Chapter 7

Appendix

2023–2024 CBRE Global Workplace & Occupancy Insights

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Methodology

The content of this report is based on CBRE’s Annual Workplace & Occupancy Benchmarking Program, which combines quantitative and qualitative data to identify key metrics as well as modern working and workplace design trends. Findings are supplemented with additional research and insights to contextualize their impact on Workplace and Occupancy Strategy trends for the year.

In 2023, 66 CBRE clients participated in the program, representing almost 350 million sq. ft. or 32 million sq. m across Americas, Asia-Pacific and EMEA. Clients’ portfolio sizes range from 0.5 million sq. ft. to 90 million sq. ft., with an average size of 9 million sq. ft.

CBRE’s Vantage Benchmarking program has established new data governance guidelines related to the classification of property types and sector data. These changes have been retroactively applied to historic benchmarking data to facilitate trending over time. As a result, historic data included in the 2023 report may vary from past publications. Due to rounding, numbers may not add up precisely to the totals and percentages may not precisely reflect the absolute figures.

Participating CBRE clients are provided access to the complete benchmarking data set summarized here which includes over 50,000 unique data points. For more information on CBRE’s Annual Occupancy Benchmarking Program, please email [email protected].

  • 66

    Client count

  • 32,369,832

    RSM

  • 5,808

    Building count

  • 348,428,876

    RSF

Glossary of terms

Allocated Headcount: The total number of people that are allocated to a seat or neighborhood at a location. Includes assigned and sharing headcount plus headcount allocated to a zone/ neighborhood. Does not include other headcount that may utilize the site.

Alternative Work Seat: Select spaces that are not traditional individual seats but can be counted toward a location's capacity in an activity-based work or hybrid environments. May include specific select spaces (e.g., phone booths or pods) and or a percent of seats in select spaces (e.g., open or enclosed collaboration seats, seats in meeting rooms, and/or seats in amenity areas such as a café).

Amenity Space: Total combined area of all space types intended to increase a location's usefulness such as education/training spaces, restaurants/ cafe, gym, childcare, reception, pantry, and conference center. These spaces are generally not allocable to organization units.

Attendance: The number of people who access a space during a period of time. This can include visitors if they represent a material percentage of office visits. May be tracked separately for different segments of Total Headcount, including dedicated/sharing populations or business units.

Average Peak Show-Up Rate: The maximum number of people who access a space during a period of time divided by the total headcount.

Average Show-Up Rate: The average number of people who access a space during a period of time divided by the total headcount.

Average Utilization: The average utilization rate reached during a specified time period.

Collaboration Seat: A seat (or count of seats) designed for teamwork, usually at tables within rooms, but certain open, more informal spaces may also be counted here.

Collaboration Space: (aka "We" space) Total combined area of all space types intended for use by a team or group of individuals at a time, such as open collaboration and enclosed collaboration spaces.

Design Capacity: The number of total people that can use a location at any one point in time. Includes individual seats and alternative work seats. For traditional environments with 1:1 seating assignments, this may equal the total number of individual seats. For activity-based and hybrid environments, this may equal the total number of individual seats + the total number of alternative work seats. Should not exceed legal capacity.

Individual Space: (aka "Me" space) Total combined area of all space types intended for use by one individual at a time, such as open workstations, enclosed workstations/offices, and phone rooms. This space type is generally characterized by the deepest focus or solo work.

Macro Level Utilization Data: Utilization data gathered at the building level or larger scale. Includes campus, metro, market, country, and regional utilization data.

Micro Level Utilization Data: Utilization data gathered at the floor level or smaller scale. Includes zone, neighborhood, or space level.

Occupancy Rate: The total number of people that are allocated to a seat or neighborhood at a location divided by design capacity.

Peak Utilization: The maximum utilization rate reached during a specified time period.

People Per Seat: A point in time sharing ratio that captures the total headcount divided by the individual seats. This metric helps an organization understand how close they are to achieving or exceeding their target sharing ratio.

Rentable Area: Measured as rentable square feet (RSF) or rentable square meters (RSM), may include a share of building support/common areas such as elevator lobbies, building corridors, and floor service areas.

Reservation Rate: The time a reservable space is booked divided by the total time a space can be booked.

Sharing Capacity: The maximum number of people that can be planned to use seats over time. Unlike design capacity, sharing capacity considers the target sharing ratio of individual and alternative work seats to quantify the full planning opportunity in activity-based working and hybrid environments. Methods to determine sharing ratios will vary by client and workplace strategy.

Show-up Rate: A method of understanding the demand for space based on employee attendance patterns.

SQ. FT./SQ. M. Per Seat: The total rentable sq. ft. or sq. m. divided by the total number of seats.

SQ. FT./SQ. M. Per Person: The total rentable sq. ft. or sq. m. divided by the total headcount.

Support Space: Total combined area of all space types intended to directly aid the work performed in the workspace, such as copy areas, mailroom, labs, file storage areas, file storage rooms, mothers/wellness rooms, lockers, data centers, and server/IDF closets.

Target Sharing Ratio: A planning concept that identifies the number of people that can share a single seat over time. For example, a sharing ratio of 2 to 1 means that for every 2 people a single shared space is needed. There may be multiple target sharing ratios used in a workplace strategy.

Total Headcount: The total number of people that are planned to access an office location over time. Accounts for the full population including, workers with dedicated seats, workers who share seats, and workers who access the office on a regular basis.

Utilization: A method of measuring the use of a space to determine if it is being used effectively.

Utilization Rate (Capacity-based): The number of people using a space during a period of time divided by the capacity of the space.

Utilization Rate (Time-based): The time a space is occupied divided by the total time a space is available to be occupied.

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Chapter 6 Regional Office Insights