Occupancy Planning Glossary
Occupancy planning comes with its own language, and if you’re new to the field it can feel like a lot to learn all at once.
I’ve created a living glossary that breaks down key terms like block plan, seat-sharing, and stack plan in plain language, with examples of how they’re used in practice. My goal is to make the profession more approachable and give you a resource you can return to as the field continues to evolve.
A
Adjacency
In occupancy planning, an adjacency describes how close two teams or spaces need to be to one another in the workplace. Some teams work closely together and need to sit right next to each other. Others just need to be nearby, like on the same floor. And some don’t need to be near each other at all.
These are sometimes called co-location requirements because they describe which teams or spaces need to be located together.
There are three levels of adjacency:
Strong: Teams need to sit right next to each other
Moderate: Teams should be on the same floor or in the same building, but not necessarily side by side
None: No need to be close
Adjacencies aren’t just about teams. Some teams may need to sit near a certain room or space, like a lab or testing area, that can’t be moved.
Understanding adjacencies is important when planning a move or rearranging where teams sit. If one team moves, others might need to move with them to keep those important connections in place.
Example: Marketing has a moderate adjacency to Communications and needs to be on the same floor.
Allocation
The portions of a floor or building assigned to a specific team, department, or business unit. These assignments define who “owns” a given workspace, whether it’s individual seats, offices, collaboration zones, or specialty spaces such as labs or call centers.
Allocations are typically documented in space management systems and must be regularly updated as workspace changes hands between teams to ensure the data reflects the current state.
Beyond planning and reporting, allocations are also used for financial chargebacks, allowing organizations to assign space costs to business units based on the square footage or seat count they occupy.
B
Block Plan
A block plan is a 2D visual representation of a floorplan that shows how workspaces are assigned to teams, departments, or business units. It is typically color-coded and accompanied by a legend that maps each workspace grouping back to the appropriate team. The legend may also include key metrics such as space quantity, headcount, vacancy percentage, and employee-to-seat ratios, depending on the purpose of the plan. Block plans are commonly used to illustrate the current state of the floor or a proposed future state.
Block plans are a foundational tool in occupancy planning that help visually communicate the current or future state of a floor. They help visualize team allocations, support space planning conversations, and guide decision-making related to moves, growth, and optimization.
C
CAFM
CAFM stands for Computer-Aided Facilities Management. It refers to software used to manage and track physical space, assets, and occupancy data within a building or portfolio. In the context of occupancy planning, CAFM systems serve as the source of truth for floorplans, allocations, seat assignments, and capacity metrics.
CAFM tools allow planners to visualize floor layouts, document team and seat assignments, and generate reports that support moves, adds, and changes (MAC), as well as long-term space strategy.
Common CAFM platforms include Archibus, FM:Systems, Manhattan Centerstone, Tririga, and others. While features vary, the core function is to help organizations maintain accurate, up-to-date space records and support data-driven planning decisions
Capacity
The number of people a given space can accommodate based on the available workspaces and the seating model in place. This may apply to a department, floor, building, or an entire portfolio.
At its most basic level, capacity is calculated by counting the total number of workspaces, such as desks, offices, or workstations. However, in hybrid work environments with seat-sharing models, capacity can exceed the physical seat count. For example, with a 2:1 employee-to-seat ratio, 50 desks may be planned to support 100 employees.
Capacity is a key metric used in forecasting, scenario modeling, and planning for growth, consolidation, or restacking. It is often presented alongside headcount, vacancy, and utilization to assess whether a space is under- or over-allocated.
D
Densification
Densification is the process of increasing the number of workspaces within an existing floorplan to support additional headcount. This typically involves adding desks, reducing workstation sizes, or converting underutilized areas such as collaboration space into additional workspace.
In practice, densification may involve creating a test fit to assess spatial feasibility and identify potential operational or design trade-offs.
E
Employee-to-Seat Ratio
The employee-to-seat ratio is a planning metric that compares the number of employees assigned to a space with the number of available seats. It’s commonly used in hybrid work environments to determine how many employees a space can support based on the organization’s hybrid policy and seat-sharing model.
A ratio of 1:1 means each employee has an assigned seat, with one employee per seat. Higher ratios, such as 2:1 or 3:1, indicate that a single seat supports multiple employees, often within a neighborhood, based on how many days each employee is expected to be in the office. The higher the ratio, the more employees can be supported across a smaller pool of seats.
For example, with a 2:1 ratio, 20 employees can share 10 seats. At 3:1, 30 employees can share the same 10 seats. This ratio helps organizations optimize space while still meeting employee needs in a hybrid environment.
H
Headcount
Headcount refers to the number of employees associated with a specific team, department, floor, building, or portfolio.
There are different types of headcount used depending on the purpose of the analysis:
Assigned Headcount: The number of employees officially tied to a given location or space.
Forecasted Headcount: A future-looking estimate used for growth planning and scenario modeling.
Peak Headcount: The highest expected number of people present in a space at one time, often used to inform seat-sharing and capacity planning.
M
Move, Add, Change (MAC)
Move, Add, Change (MAC) refers to the set of activities involved in adjusting workspace assignments within a facility. These changes are typically triggered by business needs such as team growth, reorganizations, or new workplace requirements.
Move: Relocating an employee, team, or function from one seat, floor, or building to another.
Add: Introducing new headcount or workspaces into the environment, such as hiring new employees or setting up new desks.
Change: Modifying existing seat assignments or furniture configurations. This may include reassigning seats within a team, adjusting space allocations or neighborhood boundaries, or reconfiguring the current furniture.
MAC work is a routine part of occupancy planning and plays a key role in the Workplace Lifecycle. While individual MAC requests may be small in scope, they require coordination across multiple teams such as facilities, furniture vendors, IT, and impacted employees to ensure that changes are implemented smoothly and records are kept up to date in the CAFM system.
N
Neighborhood
In occupancy planning, a neighborhood is a defined zone of workspaces, typically made up of a cluster of desks, offices, or shared spaces, assigned to a specific team or department. Unlike traditional assigned seating, neighborhoods provide a semi-dedicated area for a group, offering flexibility while still preserving a sense of team identity.
Neighborhoods are a key component of seat-sharing strategies. Employees are over-assigned to the neighborhood based on hybrid schedules and share the available seats according to in-office attendance patterns.
P
Programming
Programming is the process of documenting requirements for a team, department, or business unit to ensure that future plans align with both departmental needs and employee needs.
In occupancy planning, programming involves collecting data such as headcount, growth projections, adjacency needs, hybrid policies, office eligibility requirements, and the types of spaces required, including workstations, offices, collaboration areas, and specialty spaces.
Programming is an essential component of Phase 1 of the Workplace Lifecycle because it translates business and employee requirements into data points that guide block plans, test fits, and long-term space strategy.
R
Restack
In occupancy planning, a restack is a large-scale move that involves shifting multiple teams within a building or across a campus. It’s called a “restack” because you're essentially rearranging how the building is stacked with employees.
Restacks can happen for different reasons, such as:
Making room for a new team moving into the building or campus
Changes in seat capacity, like gaining or losing space, that require teams to be redistributed
Evolving team needs where some teams have grown and need more space, while others have shrunk and need less
Restacks often require close coordination, especially when teams have adjacency (co-location) requirements. Moving one group can affect many others, so planners have to think carefully about how everything fits together.
S
Seat-Sharing
Seat-sharing is a workplace strategy in which employees share a pool of workspaces rather than having individually assigned seats. This approach supports hybrid work environments by aligning workspace supply with actual in-office demand.
Seat-sharing models vary depending on the hybrid policy, but they typically involve over-assigning employees to a neighborhood, which is a designated group of seats assigned to a team or department. Employees either drop in or reserve seats within the neighborhood based on their in-office schedules. This allows the organization to support more people with fewer seats while maintaining flexibility.
Stack Plan
A stack plan is a visual representation of how space is allocated across multiple floors within a building. It typically displays floors as horizontal bars (the “stack”) and uses color-coding or labels to show which teams, departments, or business units occupy each floor or portion of a floor.
Stack plans provide a quick snapshot of current state and are frequently used to illustrate proposed, future scenarios. They help planners evaluate space allocations, capacity, and adjacencies at a high level, making it easier to plan for growth, consolidations, or relocations.
In occupancy planning, stack plans are a critical communication tool because they translate headcount and space data into an easy-to-understand format that supports scenario modeling and executive decision-making.
U
Utilization
Utilization refers to how often workspaces are actually used compared to how many are available. It measures the real-time or average usage of desks, rooms, or zones over a specific period and helps organizations understand how effectively their space is being used.
Utilization is typically expressed as a percentage. For example, if 100 seats are available on a floor but only 60 are used during peak hours or days, the utilization rate is 60%. Data can be collected through badge swipes, sensor technology, reservation systems, or manual observation.
High or low utilization rates help occupancy planners make informed decisions about space optimization, restacking, or rightsizing. It also informs future planning, especially in hybrid models where usage patterns can vary widely across teams and days of the week.
