Quantum Health saves $13.5M in renovations with OfficeSpace

THE CHALLENGEs

A painstaking manual move process

Quantum Health undergoes a 500-person reshuffle every year to better align teams to serve new and existing clients. In the past, Facilities Space Planner Kristin Peloso drew countless block plans by hand on paper, manually outlining each work zone or “Pod,” then worked with different stakeholders to digitize the floor plans. The team placed employees and seat IDs in CAD one by one and created move lists in Excel, but the process didn’t end there. They needed to walk the floor on a regular basis to verify that their drawings were accurate, then rinse and repeat.

Lack of insight into space needs

Amid a period of rapid headcount growth, Quantum Health moved into a new building with five floors. Then, when the pandemic hit and most employees were working remotely, the team focused on renovating just two floors. When it was safe to do so, they were excited to welcome employees back to a fresh, new space. Yet managers felt they were running out of space and seating on the two floors, and employees began working out of areas that hadn’t been renovated. This made it difficult for the company to retain talent and get people back in the office.

The initial solution was to move forward with a costly renovation of three additional floors to add more space and seating, yet executives noticed that on most days, many seats were left unoccupied. They needed to take a closer look at space utilization to understand if construction should really begin. 

THE SOLUTION

Real-Time Badge Data Sync 

To understand which areas were being used and how often, the facilities planning team leveraged badge swipes to passively capture presence data over a six-month period. Through OfficeSpace integrations, the team was able to update attendance records in real-time, without asking employees to manually check in.

I really like badge swipe data. I call it “passive information.” You don’t have to rely on employees to do anything except enter the building.  

— Kristin Peloso, Facilities Space Planner

Analyzing Daily Presence with Workplace Intelligence 

By looking at Daily Presence Reports from OfficeSpace down to the department level, the team was able to see average attendance, plus highs and lows in attendance over six months. The reports revealed that peak daily occupancy was just 55%, and 46% on average. One department, for example, had 82 seats allocated, but only 19 of those seats were getting used daily.

Implementing Neighborhoods & Desk Sharing 

With daily presence at less than 50%, Quantum Health rethought their decision to add more desks. Instead, they implemented a neighborhood shared seating model, designating “Pod Managers” or neighborhood captains to govern seating assignments for their teams. Now their employees have more flexibility when it comes to working in office but are still guaranteed a seat, and the company avoided a costly floor expansion.

Building Digital Floor Plan Scenarios 

Quantum Health ditched the paper floor plans for fully digital, data-driven scenarios. The team can build unlimited scenarios, compare them side-by-side with current floor plans, track employee and equipment moves so nothing falls through the cracks, and even create scenarios based on growth forecasts. The process is highly collaborative: Pod Managers work in a sandbox environment so they can get feedback and approval before merging scenarios.

Implementing OfficeSpace has made internal moves more accurate and help us keep our pods up to date within seconds! The program is extremely user-friendly. It’s also made finding individuals within the organization so simple. Overall, I feel more organized and in control.

— Amber, Pod Manager

THE IMPACT

Time and money saved, thanks to space planning tools and real-time data

Since partnering with OfficeSpace, Quantum Health was able to transform their hybrid office. With digital floor plan scenarios, automated move lists, and intuitive block and stack planning, the facilities space planners and neighborhood captains calculated that they save over 200 hours on every office move.

Leadership quickly recognized that saving this time freed up all the teams involved in the fall shuffle so everyone could then focus on more strategic and higher priority work.

—Kristin Peloso

Their shared seating model helped them define their hybrid work policy—making it easier for teams to work how they wanted, while still having ample space to feel comfortable and welcome at the office.

Now that Quantum Health has accurate presence data, they can better understand utilization and attendance even as the company grows. When it’s time to expand, they’ll be confident that spaces won’t go unused. The data not only prevented the company from spending millions of dollars on a renovation, it also acts as a common language between workplace teams and executives. Both are critical partners in the business, and now they can align on initiatives based on real numbers, not just assumptions.