Customer stories · Healthcare
Karger cut its real estate footprint by 80% on measured occupancy.
A global medical and scientific publisher used Kadence occupancy data to move from fixed desks on five floors to shared desks on one and a half, without compromising productivity.
The situation
Before Kadence
- Fixed-desk policy in the Basel office, with every employee assigned a workspace and many desks and offices empty for long periods
- An international workforce across multiple locations moving to hybrid work, with the right level of flexibility still being worked out role by role
- No accurate measure of how much of the office was in use, so no evidence on which to base a real estate decision
What changed
With Kadence
- Occupancy measured across the Basel office, giving the company a defensible basis for downsizing
- Fixed desks replaced with shared desks, so a smaller office still accommodates the full hybrid workforce
- In-office days planned by team, so collaboration holds up in a smaller space
- A regular view of how many people are coming into the building, so nobody arrives to find there is nowhere to work
From fixed desks to hybrid
Karger’s hybrid policy was settled in stages. Leadership accepted that employees could work effectively from home and trialled different levels of flexibility by role: sales staff could work remotely up to four days a week, while back-office teams kept to more structured hybrid schedules. After evaluating the trials the company moved fully to hybrid work, and most employees now work remotely the majority of the time, with office attendance varying by role and team.
That left the question of how much office the company still needed. Occupancy tracking in Workplace Analytics showed utilization consistently at 30 to 40%, and the decision followed from the data rather than from an estimate.
“We used Kadence to really look at the occupancy, which was on average 30 to 40% at that time. Therefore, we realized we don’t need all of these spaces. We’ve gone down from five floors to one and a half floors, which is quite significant.”
Running one and a half floors
Shared desks replaced the fixed-desk model, so the reduced office accommodates the whole hybrid workforce. Teams plan their in-office days together in Kadence, which keeps collaboration intact despite the smaller footprint, and Adrian’s team can see on a regular basis how many people are coming in.
“Kadence gave us that confidence. On a regular basis, we know how many people are coming into the building, and therefore we are not going to be in a position where people come into the office and have no space to work.”
Asked what the decision would have looked like without the data, Adrian is direct: “you just won’t have the data you need to make those space decisions.”
More stories
- University of ExeterThe University of Exeter nearly doubled meeting room use without adding a square meter.
- Denbighshire County CouncilDenbighshire County Council backed its office consolidation with occupancy evidence.
- RCS EnglandRCS England consolidated two floors into one and saved over £40,000 a year.
Next step
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