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What is Space Management?

Space management is the process of optimizing the use of a facility’s physical space. It involves planning, organizing, and maintaining the use of a given workspace to ensure that it is used efficiently and effectively.

May 9, 2023
7 min read

What is Space Management?

Space management is the process of making the best use of a company or facility's physical space. It involves intentionally planning, organizing, and overseeing the use of a given workspace to ensure that it's used efficiently and effectively. Space management can apply to a wide range of settings, including offices, commercial buildings, manufacturing plants, warehouses, and even residential homes.

By understanding the needs of employees, business owners and company leaders can reorganize their space to maximize its potential. This may include moving furniture, modifying the layout of the space, or implementing new technologies and processes to manage the use of the space. Through these efforts, business leaders can improve efficiency, enhance collaboration, promote employee well-being, and reduce costs.

The Benefits of Space Management

Space management process is a great investment for businesses of all sizes in all industries. A well-designed, thoughtfully organized space has some significant benefits for both your business and your employees.

Space management can:

  • Improve employee productivity.
  • Make processes more efficient.
  • Help employees save time and boost productivity as a result.

A well-designed space can also facilitate collaboration and communication among employees, leading to greater teamwork and a more cohesive work environment. This results in greater creativity and innovation from your employees. And when employees feel comfortable in their workspace, their well-being—and job satisfaction—improve, so retention can improve as a result!

By making the best use of your space, furniture, technology, and energy, you can cut overhead costs. Companies can limit utilities in underused spaces or even eliminate space that proves to be no longer necessary.

In addition, space management can be tailored to specific environments like offices and campuses. Both office space management and campus space management have unique challenges and opportunities that make implementing a dedicated space management system essential.

Office Space Management

With real estate typically the second highest expense for an organization and an estimated 40% of workspaces sitting empty during the workday, businesses pay a steep price for underutilized spaces. An office space management system gives visibility into how spaces are being used so you can make better business decisions in the long term.

And then there’s the people piece. Great workplace space management makes for an improved user experience because:

  • Employees can locate and book the desks and workspaces they need to get work done
  • Collaboration is smoother when people meet in the right places, with the right resources
  • Office visitors receive white-glove treatment for curated customer experiences
  • You prevent scheduling mishaps like double bookings, phantom meetings, and rooms that aren’t ready for use

Campus Space Management

Today’s higher education institutions also face enormous challenges. Aging facilities, changing student expectations, and outdated learning spaces (think massive lecture halls or inflexible furniture) put pressure on colleges to overhaul their spaces.

Space management systems can help. For example, Wake Forest University follows a decentralized model where each department controls its own buildings and spaces. But when the university implemented a space management system, they boosted communication and collaboration while still allowing each group to manage their spaces. Check out the short video below to see more:

 

Why You Need a Space Management Strategy

At its core, space management involves tracking, understanding, and optimizing the usage of your space. It’s a simple idea, but without a space management system in place, your organization can quickly become overwhelmed. A good system can help you answer questions like:

  • What workspaces in our office are used the most?
  • Where do our employees like to collaborate?
  • Are there enough study spaces for our students?
  • What spaces can be converted for multiple uses?
  • How much of our space is unused or underutilized?
  • What will our space needs look like in the future?

 

What Are the Top Factors to Consider When it Comes to Space Management?

Effective space management involves considering a wide range of factors to ensure that space is being used effectively and efficiently. Some of the key factors that should be taken into account when managing space include:

  1. Space utilization: Start by analyzing how space is currently being used and identifying opportunities to optimize utilization. This may involve reorganizing furniture, adjusting the layout of the space, or implementing new processes or technologies.
  2. Space planning: This involves developing a comprehensive plan for the use of space, taking into account the needs and requirements of employees using the space. Space management should be guided by the needs and preferences of the space users. This might include soliciting feedback and input from users, and implementing changes based on their needs and preferences.
  3. Occupancy levels: Ideally, you need to know how many people are using a given space at any given time to ensure it’s being used effectively. This may involve implementing occupancy sensors or using data from room reservation systems to track usage patterns.
  4. Furniture and equipment: Of course, one of the key factors of space management involves managing the selection, maintenance, and disposition of furniture and equipment. You may need to invest in an asset management system to track inventory and usage patterns.
  5. Energy efficiency: Finally, you’ll need to implement strategies to reduce energy consumption and minimize the environmental impact of the space. This may involve installing energy-efficient lighting and HVAC systems or implementing policies to reduce paper and other waste. You may even consider using an energy management system.

Using a dedicated space management software can help you manage many of these factors.

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The Biggest Space Management Challenges

Making the most of your physical and virtual spaces requires significant planning and effort. Here are some of the key space management challenges to be aware of in the office environment.

  • Figuring out how much space you really need. If your organization has implemented a flexible work model, you might think reducing existing space is a no-brainer. On the other hand, if you’ve recently expanded your workforce, you might assume that you’ll need more workspace. But there are lots of other factors to consider, such as employee preference, health and safety concerns, visitor management, and more.
  • Attracting new talent to the workplace. In today’s changing workforce, do you really know what employees want out of your organization’s spaces? Surveys show employees, especially younger ones, want a workplace that’s dynamic and engaging. But configuring spaces to meet those expectations can be challenging.
  • Getting buy-in for your space management model. Did you know that 11% of all mental health issues connected to work are due to changes at the workplace, according to a recent NHS report? Helping people adjust as you modernize your office space is vital to employee health and well-being.

What are Some Space Management Tools?

There are several space management tools that can be used to help organizations optimize their use of physical space. They include:

 

  1. Space planning software: This type of software can help organizations create and visualize space plans, including floor plans and 3D models. It can also help to optimize space utilization and identify potential areas for improvement.
  2. Space utilization sensors: These sensors can be used to monitor space usage, collecting data on how frequently different areas are used and by whom. This information helps organizations identify opportunities to improve efficiency.
  3. Room reservation systems: Most organizations need software to manage conference rooms and other shared spaces to ensuring there are no conflicts among employees and to make sure every space is being used effectively.
  4. Asset management software: This type of software can help organizations track the location and status of assets such as furniture and equipment to ensure assets are being used effectively and inventory is ordered in the proper quantities.
  5. Occupancy sensors: These sensors can be used to monitor how many people are in a given area, helping organizations to optimize the space usage.

 

If you need to optimize the use of your space, but don’t have the time or resources to devote to creating a space management plan or invest in a number of tools, keep it simple. Accruent’s space management software helps you get the most value out of your space and your people.

 

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Space Management FAQs

Is space planning the same as space management?

Space management and space planning are related, but they are not exactly the same. Space planning is the process of figuring out how to best lay out physical space in buildings and structures. Think retailers determining how to display inventory, businesses updating floor plans for better space allocation, or large campuses determining how to optimize maintenance efforts and gain efficiencies across their assets and buildings.

What about facilities management?

Definitions vary, but facilities management has to do with your physical space inventory, such as maintaining your organization's buildings and equipment. A facility manager uses FM software to create a work order, repair an asset, or perform another maintenance task. Space management, on the other hand, is for both physical and virtual spaces.

How does space utilization fit into this picture?

Space utilization is a part of space management. Space data helps you answer space usage questions like how often a space is being used, which spaces are the most requested, which spaces are most underutilized, etc. Armed with this information, you can then achieve more efficient use of your spaces.

Who is responsible for space management?

In short, anyone who has control over where people work or gather in a workplace or campus is responsible for space management at their organization. Roles include:

  • Operations/administrative coordinator
  • Service manager
  • Director of conference center/events
  • Director of campus life
  • Director of IT/IT project manager
  • Registrar/associate registrar/assistant registrar
  • Facility manager/property manager/real estate manager
  • Director of facilities
  • Business executive
  • Facilities managers/engineers
  • Warehouse managers
  • Space manager/coordinators
  • Space planners

What is a workplace space management example?

What does space management look like in practice? Check out a day in the life of an employee whose organization uses a workplace space management system to create safe, flexible employee experiences. (Click here to see the full infographic).

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May 9, 2023