An occupancy survey is useful only when it is designed around a real decision. Counting people without a clear scope, schedule and definition of occupancy can create a large dataset without producing a reliable answer.
The method below is a practical sequence for workplace, higher-education and public-sector environments where teams need evidence about desks, rooms or other shared spaces.
1. Define the decision you need to support
Start with the question: are you testing capacity, planning a move, measuring hybrid attendance, reviewing room demand or considering consolidation? The purpose determines what must be measured and for how long.
2. Select the spaces in scope
Define the buildings, floors, rooms, desks or shared areas that matter. A representative scope is more valuable than surveying everything without a clear reason.
3. Choose the capture method
Paper and spreadsheets can work at very small scale but create transcription and consistency problems quickly. A digital study keeps each observation tied to the correct place and time and reduces the administration after fieldwork.
4. Build a representative schedule
The survey needs enough observation rounds to capture normal variation. Include busy and quiet periods, different days of the week and any known operational patterns that could distort a short snapshot.
5. Standardise what surveyors record
Agree the rules before fieldwork begins. For example, decide whether a desk with a laptop but no person counts as occupied, passive use or available. Consistent definitions matter more than elaborate categories.
6. Conduct the survey consistently
Use defined routes and observation times. Surveyors should capture what they see against the correct space without reconstructing notes later. SiteIQ Schematic is designed for this kind of location-and-time based field capture.
7. Analyse patterns, not isolated observations
- Average and peak occupancy
- Repeatedly underused areas
- Demand by day, time, team or location
- Meeting-room size versus observed use
- Potential hidden capacity or bottlenecks
8. Convert the findings into action
A survey should finish with decisions: change allocations, repurpose space, adjust policies, consolidate areas, change room mix or validate the need for more capacity. The value is the action the evidence enables.