The Rise of the Badge Pirates. Argh!

I could see the frustration on his face. Over lunch, a senior executive with a massive workforce shared the "friction" of getting people to come to work even in the face of a CEO mandate.

?But the thing that really galled him was the "badge pirates."

?"What in the world is that?" I asked.

?“I have videos of folks coming to our facilities, scanning their badge, turning around, and immediately walking out”, he said shaking his head.

“Other times, they will scan, do a workout in our gym and then leave. They didn't stay for work at all!”

?"Does the swipe count as attending that day?" I asked.

?"Sure. As long as you scan your badge at one of our facilities in a 24-hour period, you get an attendance star. And that is not fair."

?"So, people are crossing your threshold and getting 'credit' for a full day of attendance," I said. "Sounds like getting credit for attending high school classes even though you only set foot in the facility."

Argh. Are ya pullin’ your weight?

I'm sure HR types have many ways to tell who is heads down and really working. Great mid and lower-level leaders will know as well. Small teams tend to know who is in the office and who is not, of course.

Many in corporate leadership are focused on compliance with rules and mandates. They chase pirates.

But the conversation actually got me thinking about a slightly different topic: what tools do we have today to see if office space is really being used and when?

I'm intellectually curious about how and when office space is used. Whether Johnny employee is coming in all day every day is really not my concern.

So, if you are trying to get real estate usage data, here are three approaches I can see to ensure your very expensive office space is getting used.

First, simply ask folks to badge out when they leave. This might require a system software upgrade. Before Covid, we principally used badging to provide premises security which means we were focused on external entry and not so much on departure. But this can be updated in most systems to reflect folks coming and going.

The benefit to the scan-in and scan-out approach is you can see when workers are using the space the most and you can create data analytics around not only the highest use periods but time of usage.

Secondly, we can use wall-mounted sensors that detect the movement of people through motion. Several technology companies have premises movement sensors that tell you what areas of your office space are getting used and when. You can certainly anonymize the data if you would like.

With sensor data, you can see what time and day offices are getting used. You can also see what areas of offices get used. The output is usually an office plan that shows a heatmap of activity during any period you like.

The output is fascinating to me. Is there a conference room that no one ever uses? Then you can investigate to determine why. As you plan new facilities you can literally see folks voting with their feet on what areas of the office they like and what they do not.

Finally, there is data that can be harvested from our phones and less data from invasive IP addresses on our computers. As you likely know, phones tell app makers where we are always. Of course, they can do the same for office usage. Computers can do the same but are not as “sticky” as iPhones in that we don’t take them literally everywhere.

I realize iPhone tracking may be seen as invasive. But the reality is you and I are tracked by Google, Microsoft, and a million other applications all day anyway.

Phone data will give incredibly accurate patterns of who comes, who goes, and when. You just have to manage the "big brother" issue in the workplace. This data can certainly be anonymized as well.

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Building the Right Ships

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Now you have three ways to gather data on office space usage for current spaces. This information can be hugely beneficial as you plan for future facilities. You can see with empirical clarity what employees like, when they really come in the most, and use the data to do future demand forecasts of office usage.

For most knowledge companies, office space is the second biggest cost after labor. Now we have great tools to tell us how we can improve the adoption of office space and increase usage (despite mandates).

What about those badge pirates, you ask? I’m looking to HR to police compliance with the rules. Sure, the real estate team can share the data, but HR is really the tip of the spear.

Forward-thinking real estate teams are learning every day and using their knowledge to try and deliver the right “ship” with the best tools and at the right capacity.

Good luck, mates! "Weigh anchor and hoist the mizzen!"

And remember, badges DO tell tales!