How many desks does your new office need?
Short answer
Size it to your busiest day, not your average day. Give an assigned desk to everyone who is in every day, then plan shared desks for everyone else who is in on your busiest day, plus about 10%.
Shared desks = everyone else × busiest-day share × 1.1. For a 300-person office with 30 assigned desks and 65% in on a Tuesday, that is 224 desks.
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Hybrid and part-time included. Leave out anyone fully remote.
People who need the same desk every day: reception, finance, anyone in five days.
Of everyone else. Use your real Tuesday or Wednesday, not the weekly average.
Headroom for the days that run hot and the people you hire next year.
The method
Four steps to a desk count you can defend
- 1
Count everyone who could come in
Hybrid and part-time staff count. People who are fully remote and never come in don't. Add the hires you expect before the lease is next up, because the new office has to hold them too.
- 2
Take out the people who need a desk every day
Reception, finance, facilities, and anyone who is in five days a week keep an assigned desk. They get one each, whatever the attendance numbers say.
- 3
Find your busiest day, not your average one
Look at the real Tuesday or Wednesday. A 50% average can hide an 80% Tuesday, and Tuesday is the day people can't find a seat. Use badge swipes, Wi-Fi logins or booking data if you have it.
- 4
Add a buffer and round up
Shared desks = everyone else × busiest-day share × (1 + buffer). Ten percent covers most offices. Add the assigned desks back and round up.
Worked examples
What this looks like at 200 to 800 people
| Office | Assigned desks | Busiest day | Desks needed | Desks per person |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 200 people, mostly in two days a week | 15 | 55% | 127 | 0.64 |
| 300 people, three days a week | 30 | 65% | 224 | 0.75 |
| 500 people, set office days | 40 | 75% | 420 | 0.84 |
| 800 people, four days a week | 80 | 85% | 723 | 0.90 |
Busiest day is the share of non-assigned people in on the busiest day. Buffer is 10%, or 5% for the 800-person office.
Where desk counts go wrong
Sizing to the average day
The average is the number that makes the lease look cheap. The busiest day is the number people experience.
Forgetting that team days stack
If three departments all pick Tuesday as their team day, Tuesday is your real capacity number. Stagger team days before you shrink the floor, not after.
Counting meeting rooms as desks
A meeting room seat is not somewhere to sit all day. Plan rooms separately from desks, and plan them for how many meetings actually run at once.
Guessing instead of measuring
If you have no attendance data, run desk booking in the current office for four to six weeks before you sign. You walk into the lease negotiation with your real peak.
Questions about desk counts
What is a good desk-to-employee ratio for a hybrid office?
It depends on how many days people come in and whether team days overlap. Size to the busiest day, add a buffer of about 10%, and give assigned desks to the people who are in every day. In the worked examples on this page that lands between roughly 0.6 and 0.9 desks per person.
Should I plan desks for average attendance or peak attendance?
Peak. Average attendance tells you how much space sits empty on a normal day. Busiest-day attendance tells you whether people can find a seat on the day it matters, which is what they will judge the new office by.
How do I find my busiest day if I don't have attendance data?
Badge or door-access logs and Wi-Fi logins are the quickest sources. If you have neither, run desk booking in your current office for four to six weeks before you commit to the new floor plan. The booking history gives you a real busiest day per week.
Who should get an assigned desk in a hybrid office?
People who are in every day or who need fixed equipment: reception, facilities, finance and anyone with specialist hardware. Everyone else shares from a pool of bookable desks. Keep the assigned list short, because every assigned desk is empty whenever its owner is out.
Do meeting rooms count toward the desk total?
No. Plan meeting rooms separately. A seat in a meeting room is not a place to work all day, and counting it as a desk makes the office look bigger than it is on the busiest day.
Got the number? Put the desks on the new floor plan.
Gridero turns the new office's floor plan into a bookable map, so on move day people book a real desk instead of guessing. See how it works for office moves or read the seating plan guide.
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