How many desks does a hybrid office really need?

When a company moves to hybrid work, the first question from finance is almost always the same: if people are only in two or three days a week, why are we paying for a desk for everyone? The honest answer is that you probably are not using all of them. The harder part is working out how many you can safely give up.

Start from peak days, not averages

Average occupancy is the number that gets offices into trouble. If 60 people come in on an average day but 95 come in on Tuesdays, a 70-desk office is comfortable on paper and miserable every Tuesday. Size for your busiest regular day, then decide how much of that peak you want to smooth out.

• Look at at least six to eight weeks of attendance, so holidays and one-off events do not distort the picture.
• Identify your two busiest weekdays and their typical headcount.
• Add a buffer of around 5 to 10% for visitors, new joiners and days when a whole team comes in together.

Count the desks that are actually usable

A desk with a broken monitor, one next to the printer that nobody wants, or one reserved for a manager who is in once a month all look like capacity in a spreadsheet. Before you cut, mark which desks are really bookable. In Booking Desks, administrators can switch individual desks off so the numbers reflect reality.

Use no-show data before you move walls

In most offices a meaningful share of bookings are never used: someone books Monday to Friday out of habit and comes in twice. Before reducing space, turn on check-in for a month. Desks that nobody checks in to are released automatically, and the difference between booked and checked-in desks tells you how much capacity is being lost to no-shows.

Spread the peak with team days

Once you can see which days are full, you can ask teams to pick anchor days that do not all land on Tuesday. Showing people where their teammates sit, and which days the office is quiet, does more to spread attendance than any policy email.

Revisit every quarter

Attendance patterns change with the seasons, with new projects and with company policy. Treat desk numbers as a quarterly decision backed by data, not a one-off project, and your office will stay the right size as the company changes.