Glossary
Sharing ratio
Quoted as a target when it is an outcome — it follows from the policy and the peak.
The sharing ratio is the number of workplaces provided for each person assigned to a building, written as desks to people. It is an outcome rather than a target: it follows from the peak, from the attendance policy and from how often the organisation will accept someone not finding a seat. Setting it first inverts the reasoning.
Also called Desk-sharing ratio, Desks per person, Flex factor
How it is calculated
Sharing ratio = workplaces provided : people assigned
- Workplaces provided
- Derived from the peak plus a buffer, not chosen in advance.
- People assigned
- The population the building serves, on the definition the policy uses.
Expressed as A ratio, conventionally written 1:1.5, or as desks per person.
CBRE's published "occupancy rate" is this figure, not occupancy. A benchmark that appears to say offices are 60 per cent occupied may be saying they provide six desks for every ten people.
Worked example: 600 people
- Peak attendance at P95
- 68%
- People at the peak
- 408
- Buffer for churn and choice
- 5%
- Workplaces required
- 429
The sharing ratio is 1:1.4 — roughly seven desks for every ten people.
Nothing here started from a ratio. Change the policy to three fixed days and the peak moves, and the ratio moves with it.
Where it goes wrong
Setting the ratio first
A ratio chosen before the measurement is a floor-area decision dressed as an analysis. The peak decides it, and the peak is measured rather than assumed.
Applying another organisation's ratio
The same ratio in an organisation with a different attendance policy produces a different experience. It is a result of local conditions, not a benchmark to import.
Forgetting the buffer is a choice
The buffer is where the tolerance for a bad day lives. Setting it to zero is defensible; doing it without saying so is not.
Where this measurement decides something
Comparing two suppliers' occupancy figures?
Send us both and we will tell you what each one is actually counting. No meeting required.