A workplace management system is what a facilities or workplace manager buys when the four records of the job, the floor, the desks, the attendance and the contractors cleared to be on site, have to be one record rather than four files. Workplace management is the discipline behind it: deciding how much space the headcount needs, measuring what the floor is actually used at, setting the desk rule a hybrid week needs, and knowing who may come in to work on the building. The vendors call the product workplace management systems, a workplace management platform, workplace management solutions or simply a workplace system, and the names describe the same four tables. This guide is about what those tables have to hold and what the arithmetic over them says.
The floor: the inventory and the space a headcount needs
Every floor, room and desk with its area and its use, and the arithmetic that sizes it: 120 people at 7 desks per 10 and 60 square feet a desk, with 1,800 square feet of meeting space, 1,500 of support and 25% circulation, is 84 desks and 10,425 square feet, 86.9 a person. The worksheet on this site works it from your own ratio and allowances with no account and publishes no standard. A workplace management platform that cannot hold the inventory the figure sits on cannot check the figure a year later.
The desks and the attendance: the use the floor sees
Which desks are shared, which are kept assigned, who is booked into each on which day, and the counts that fall out: 84 in on an average day against 140 desks is 60%, 126 on the busiest day is 90%, 14 desks are spare and the attendance supports 7 desks per 10 people. Workplace management solutions earn their price by keeping those counts week by week so the trend exists when the lease comes up; a workplace management solution that shows today's map and forgets last month's count is a calendar.
The rule: the desks a hybrid week needs
A three-day rule for 180 people is 108 in on an average day and, with 70% of the rest clustering on the same busiest day, 158.4 on that day, which 120 desks cannot seat: 38.4 short, a sharing ratio of 6.25 desks per 10 once 20 desks are kept assigned, and 3.33 days a week the desks could support if the days were spread. The return to office policy template works that arithmetic free, and the paid plan builds the policy document from it under your own name.
The contractors, and what a workplace management system is not
The fourth record is who is cleared to be on site per building, with the insurance, the induction and the date each expires, and a reminder before one lapses. What the system is not: a work order and asset register, which is the maintenance product's at fmlane.com; a room booking or visitor kiosk; an intranet; a lease ledger. HardFM Pro keeps the four records above against the building for $24 a month for the whole team, exports the lot, and does nothing else on purpose.
Questions people ask about workplace management system
What is a workplace management platform?
One record of the floor with its inventory, the desks and who is booked into them, the attendance the floor actually sees, and the contractors cleared to be on site with their dates, with the arithmetic that sizes the space and tests the desk rule. HardFM works the arithmetic free and keeps the record for $24 a month for the whole team.
How is workplace management different from facilities maintenance?
Maintenance keeps the building running: assets, work orders, the preventive schedule. Workplace management keeps the building as a place people work: space, desks, attendance and site access. The first is the neighbouring hub at fmlane.com; the second is this one.
Do workplace management solutions need sensors or integrations?
No. Sensors, readers and booking exports are ways of producing the attendance count; the count is what the system keeps and works. HardFM takes the counts as inputs and integrates with no hardware.
Is a workplace system the same as an IWMS?
It is one module of one. An IWMS is a suite of five under one database: real estate and lease, capital projects, facilities and space, maintenance, and sustainability. A workplace system is the facilities and space part on its own, which for a team with a couple of floors, a hybrid rule and a dozen contractors is the only one of the five it owns. The question worth asking a suite vendor is what the workplace team pays if the other four modules go unused.
What do workplace platforms put on top of the four records?
A booking interface, a drawn floor and a set of charts, all of which are views of the same four tables. That is worth remembering when comparing them, because the interface is the part a demo shows and the tables are the part that decides whether a figure can be checked. Ask each product for the inventory, the bookings, the attendance by week and the contractor clearances as exports, and the platforms separate immediately from the ones that hold the counts and hand back a report.