How Roche Uses Data to Enhance Space Usability and Employee Experience

After years of adapting to hybrid and flexible work models, workplace leaders are now rethinking how office spaces function. The focus is no longer just on bringing employees back – it’s about creating environments that support how they work today, providing the flexibility and resources they need to thrive.

In the 4th Occupancy Intelligence Index, a major shift in workplace behavior was revealed: Employees are now spending nearly three times more time actively using collaboration and conference rooms (42%) than individual desks (14.5%). Despite this shift, desks still dominate office layouts, leading to misalignment with employee needs and potential space shortages. 

In this era of work there’s no room to risk employee satisfaction. Space shortages can lead to frustration, friction, and inefficiencies, and will negatively impact employee experience and productivity.  

At the 2nd Occupancy Intelligence Summit, Nireas Kolestsos, IoT Specialist in Digital CX and Mobility at Roche, shared how Roche is tackling space shortages by leveraging real-time occupancy data and empowering employees with greater control over their workspaces. His experience shows that by harnessing data, organizations can create a more seamless employee experience – improving productivity, reducing turnover, and ultimately optimizing real estate costs by ensuring an effective use of space.

Here are five key takeaways from his session that can help you solve space availability challenges without negatively impacting employee experience:

1. Solving Space Availability Challenges Requires Data

For many workplace leaders, requests for more office space often come from leadership or employees – but without data, these requests are often difficult to validate. In many cases, the teams that push the hardest or speak the loudest are the ones who receive additional space, whether they truly need it or not.

According to Nireas, this challenge became even more complex after the COVID-19 pandemic. “Before the pandemic, an office was considered full at 70% occupancy. Now, people feel like it’s too crowded at just 40% because they’re not used to being around so many people anymore.” 

Action Step: Start by evaluating how your organization identifies and responds to space shortages. Assess whether decisions are based on real occupancy data or anecdotal feedback, and identify potential blind spots in how space usage is tracked and prioritized.

2. Traditional Space Booking Data Isn’t Always Enough

To better understand the problem, Roche first examined their existing data sources, such as WiFi and badge data, to measure overall office attendance. However, these sources only provided a partial view of occupancy levels, lacking the depth needed to assess how individual spaces – like meeting rooms and collaboration areas – were actually being used.

Kolestsos explained that while WiFi data could offer a general sense of how many people were in the building, "What we needed was specific data for specific types... It’s really hard to get this kind of data without using sensor technology or something really strong in terms of data collection.”  Without granular insights, workplace leaders couldn’t distinguish between an actual space shortage or a misallocation of existing space.

To bridge this gap, Roche adopted a more detailed, data-driven approach to understanding occupancy trends and employee behavior. By incorporating real-time occupancy data from VergeSense, they could track space utilization with precision—capturing how and when meeting rooms, collaboration areas, and workstations were actually being used, rather than relying on assumptions or incomplete data.

Action Step: Start by analyzing existing data sources like WiFi and badge data to get a high-level view of office attendance. Keep in mind that these metrics only show how many people are in the building—not how individual spaces are being used. To gain deeper insights, supplement with a more detailed, sensor-driven approach that gives you insight into real-time occupancy trends and can better identify inefficiencies.

3. Displaying Space Availability Data can Enhance Employee Experience

Rather than just using occupancy data internally, Roche developed an Employee Experience App that makes real-time space availability visible and actionable. The app allows employees to see which meeting rooms, collaboration areas, and desks are available at any given moment, helping them quickly find the right workspace while also improving overall space utilization.

By putting real-time data in employees’ hands, Roche enabled a seamless, frictionless workplace experience, reducing frustration and making it easier to find and book available spaces.

Action Step: Consider how real-time occupancy data can be leveraged to directly enhance the employee experience. Start by identifying common space availability challenges in your office, then explore achievable solutions – such as digital displays, interactive dashboards, or a quarterly space analytics summary – to make space utilization data more accessible and actionable.

4. Reduce Wasted Space with Automated Room Releases

One of the most significant challenges Roche faced was ghosted meetings, where rooms were booked but remained empty. To combat this, the company introduced an automated room release system powered by multiple data sources.

Here's how the system they developed functions:

• VergeSense sensors measure real-time occupancy to determine whether a space is actually being used.
• VergeSense sensors monitor passive occupancy, detecting employee belongings – such as laptops or jackets – to indicate whether a space is temporarily unoccupied but still in use.
• Roche integrated VergeSense occupancy data with Google Calendar to more accurately represent booking, ensuring that spaces are only released when they are truly unoccupied by both employees and their belongings.

Nireas shared, "At first we would auto-release rooms, then we started using the passive data." This approach increased meeting room availability by ensuring that rooms were only released when they were truly unoccupied. By refining the system to recognize when a space was still in use—such as when employees left belongings behind—Roche provided both greater access to meeting rooms and the flexibility for employees to still step away without losing their space.

Action Step: Conduct a detailed workplace utilization study to understand how employees are actually using spaces, not just how they are booked or perceived to be used.

5. Drive Employee Adoption Through Transparency

Introducing new workplace technology can sometimes be met with skepticism, especially when data collection is involved. However, Roche’s decision to make the data transparent to employees led to overwhelmingly positive adoption.

As Nireas explained, when employees can see and use the data themselves, they recognize its value. The response to Roche’s app has been overwhelmingly positive, with high engagement and adoption because it directly improves the workplace experience. By giving employees access to occupancy insights, Roche built trust in the technology while also enhancing space efficiency.

Action Step: Increase employee adoption by making workplace data accessible and actionable—transparency fosters trust, engagement, and a better overall workplace experience.

Optimize Space Availability with VergeSense

As workplace dynamics continue to shift, optimizing space availability is critical for creating an efficient and employee-centric workplace. Roche’s approach demonstrates that leveraging real-time occupancy data not only prevents space shortages but also enhances flexibility, improves collaboration, and ensures employees have access to the spaces they need, when they need them.

The key takeaway? Effective space management starts with understanding how employees actually use office spaces, not just how they’re booked. By integrating data-driven insights, workplace leaders can move beyond assumptions, proactively address inefficiencies, and create a more adaptable and productive workplace. For the full story and more insights check out the full recording of the 2nd Occupancy Intelligence Summit.

Interested in learning more about preventing space shortages with data-driven decisions? Set up a time to talk with a specialist about your workplace goals.