Modern workplace policies like hybrid and flexible work arrangements offer great perks to employees. Yet, this flexibility has led to an unexpected, often unwelcome, side effect for workplace teams: many employees choose to come to the office on the same days, and are often left to find that they can’t find a suitable place to park, work or have a meeting.
Most organizations experience the same trend: Tuesday through Thursday feels like rush hour, while on Mondays and Fridays the office resembles a ghost town, with entire office floors sitting empty. Employees face frustration with an underwhelming office experience, and you’re left with an endless stream of complaints with no quick solution in sight.
It's the type of problem that sounds simple on paper but gets messy quickly when it’s your job to create an experience that gets people back to the office. Rather than trying to eliminate peak days entirely, given that modern work policies have made some degree of fluctuation inevitable, the focus should be on making them run smoothly for the people who show up.
What's Actually Happening on Peak Days
When peak days occur, the following office challenges tend to emerge:
Available workspaces and meeting rooms are impossible to find
Everything's booked back-to-back on Tuesday through Thursday, but you could have your pick on Monday or Friday.
Ghost bookings are everywhere
Meeting spaces get automatically added to calendar events, or people reserve rooms "just in case." When teams run into each other in different areas, they work there instead. Meanwhile, the originally booked room sits empty and locked for an hour while others wander around the office with laptops, searching for an available space.
There often isn’t an actual space problem
In most cases, you ran the numbers and are fairly sure you have enough workspaces and meeting rooms to accommodate your team, even on the busier days. The problem seems to be that everyone is trying to use the same resources the same time, causing periodic shortages.Instead of being welcomed with a vibrant and productive office experience, employees are now facing frustration on the days they choose to come in and make the effort to commute.
The Real Problem: You're Flying Blind
Here's what makes your job so tricky: you hear the complaints and observe the issues first-hand, but what you really need to tell the complete story is data.
A scenario that may feel familiar: someone books a meeting room at 2 PM because they might need it. Then they bump into their teammate by the coffee machine and decide just to work there instead. The room sits empty but is still "booked" for the next hour. Meanwhile, you’re left to deal with the complaints of three other people who can’t find an available meeting space.
While these structural observations can guide you, they're often not enough to base solid decisions on.
Getting the Data You Need to Make Smart Changes
So where to start? The right solution for your organization depends on your technical setup and unique challenges, but the goal is always the same: get visibility into what's happening so you have the right insights to drive strategic and impactful space decisions.
Here are some examples of how Mapiq can help you make your solve peak day challenges, based on your current setup:
If you're working with booking data only:
We analyze booking patterns, behavior and peak times to help you optimize space allocation and booking policies. For instance, if data shows 30% of large conference rooms are booked by 2-person teams, you may want to explore right-sizing opportunities your meeting room portfolio to smaller collaboration spaces or adjusting booking policies.
If you have sensors:
We combine occupancy data from sensors with booking data to reveal usage patterns and enable features such automatic room release for unused spaces. For example, when a booked room sits empty for 15 minutes past the booking start time, it’s automatically released so it becomes available again.
If you're starting from scratch:
We assess your existing systems, such as booking platforms, badge data, and active directory, to determine what data you already have and can use to uncover peak day bottlenecks. We'll also help evaluate whether hardware investments make sense for your situation. A recent client discovered their badge swipe data and booking data already provided the majority of the insights they needed, saving them thousands in sensor costs.
See How It Works
Here’s Tiba walking you through Mapiq and how you can use insights from booking data to solve your peak day puzzles:
