These days, landlords and occupiers looking to optimise their space use rarely rely on researchers with clipboards writing down how office workers move around the workplace. They are far more likely to use sophisticated software and equipment to analyse patterns of behaviour to create the best fit-outs possible and make changes to the way individual offices and multiple sites operate.

As Carissa Kilgour, workplace director at Landsec, explains: “Historically, a lack of accurate and trustworthy data made it difficult for corporate real estate departments to make significant portfolio changes. Now, cutting-edge businesses collect and analyse occupancy data to confidently help their business make smarter space decisions when taking a new lease.”

So who is doing what when it comes to using technology to measure office usage? And how can the analysis derived from data be used to drive efficiencies in the way office space is used?