5 Signs Your Office Strategy Is Out of Sync
Is your office really working—or just half-awake?
At the Q1 2025 Occupancy Benchmarks Webinar, Basking’s Head of Data Analytics Anjali Grover and CEO Eldar Gizzatov were joined by JanJaap Boogaard, Head of EMEA Workplace Advisory at Colliers, to explore what leading portfolios are getting wrong: most hybrid offices hit their attendance targets—but still fail to generate real energy.
Based on those insights and data from the Colliers’ 2025 EMEA Workplace Report, here are 5 behavioral red flags that signal your space is out of sync.
1. The Office Is "Busy"—But Nothing Feels Aligned
You’ve hit your return-to-office goals. Headcount is stable. Schedules are technically being followed. And yet—nothing feels cohesive. Teams trickle in, energy spikes then dips, and collaboration feels… accidental.
What’s missing? Overlap. Shared time. Behavioral alignment.
According to Colliers’ 2025 EMEA Workplace Report, 83% of office hours still fall below the vibrancy threshold, meaning the majority of time, fewer than half of seats are occupied together. Without synchronous presence, you don’t get the network effect—just scattered inputs in the same space.
2. Dead Zones Keep Showing Up—Even on "Anchor Days"
Many companies try to drive attendance through fixed team days. But if different teams are scheduled in isolation, or occupancy is too spread out, the result is still fragmentation.
Real-time occupancy analytics often reveal:
Zones that stay consistently underused
Time blocks where traffic is low, despite policy
Moments of peak presence that aren’t being leveraged
If your space feels underwhelming despite structured plans, the issue might be hidden in your flow—not your intent.
3. Meetings Feel Empty—Or Overcrowded
Are your key moments out of sync with actual presence? When strategic gatherings (like retrospectives, onboardings, or planning days) fall on low-traffic windows, they underperform. Conversely, scheduling all-hands during high-overlap periods without coordination can cause bottlenecks.
Data-driven teams now map meeting types to attendance rhythms, pre-book collaborative spaces during organic peaks, and use real-time trends to shift high-impact events. That way, they avoid mismatches between purpose and presence.
Learn how Basking AI syncs strategy with presence
4. Teams Work in Silos—Even In-Person
Cross-functional collaboration doesn’t happen just because people are in the same building. Without smart overlap, sales never meets ops. Marketing misses engineering. Culture stays flat.
Colliers highlights that spontaneous interaction depends on presence at the same time, not just place. Rigid schedules often overlook this nuance.
Signs of in-person silos:
High variance in attendance across functions
Teams follow their own rhythms, making overlap rare. Even if the office looks “busy,” cross-pollination doesn’t happen.
Few or no cross-departmental overlaps
Departments arrive and leave in isolation. This kills the chance for informal exchange, fast decisions, or creative collisions.
Departmental peaks misaligned by design
If sales peaks on Monday and product peaks on Wednesday, their energy never syncs. As a result, the office loses its value as a collaborative space.
5. You’re Flying Blind on Behavior
Badge data and average headcounts won’t cut it anymore. Without behavioral visibility, hybrid strategy becomes guesswork.
High-performing portfolios are now powered by:
Live heatmaps by hour and zone
See exactly which areas are in use and when. Basking visualizes workspace activity in real time, floor by floor—so you can eliminate dead zones and rebalance demand.
Workspot analytics across floors and sites
Track where employees are truly based, how often they switch locations, and how evenly they use shared zones. Identify Floor Nomads and cross-site traffic to fix planning mismatches.
Mobility Personas based on frequency and duration
Go beyond averages. Segment employees into On-site, Hybrid, Occasional, and Flexible categories based on consistent real-world behavior.
If your strategy is built on assumptions—not behavior—you’re out of sync by design.
Learn how Basking helps global teams realign hybrid presence with behavioral data—not policies.
