Occupancy, utilization & people counts

InnerSpace looks at occupancy as a measure of how full a space is at any given time. To provide a meaningful picture of how heavily spaces are being used, InnerSpace calculates per-minute occupancy and occupancy rate, and uses those to calculate the usable occupancy metrics you see in various reports and graphs.

Foundational metrics

These are the elemental numbers that InnerSpace calculates every minute for every space, and are used as the basis for further calculating the metrics you consume through the various InnerSpace interfaces.

Base per-minute occupancy - This is is the count of people in a space during any minute.

Base per-minute occupancy rate - This is the foundational rate that drives a several occupancy metrics further defined below. The base per-minute occupancy rate is calculated as the number of [LINK] unique people in a space during a minute divided by the capacity of the space.

Visible metrics

These are the metrics you are more likely to see as you use the InnerSpace service.

Occupancy - This is an average of the the per-minute occupancy numbers of a space for each minute the space is occupied in any given timeframe.

Example, if, over 5 minutes, a 10-person room contained:

• 1 person for the 1st minute, occupancy = 1

• 2 people for the 2nd minute, occupancy = 2

• 4 people for the 3rd minute, occupancy = 4

• 10 people for the 4th minute, occupancy = 10

• 0 people for the 5th minute, occupancy = 0 This does not get counted in the calculation because the space is empty.

Then, the average occupancy for the 5 minute period would be the average of the per-minute occupancies above:

Occupancy = [1+2+4+10]/4 = 4.25

The above is not intended as a real-world example, rather it is meant to illustrate how the calculation happens.

Occupancy % - the occupancy rate - This metric shows how full a space was during the times it was occupied, relative to its predefined capacity. For example, if a room designed for 10 people contains 4, the occupancy rate is 40% for that timeframe.

InnerSpace calculates occupancy rate as the average of the per-minute occupancy rates for each minute of the selected timeframe that the space is occupied. This metric does not incorporate times when the space was not occupied.

So, continuing with the example shown above for a 10-person room, we would calculate:

• 1 person for the 1st minute = 10% occupancy rate

• 2 people for the 2nd minute = 20% occupancy rate

• 4 people for the 3rd minute = 40% occupancy rate

• 10 people for the 4th minute = 100% occupancy rate

• 0 people for the 5th minute = 0% occupancy rate. This does not get counted in the calculation because the space is empty.

Then the occupancy rate for that 5 minute period would be the average of the per-minute rates above:

Occupancy % = [10+20+40+100]/4 = 42.5%

Peak occupancy rate - The highest occupancy rate observed for a space in the selected timeframe. In the example above, peak occupancy rate would be 100%.

Utilization % vs. occupancy

In contrast to occupancy, at InnerSpace we define utilization % as how often a space was in-use, or occupied over a given time frame, regardless of how many people were counted in it. For example a space would be considered 50% utilized if it was occupied by at least one person for half the minutes in a selected time period.

Unique people vs. occupancy

In general, while occupancy metrics look at averages of per-minute people counts in a space over a given timeframe, these may differ from the ‘unique people’ counts over the same timeframe. For example, a space might be visited by 20 different people over the course of an hour, but not all at the same time. So while the number of unique people seen in the space would be 20 in this case, the occupancy for that space might be a completely different number depending on how many of those unique people were occupying the space together at different points of the hour.

Similarly, if those 20 people were all occupying the space together for the whole hour, then the occupancy and unique people counts for the hour would be equal.

Real-world Example

Scenario

Let’s take the following scenario in a hypothetical Conference Room A, which has a capacity of 20 people. Let’s say the following events transpire one day between 9am and 10am.

1. An Engineering team, consisting of 5 people, have their 9am daily standup for 15 min in Conference Room A.

2. At 9:15, the Engineering team exits and is replaced by a Marketing team of 10 people, who have a 30-minute project status meeting starting at 9:15.

3. At 9:45 the Marketing team exits the room and Conference Room A is empty for the rest of the hour until 10am.

Metrics for the hour 9am-10am for Conference Room A

Metric	Value	Explanation
Occupancy	8.3	For determining occupancy for Conference Room A during the 9am-10am hour we would start our calculation by first measuring the per minute occupancy: 5 for the first 15 min 10 for the following 30 min 0 for the final 15 min - this time period would be ignored since the room was empty. The average of the above would the be: [(5*15)+(10*30)]/45 = 8.3
Occupancy rate	41.67%	The occupancy % for Conference Room A during the 9am-10am hour would be calculated as: 5/20 = 25% for the first 15 min 10/20 = 50% for the following 30 min 0/20 = 0% for the final 15 min - this time period would be ignored since the room was empty. The average of the above would be: [(25*15)+(50*30)]/45 = 41.67%
Utilization rate	75%	Since the room was only in use for 45 of 60 minutes during the hour, the utilization of that room would be 45/60 = 75%
Unique people	15	Assuming no individual was part of both marketing and engineering teams, the number of unique people occupying the space over the selected 1 hour timeframe was 15. If you consider an alternate scenario where one person attended both meetings, then the number of unique people would fall to 14.
Peak occupancy	10	Since the most number of people in the conference room at any given time was the Marketing team of 10 people, peak occupancy would measure 10.
Peak occupancy rate	50%	The peak occupancy rate would be the peak occupancy for the timeframe divided by the capacity of the room (20), giving us 50%.

This is a summary of how InnerSpace measures and calculates occupancy and utilization metrics. For more space utilization data tips and tricks, consider subscribing to our newsletter or contact us to learn more.