Organizations have had access to occupancy data for several decades. But while occupancy tracking technology has made significant advances over the years, most organizations haven’t matured in their understanding of how to use this data—they still struggle to operationalize it, leading to significant unrealized value.
In an enterprise occupancy tracking study we conducted in late 2024, real estate leaders at large enterprises in North America and Europe shared about their organization’s use and understanding of occupancy tracking. When asked to estimate their firm’s maturity when it came to occupancy tracking, not a single respondent gave their firm the highest rating, “Very mature: up to date on the latest technologies, using occupancy tracking for use cases such as sustainability.”
The majority of enterprises (64%) estimated that they were “fairly mature,” meaning that they “conduct regular reviews of occupancy tracking technologies but do not proactively invest in it beyond space optimization.” Interestingly, this perceived lack of maturity wasn’t reflected in the technologies these organizations had adopted or the occupancy tracking use cases they were most interested in—nearly one third of respondents (29%) had space utilization sensors in addition to at least one other data source. So even when organizations have advanced occupancy tracking technology, they’re only using the data for basic use cases.
Occupancy tracking is at a crucial stage where most enterprises are relatively familiar with the technology and its general benefits, but not mature enough to recognize the opportunities they have to use it. Organizations don’t necessarily need more occupancy data; they need more occupancy insights from the data they already have.
In this article, we’ll highlight several ways enterprises should utilize their occupancy data as they mature in their understanding of how it can inform real estate decisions.
Evaluate the benefit of building improvements
As building owners look to refit workplaces, prioritize maintenance, and roll out capital programs, occupancy data can and should play a role in assessing the value these changes actually provide to the company. You may have several buildings that need new roofs or infrastructure improvements. If you don’t consider occupancy levels when prioritizing this work, you may wind up selecting projects that benefit fewer people, with less impact on occupant satisfaction and productivity.
Even if you plan to make the same improvements across your portfolio, the order in which you invest your time and resources matters. By bringing space utilization metrics into these decisions, you can focus on the investments that generate the greatest value to the organization first.
Compare planned and actual cost per person
For every location in your portfolio, your finance department estimates a cost-per-person based on the total cost of the location and the number of people expected to work there. But there’s often a significant difference when you divide the cost of your lease, utilities, furniture, and services by the number of occupants. Depending on your hybrid work schedule, your average occupancy levels could be far lower than the number of employees you planned to have at the given building—potentially even half the number, which would double your cost-per-person.
At Tango, we call this comparison between planned and actual cost-per-person “variance reporting.” As your lease department considers which locations to renew, consolidate, or close, variance reporting uses your occupancy data to reveal discrepancies between planned and actual costs, so you can reevaluate whether a given location is worth keeping in your portfolio.
Use different layers of data for different purposes
The various technologies that enable occupancy tracking aren’t inherently better or worse than others, but rather, serve different purposes and provide different layers of visibility. Simple solutions are enough for some use cases, while advanced technologies are required for others.
Of all the occupancy tracking technologies available, sensors provide the most granular visibility into the utilization of your reservable, nonreservable, assigned, and unassigned space. Some sensors track the number of occupants in a large area, and others track whether an individual seat is occupied.
But while this level of specificity may be the gold standard, it’s expensive and not always necessary. In fact, in our enterprise occupancy tracking study, many respondents indicated that a major reason they didn’t invest in space utilization sensors was that this level of visibility would provide an overwhelming amount of data—more than they could use for their purposes.
For broad real estate planning purposes, badge scanning data, and even manually collected data from walkthroughs, can often be enough to evaluate the general utilization of a building. As employers consider which locations to renew, relocate, close, or consolidate, this surface layer of occupancy data is likely sufficient. And it’s far more expedient, particularly if you don’t already have sensors installed.
When an organization wants to optimize their space allocation or fine-tune their hybrid work initiatives, however, they need those deeper layers of insight to evaluate whether they have enough of various types of space and help employees access the resources they need to be effective. Reservation data can obviously provide this visibility into reservable spaces, but if an employer wants to look into amenities, common areas, and other non-reservable spaces, they’ll likely need sensors to explore their utilization.
Align building operations with sustainability goals
Even slight adjustments to building infrastructure can generate significant energy savings and reductions in carbon emissions. So for organizations with sustainability goals, occupancy data can have an important role in reaching them—particularly for those with hybrid work policies and large variances in occupancy levels.
Employers can tie building infrastructure to occupancy levels to avoid wasting gas, electricity, and water to heat, cool, and light floors, rooms, and other spaces that aren’t being used. They can also adjust maintenance and cleaning services to ensure vendors and employees service areas at intervals based on usage, not arbitrary frequencies.
As organizations consider ways to make their workplaces more sustainable, occupancy levels need to be part of the conversation, and for some sustainable practices, they may need more enhanced visibility into each building’s occupancy.
Learn more about the state of occupancy tracking
In The 2025 Enterprise Occupancy Report, we surveyed North American and European enterprises from five different industries about their experience with occupancy tracking. Each of our respondents had significant influence over the organization’s adoption of occupancy tracking technologies, and shared insights including their greatest barriers to investing in occupancy tracking, their organizational priorities, and how their priorities align with use cases for occupancy tracking.
You can access the entire report for free—we won’t even ask for your email.