Difficulty: novice
Content
Learning Objectives
After reading this article, you’ll be able to:
- Understand the Space efficiency dashboard
The Space efficiency dashboard gives insight in the historical data collected by headcount sensors, with values per hour during a rolling timeframe of 6 months.
It provides a complete, data-driven view of how meeting and focus spaces are used.
It combines headcount and utilization metrics to help you move from assumptions to facts, enabling smarter decisions on space optimization, workplace design, and cost reduction.
Each page of the dashboard builds on the previous one, moving from high-level portfolio summary to detailed, actionable analysis at the most granular level.
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Dashboard overview
- Summary: Consolidated view of efficiency, headcount, utilization time and portfolio performance
- Building analysis: Deep-dive into one building to uncover opportunities
- Floor analysis: Pinpoint exactly which spaces are used, ignored, or overloaded on a floor
- Data: Access granular data per space and per time unit for validation and deep analysis
- Targets: Specify optimal efficiency and utilization targets
- Monitored spaces: Shows which spaces are monitored and which capacity they have
“Summary” page
This page contains
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High-level KPIs across the portfolio
Buildings, monitored spaces, grouped in sizes (S, M, L, XL) by capacity.
Average efficiency
Average daily headcount and utilization time
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Efficiency vs utilization matrix
Chart that shows every monitored space, comparing its efficiency rate and average daily utilization time.
The matrix uses the “high target” value for efficiency and both the “low target” and “high target” for daily utilization time, which appear as vertical and horizontal lines that slice the chart in 6 zones. See “targets” page for details.
Each zone leads to these recommendations:
Zone |
Meaning |
Recommended actions |
|---|---|---|
A – Low utilization / Low efficiency |
Rooms are rarely used and, when used, have badly matched capacity (e.g. big rooms used for 1–2 people) |
Repurpose, downsize, or remove. Consider turning into focus rooms or hot desks, or consolidating bookings into fewer rooms. |
B – Medium utilization / Low efficiency |
Reasonably often used but with frequent mismatch of size vs attendees |
Right‑size: split into smaller rooms, adjust furniture layouts, or move large groups to more appropriate rooms. Tighten booking rules to avoid 2‑person meetings in 12‑person rooms. |
C – High utilization / Low efficiency |
Constantly used but inefficient: overbooked, wrong sizes, or frequent “standing room only” |
High priority redesign. Add more rooms of the popular capacity; upgrade tech in alternative rooms and steer demand away; enforce stricter booking durations and capacity rules. |
D – Low utilization / High efficiency |
When used, they’re well sized and productive, but they sit idle for much of the day |
Increase awareness and routing: promote these rooms in booking tools, make wayfinding clearer, move popular teams nearby, or relocate them to better positions. If demand stays low, repurpose. |
E – Medium utilization / High efficiency |
Healthy “workhorse” rooms with good match between size and attendance and solid usage |
Maintain and monitor. Keep configuration stable, ensure good tech and comfort, and treat these as the benchmark for future designs. |
F – High utilization / High efficiency |
Star performers: always used and well matched to meeting sizes |
Consider duplicating this blueprint (size, layout, tech, location) elsewhere. Add similar rooms near demand hotspots and protect these from repurposing. |
Additionally, spaces where the average efficiency exceeds 100% appear in dark blue.
These are often very small spaces (capacity of 2-3) that are occupied by more people than intended by design.
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Aggregated headcount
Sum of all headcount values across spaces, per hour.
This chart is particularly useful when 1 space is selected: it shows the headcount that was monitored per hour.
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Behavioural patterns
Charts: Headcount spreading, headcount vs size, size vs headcount.
These charts show “how many times” a specific headcount is monitored. Otherwise said, it counts the “occurrences” per headcount value and spreads these by percentage in a pie chart.
Example when hovering the mouse over value “2”:Meaning: there were 1308 occurrences (= hourly timeslots) where headcount = 2 was monitored. Overall, this represents 21,8% of all occurrences.
- The occurrences where headcount = 2 are then split up per space size in the “headcount vs size” chart:
in 12,4% of all occurrences, 2 persons are using a small room for their meeting
- in 8,6% of all occurrences, 2 persons are using a medium room for their meeting
- in 0,6% of all occurrences, 2 persons are using a large room for their meeting
- Inversely, the “Size vs headcount” chart illustrates how small, medium, large and extra large rooms are used by how many people:
In this example, medium size rooms are used in 29,8% of all occurrences. Mostly by only 1 person (14,8%) or by 2 persons (8,6%).
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Fully interactive filtering
Drill down by region, building, floor, space type, capacity, etc.
“Building analysis” page
Use this page to deep dive into 1 specific building to uncover optimization opportunities.
This page contains:
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Efficiency trends
Efficiency rate timeline of the building -
Efficiency trends per floor / space class / room category
Breakdown of efficiency rate timeline per floor / room category / space class -
Efficiency vs utilization matrix per room category
Scatter plot comparing how efficiently each room category is used -
Efficiency vs utilization per space
Scatter plot comparing how efficiently individual space is used.
This is the same matrix chart as on the Summary page, for this building. -
Capacity per space vs avg headcount
Complementary to the efficiency rate, which is always a relative value, this page also shows absolute values.
When using a headcount sensor in a space, the sensor monitors the actual headcount value.
Per monitored space in the building, the chart shows its capacity (nr of seats) and the average headcount for comparison.
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💡 What insights you can extract
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Which floors or space types are underperforming?
Easily spot floors or space types consistently below average efficiency
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Is our mix of small / medium / large / extra large meeting rooms fit for purpose?
Compare space capacity vs average headcount
- Which spaces have a poor efficiency rate? These are candidates for closure or repurposing
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Where can we take immediate action?
Locations with low efficiency AND low utilization time = quick wins
“Floor analysis” page
Use this page to deep dive into 1 specific floor to pinpoint exactly how spaces are used throughout the day.
It’s the only page that gives access to the corresponding floor plan.
This page contains
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Visual floorplan with colored metric values
Color-coded view of each space based on the selected metric.
Each monitored space is highlighted (green/orange/red)
The colours reflect the targets set for the selected metric.
The tooltip shows the name of the space + the value of the selected metric. -
Headcount per hour
Aggregated sum of headcount per hour in all of the monitored spaces in the building.
This chart is particularly useful when 1 space is selected: it shows the headcount that was monitored per hour. -
Avg daily utilization time
Aggregated average of daily utilization time of the monitored spaces in the building.
This chart is particularly useful when 1 space is selected: it shows the average daily utilization time per time range. -
Efficiency spreading
Boxplot for efficiency rate per space
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💡 What insights you can extract
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Which exact rooms are inefficient?
Visual floorplan immediately highlights cold spots
- Ideal for removing or repurposing inefficient rooms
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Is the floor layout working as intended?
Compare planned use (e.g. focus vs. collaboration) vs. actual behaviour
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Are certain spaces overperforming or underperforming?
Boxplot reveals which spaces are efficiently used and which are not
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Which spaces should be redesigned first?
Low efficiency + low utilization time = low hanging fruit
This is the most actionable level of insight in the entire dashboard.
At this level, you’re no longer talking about buildings or floors, you’re looking at real behaviour in real spaces.
What typically emerges:
• Some floors have a good fit-for-purpose mix of small to large meeting rooms
• In other cases, there is a poor fit-for purpose: large meeting rooms that are only used by a small number of persons, or small meeting rooms that are overcrowded
That’s not a capacity issue, it’s a design and experience issue.
The biggest opportunity on this page is:
•Replicating what works (green coloring)
•Eliminating or redesigning what doesn’t (red coloring)
“Data” page
Use this page to access the truth behind every space and every timeframe to validate, deep-dive, and take precise action.
This space contains two tables:
- Metrics per monitored space
Gives full details of all metrics per individual, monitored space
- Metrics per hour
Metric values per hour, across all monitored spaces
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This page is your source of truth and your safety net.
Everything you’ve seen in previous pages is aggregated and simplified for decision-making.
This page allows you to challenge, validate, and explain those insights with precision.
It’s especially powerful in real-life situations:
•A manager claims “meeting rooms are always full” → you verify per room, per hour
•A location is flagged as underperforming → you identify exactly which spaces and when
•A redesign is planned → you validate assumptions with actual usage patterns
This is not about storytelling, it’s about evidence.
“Targets” page
Use this page to set your optimal workplace targets and compare actuals against them.
The whole page is read-only except the four target sliders that have fixed default values:
Target |
Default value |
|---|---|
Daily utilization time - low target (h) |
2.5 hours |
Daily utilization time - high target (h) |
5 hours |
Efficiency - low target (%) |
20 % |
Efficiency - high target (%) |
40 % |
Users can adjust these targets by sliding the value left and right. These adjustments are applied immediately across the entire dashboard (all pages).
However, they are not saved permanently.
Currently it’s not possible to change the default values upon customer demand.
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💡 What insights you can extract
What is our “ideal” efficiency and utilization level?
- Define realistic targets instead of relying on industry assumptions
How far are we from optimal performance?
- Instantly see the gap between current performance and desired targets
Which parts of the portfolio fail to meet targets?
- Identify underperforming buildings or space types based on your own benchmarks
Are our targets even achievable?
- Test different scenarios to ensure goals are realistic given current behaviour
“Monitored spaces” page
Use this page to understand how many monitored spaces you have and where they are located.
It’s crucial to understand that the Space efficiency dashboard reports on SPACES, not on SENSORS.
The reason is that a sensor is not linked to a space permanently. Organizations sometimes swap sensors from one space to another depending on business needs.
Therefore, Spacewell dashboards report on what happens to SPACES, using sensor data as input.
For example:
If your meeting room “ABC” has sensor “123” in 2024 and then you replaced it with sensor “456” in 2025, this operation does not affect your Space efficiency dashboard.
The dashboard will show a continuous stream of data across 2024 and 2025.
Good to know
- Metric “Monitored spaces” represents the CURRENT situation in your portfolio
- All other metrics in the top row also represent the CURRENT situation
- For efficiency, only spaces with headcount sensors are in scope
Monitored spaces - timeline
- This chart shows how many spaces are monitored over time
- If the line rises, it means that you are installing more sensors
- If the line falls, it means that you are decommissioning sensors
- If the line has bumps, it means that some sensors were temporarily offline
Current capacity
- This is a chart for quality assurance
- It shows a flat list of all monitored spaces and their capacity, from small to large
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Values are highlighted in red when capacity = 0 or 1
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capacity = 0
is an implementation error. When capacity = 0 the system cannot calculate efficiency values (cannot divide by zero). Please adjust space capacities in Studio.
- capacity = 1
is an implementation question. Why was a headcount sensor installed in a space with capacity = 1? Does it make sense? Should the capacity be adjusted or should the sensor be replaced by a different type?
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Good to know
The “Space efficiency” dashboard takes into account following data:
- Business hours only, configured in Studio > Default Regional Settings (allowing for 1h margins both in the mornings and the evenings)
- Weekends are excluded
- 6 months of hourly sensor data
- only for rooms that have a headcount sensor
More information
Frequently Asked Questions on Dashboards
Check out FAQ on Dashboards