers alone.
Look closely at the space already available.
79 of the 164 participating organisations report a combined 340,310 square metres of office space they no longer need. This surplus space is within properties that are already in use.
A useful starting point is to establish actual space requirements and assess whether they can be met at the current location. Lease terms, costs and workplace quality also matter when deciding between consolidation and relocation.
Keep the organisation in view.
The findings describe the participating organisations. Occupancy, space and working patterns need to be considered together; the figures are not universal space standards. The articles below explore these relationships through findings from Office Report.
