Resources · Glossary
The workplace glossary.
Clear answers to the terms real estate, facilities and workplace teams use, with formulas, worked examples and how to measure them. 152 terms, by topic and A to Z.
A
Activity-based working (ABW)
A workplace model in which people move between settings designed for different tasks instead of working at one assigned desk.
Workplace operationsAdditions
Preparing a seat, equipment, access and records for a new occupant such as a new hire, contractor or team.
Moves & changeAgentic workplace
A workplace where AI agents carry out tasks, such as booking space and drafting plans, with people approving decisions.
AI & workplace dataAI space planning
Using AI to draft and test stack plans, seating plans and scenarios from headcount, occupancy data and floor plans.
AI & workplace dataAI workplace assistant
A chat-based assistant that books desks and rooms and handles workplace tasks from a plain-language request.
AI & workplace dataAnchor days
Set days each week when a team or company agrees to be in the office together, with the other days flexible.
Hybrid work & policyAssigned desk
A desk reserved for one person, either permanently or on set days, instead of being shared through booking.
Workplace operationsAuto-release
A booking rule that frees a desk or room automatically when nobody checks in within a set grace period.
Workplace operations
B
Badge data
Access-control swipe records showing who entered a building or floor and when, often used to measure attendance.
AI & workplace dataBlock plan
A floor-level layout that assigns each team to a zone of one floor, between the stack plan and the seat-level plan.
Space planning & real estateBOMA standards
The Building Owners and Managers Association methods for measuring office floor area, used in leases, benchmarks and space reporting.
Space planning & real estateBookable vs non-bookable space
Separating spaces people can reserve from first-come, first-served ones (lockers, phone booths), while still showing both on the map.
Workplace operationsBooking policy
The rules for booking shared desks, rooms and other spaces: who can book, how far ahead, for how long and when bookings are released.
Workplace operationsBuilding operations
The day-to-day running of a building's systems and services, such as heating, cooling, lighting, security, lifts and maintenance.
Workplace operationsBusiness case for consolidation
The financial case for moving into less space, with cash savings, one-off costs and softer benefits kept separate.
Space planning & real estate
C
CAD / DWG floor plans
Architectural drawing files that provide the accurate geometry behind digital and interactive floor plans.
Space planning & real estateCAFM (computer-aided facilities management)
Software that links floor plans to a database of rooms and assets to run space, maintenance and service requests.
Platforms & integrationsChanges
Updates to a workspace, team area or setting that do not relocate the people assigned to it.
Moves & changeChurn rate (move churn)
The number of people moved in a year as a percentage of the population, a measure of how much physical change a workplace absorbs.
Moves & changeClosure management
Blocking desks, rooms or floors for maintenance, events or emergencies, and automatically notifying or moving affected bookings.
Workplace operationsCMMS (computerized maintenance management system)
Software that plans, assigns and records maintenance work on buildings and equipment, from asset register to work order.
Platforms & integrationsCoffee badging
Badging into the office to register attendance, staying briefly, often for a coffee, then leaving to work elsewhere.
Hybrid work & policyCompressed work week
A schedule that fits full-time hours into fewer, longer days, such as four ten-hour days, in exchange for extra days off.
Hybrid work & policyCorporate real estate (CRE)
The buildings and leases a company occupies for its own operations, and the team that plans and manages them.
Space planning & real estateCost per move
The average cost of relocating one person inside the workplace: total move costs divided by people moved.
Moves & changeCost per seat
The total annual occupancy cost of an office divided by the seats it provides, or by the seats actually used.
Space planning & real estate
D
Densification
Supporting more people in the same floor area, through desk sharing, a tighter desk ratio or reuse of underused space.
Space planning & real estateDesk booking system
Software that lets employees find and reserve a desk before they come in, check in on arrival and free desks nobody uses.
Workplace operationsDesk check-in
Confirming that you are at the desk or room you booked, by app, QR code, badge or Wi-Fi presence, so unused bookings can be released.
Workplace operationsDesk ratio (desk sharing ratio)
The number of people assigned to a workplace for each desk, set from peak attendance and policy.
Occupancy & utilizationDesk utilization
The share of available desk-hours people actually use, measured desk by desk from check-ins or presence data.
Occupancy & utilizationDesktop presence agent
A lightweight app on employees' laptops that detects when they're on the office network and checks them in automatically.
AI & workplace dataDestination office
An office designed to be worth the commute, drawing people in with space, amenities and experiences rather than mandates.
Hybrid work & policy
E
Editable floor plans
Floor plans that workplace teams update themselves, without CAD skills or an architect, typically with a review step before changes go live.
Workplace operationsEmployee monitoring vs occupancy data
Employee monitoring tracks what individuals do; occupancy data measures how spaces are used. Workplace planning needs only the second.
AI & workplace data
F
Facilities management (FM)
The function that keeps buildings and their services working: maintenance, cleaning, security, catering, energy, safety and space.
Workplace operationsFacility service request
A request to the facilities team to fix, supply or change something in the workplace, logged and tracked until it is resolved.
Workplace operationsFixed vs rolling booking window
A rolling window opens one new day each day, always the same distance ahead; a fixed window opens a whole period at once on a set day.
Workplace operationsFlexible working
Any arrangement that changes when, where or how much someone works, such as flextime, hybrid work or part-time hours.
Hybrid work & policyFlexible workspace
Workspace used on short or on-demand terms, such as coworking desks, bookable rooms and serviced offices, instead of a long lease.
Space planning & real estateFlight to quality
The shift of office demand toward the best-located, best-equipped buildings, while older, lower-quality space loses tenants.
Space planning & real estateFloor plate
The area and shape of one floor of a building, which sets how many people, rooms and teams fit on it.
Space planning & real estateFour-day work week
A working pattern that cuts the standard week to four days, usually with fewer total hours and no cut in pay.
Hybrid work & policy
H
Headcount planning (for space)
Forecasting how many people will work in each team and location, and turning that into the office space they will need.
Space planning & real estateHidden capacity
Usable space that accurate utilization data reveals inside the current footprint. It often removes the need to lease more.
Space planning & real estateHot desking and hoteling
Two ways to share desks: hot desking is first come, first served; hoteling means reserving a desk in advance and checking in.
Workplace operationsHRIS integration
A connection that syncs joiners, leavers, teams and leave dates from the HR system into workplace software automatically.
Platforms & integrationsHub-and-spoke office model
An office network with a central headquarters hub and smaller satellite offices or flexible spaces closer to where people live.
Space planning & real estateHushed hybrid
When managers quietly let employees come into the office less often than a formal return-to-office policy requires.
Hybrid work & policyHybrid coordination
The work of getting the right people into the office on the same days and giving them the right space when they arrive.
Hybrid work & policyHybrid meeting
A meeting where some people are in the same room and others join remotely by video.
Hybrid work & policyHybrid policy compliance
Reporting on whether individuals and teams meet the organization's in-office expectations over time, such as 45 of 52 weeks.
Hybrid work & policyHybrid work
A way of working where employees split their time between the office and remote locations such as home.
Hybrid work & policyHybrid work model
The specific rules an organization uses to decide where and when people work, from flexible to office-first.
Hybrid work & policyHybrid work policy
The written rules for how hybrid work runs: office days, booking, meetings, manager duties and how success is measured.
Hybrid work & policy
I
In-person collaboration
Work people do together face to face, and the practice of measuring whether office time brings the right people together.
Hybrid work & policyIntegrated Workplace Management System (IWMS)
Enterprise software that runs real estate, leases, space, maintenance and assets from one shared database.
Platforms & integrationsInteractive floor plan
A live, clickable map of an office that shows desks, rooms and people, and lets employees book space and find colleagues.
Workplace operations
L
Landing pad
A small set of drop-in desks for short stays, visiting colleagues or people between meetings, with no booking required.
Workplace operationsLease event
A lease date that forces or allows a decision, such as an expiry, a break option, a renewal option or a rent review.
Space planning & real estateLease management
Tracking lease terms, critical dates, costs and obligations across a portfolio, and linking them to how each site is used.
Space planning & real estate
M
MAC (moves, adds and changes)
The routine work of relocating people, seating new occupants and updating workspaces as an organization changes.
Moves & changeMailroom and package management
Logging incoming deliveries, notifying recipients and tracking pickup, often run through the same front-desk system as visitors.
Workplace operationsMCP (Model Context Protocol)
An open standard that lets AI assistants use tools and data in other systems, such as booking a desk, without custom integrations.
AI & workplace dataMeeting room display
A screen at a meeting room that shows live availability and lets people book, check in and release the room at the door.
Workplace operationsMeeting room utilization
How often meeting rooms are used and how full they are when used, which shows whether you need more rooms or different ones.
Occupancy & utilizationMicrosoft Teams and Slack booking
Booking desks and rooms, seeing who is in and checking in from inside Microsoft Teams or Slack.
Platforms & integrationsMove management
Planning, sequencing and carrying out workplace moves, from one desk change to a whole-team relocation.
Moves & changeMoves
Planned relocations of a person, team or department to a different seat, neighborhood, floor or building.
Moves & changeMulti-source occupancy (unified occupancy model)
One occupancy picture built by combining Wi-Fi, badge, sensor and booking data, so no single source has to be complete or perfect.
Occupancy & utilization
N
Neighborhood
A zone of an office set aside for a team, project or activity, often on set days, so people who work together sit together.
Workplace operationsNeighborhood manager
The person who owns a neighborhood's seating rules, capacity and changes, usually a team lead or site admin.
Workplace operationsNo-show rate
The share of desk and room bookings nobody checks in to, which makes space look busier than it is.
Occupancy & utilization
O
Occupancy confidence score
A rating of how reliable an occupancy reading is, based on how many independent data sources agree.
Occupancy & utilizationOccupancy monitoring
Continuous measurement of how many people use each building, floor, room and desk, and when, from presence signals or sensors.
Occupancy & utilizationOccupancy planning
Deciding where people and teams will work across floors and buildings, and how much space each needs, as the organization changes.
Space planning & real estateOccupancy rate
The share of available desks, rooms or floor area in use, at a point in time or on average over a period.
Occupancy & utilizationOccupancy sensor
A device that detects whether a desk, room or zone is in use, or counts the people in it, usually anonymously.
AI & workplace dataOccupancy vs utilization
Occupancy is the share of space in use; utilization is the share of capacity-time actually used.
Occupancy & utilizationOffice attendance policy
A rule that sets how often employees are expected in the office, such as a number of days per week or month.
Hybrid work & policyOffice attendance rate
The share of employees, or of expected office days, that people actually spend in the office, measured from presence data.
Occupancy & utilizationOffice consolidation
Moving teams from several floors, buildings or sites into less space, then giving up or repurposing the space that is freed.
Space planning & real estateOffice fit-out
The work that turns shell or existing space into a usable office: walls, services, finishes, furniture and technology.
Space planning & real estateOffice heat map
A floor plan colored by how often each desk, room or zone is used, so busy and quiet areas stand out at a glance.
Occupancy & utilizationOffice move automation with AI
Software and AI that recommend seats, assign people in bulk, notify them and update records for workplace moves.
Moves & changeOffice relocation
Moving an office or department to another building, planned around the lease date, real attendance and a clear move schedule.
Moves & changeOffice right-sizing
Matching the amount and type of office space to how people actually use it, based on measured demand rather than headcount.
Space planning & real estateOffice seating chart
A map or list of who sits where in an office, showing assigned desks, team areas and shared seats.
Workplace operationsOpen-plan office
An office layout with few internal walls, where most people work at desks in shared open areas rather than private offices or cubicles.
Workplace operations
P
Parking management
Allocating and booking office parking, including accessible, electric vehicle and bike spaces, so drivers know a space is waiting.
Workplace operationsPeak occupancy
The busiest level of use a floor or building reaches in a normal week, which sets the capacity you actually need.
Occupancy & utilizationPlan of record
The approved, current version of a stack, block or move plan that every team works from.
Moves & changePost-occupancy evaluation (POE)
A structured review of how a building or workplace performs for the people using it, carried out after they move in.
Space planning & real estatePresence data (sensorless occupancy)
The record of who was actually in the building and when, from signals you already have: network, badges and check-ins.
AI & workplace dataPropTech
Property technology: software, data and devices used to invest in, build, run and occupy real estate.
AI & workplace dataProximity bias
The tendency to favor people who are physically present in the office over equally effective remote colleagues.
Hybrid work & policy
R
Real estate footprint
The total space an organization occupies, owned or leased, across all its offices, floors and sites.
Space planning & real estateReal estate portfolio optimization
Matching the buildings, floors and leases an organization holds to the space its people actually need.
Space planning & real estateRecharge day
A company-wide paid day off, given to everyone at once, meant to help employees rest and prevent burnout.
Hybrid work & policyRemote work
Work done away from the employer's office, usually from home, for all or almost all of the working week.
Hybrid work & policyRentable vs usable square feet
Usable area is the space a tenant occupies; rentable area adds a share of common areas, and rent is charged on it.
Space planning & real estateRestack
Reassigning teams across the floors of a building to free space, absorb growth or improve adjacency, done as a sequence of moves.
Space planning & real estateReturn to office (RTO)
An employer requirement that remote or hybrid staff spend more time in the office, either full time or on set days.
Hybrid work & policyRoom booking system
Software that lets people find, reserve and check in to meeting rooms, and frees rooms nobody uses.
Workplace operations
S
Scenario planning
Modeling several possible futures for space, cost and teams, and comparing them side by side before committing to one.
Space planning & real estateSCIM provisioning
An open standard that creates, updates and deactivates user accounts in apps automatically from the company directory.
Platforms & integrationsSingle sign-on (SSO)
One set of company credentials to sign in to many apps, verified by the identity provider rather than each app.
Platforms & integrationsSmart office
A workplace that uses connected tools and data, from booking and room displays to presence and building controls, to fit real use.
AI & workplace dataSOC 2
An independent auditor's report on a service provider's security controls; Type II tests that they worked over a period.
Platforms & integrationsSpace allocation
Deciding which people, teams and activities get which desks, zones and rooms, and whether each is assigned, shared or bookable.
Space planning & real estateSpace management
The ongoing tracking, allocation and improvement of how an organization's buildings, floors, desks and rooms are used.
Space planning & real estateSpace operations (SpaceOps)
The practice of planning, modeling and carrying out changes to how an organization uses its space, using live workplace data.
Space planning & real estateSpace per person
Office floor area divided by the number of people it serves, in square feet or square meters per person.
Space planning & real estateSpace planning
Deciding how office floor area is divided and allocated, from which teams go on which floors to where each desk and room sits.
Space planning & real estateSpace programming
Working out how much space an organization needs, and of which types, before anyone draws a floor plan.
Space planning & real estateSpace roster
The authoritative list of who is assigned to which seat, zone or space at a point in time.
Moves & changeSpace utilization
How intensively buildings, floors, rooms and desks are used against their full capacity over time.
Occupancy & utilizationSpace utilization study
A time-bound exercise that measures how desks, rooms and floors are actually used, before a lease, consolidation or redesign.
Occupancy & utilizationStack planning
A floor-by-floor plan of which teams occupy which floors and buildings, used to test moves and consolidations first.
Space planning & real estateStay vs go decision
The choice, ahead of a lease event, between staying in a building (and possibly reconfiguring it) or relocating.
Space planning & real estateSublease
Letting leased space you no longer need to another party, while staying responsible to the landlord under the original lease.
Space planning & real estateSwing space
Temporary workspace people use while their permanent space is refurbished, reconfigured or not yet ready.
Moves & change
T
Team adjacency
Placing teams that work closely together near each other, and keeping those links intact through every move.
Space planning & real estateTeam days
A recurring day when a hybrid team agrees to be in the office together, usually set by the team or its manager.
Hybrid work & policyTeam dynamics
The patterns of behavior and interaction that shape how a team works together and how well it performs.
Hybrid work & policyTest fit
A quick draft layout that checks whether a space program fits a specific building before a lease is signed.
Space planning & real estateTotal occupancy cost
Everything an organization spends to occupy a workplace in a year: rent, operating costs, utilities, services and fit-out.
Space planning & real estateTwo-way calendar sync
A link in which room bookings and changes made in Outlook, Google Calendar or the booking system update the others.
Platforms & integrations
V
Virtual receptionist
A self-service or remote alternative to a staffed front desk, such as a visitor kiosk with QR check-in or a receptionist working remotely.
Workplace operationsVirtual water cooler
An informal online space, such as a chat channel or open video call, where remote and hybrid colleagues talk about non-work topics.
Hybrid work & policyVirtual-first (remote-first)
An operating model where remote work is the default for individual work and offices are used for planned gatherings.
Hybrid work & policyVisitor management system (VMS)
Software that registers and checks in visitors, notifies their hosts and keeps a record of who was on site and when.
Workplace operations
W
Walk-in usage
Desks or rooms used without a booking. If it isn't captured, utilization reports undercount real demand.
Occupancy & utilizationWayfinding
Helping people find their way around an office, to a desk, room or colleague, through maps, search, signs and landmarks.
Workplace operationsWorking time recording
The EU requirement that employers run an objective, reliable and accessible system to record each worker's daily working time.
Hybrid work & policyWorkplace analytics
Analysis of bookings, check-ins, attendance and occupancy data to guide decisions about office space, policy and services.
AI & workplace dataWorkplace API
A programming interface that lets other systems read and write workplace data such as spaces, bookings and check-ins.
Platforms & integrationsWorkplace change management
A structured approach to helping people adopt a new layout, policy, system or location so the change lasts.
Moves & changeWorkplace digital twin
A live digital model of buildings, spaces and the people who use them, used to see how space performs and test changes first.
AI & workplace dataWorkplace experience (WX)
How employees experience the office and its services, from finding a desk and colleagues to hosting visitors and getting help.
Workplace operationsWorkplace KPIs
The measures that show how well offices serve people and budget: occupancy, utilization, attendance, no-shows, cost per seat and more.
Occupancy & utilizationWorkplace management system (WMS)
Software that runs daily office use (desk and room booking, visitors, check-in, attendance) and reports how space is used.
Platforms & integrationsWorkplace operating system
One platform that connects daily office use (booking, check-in, visitors) with space planning, on one set of data.
Platforms & integrationsWorkplace operations (WorkOps)
The day-to-day running of an office for the people in it: space, bookings, visitors, services, policies and the data they produce.
Workplace operationsWorkplace personas
Profiles of typical employee work styles, used to design hybrid policies, offices and tools that suit different people.
Hybrid work & policyWorkplace strategy
The plan that links how an organization works to the space, policies and tools it provides for work.
Space planning & real estateWorks council
An elected employee body, common in Germany, the Netherlands and the Nordics, that must be consulted before attendance tracking starts.
Hybrid work & policyWorkspace booking
Reserving any bookable space at work, such as desks, rooms, lockers, pods, parking or coworking space, from one system.
Workplace operationsWorkspace types
The settings an office offers, such as desks, focus rooms, phone booths, huddle rooms and lounges, each suited to a kind of work.
Workplace operations
Next step
See the terms in practice.
Thirty minutes with a workplace strategist, on your floors.