Workplace management: basics, tools, and implementation
Workplace management ensures that your office space is used in a truly meaningful way. This article shows how companies can manage occupancy, booking, and analysis in a structured way, from implementation to ongoing operation. With practical steps and clear metrics for modern, hybrid working environments.
Workplace management controls how workstations, rooms, and space are used with the aim of organizing occupancy, costs, and collaboration in an economical way.
Core tasks: Recording space usage, managing with a booking system, setting rules, and ongoing optimization during operation.
Key figures: Important KPIs are occupancy rate, utilization rate, no-show rate, desk-sharing rate, and cost per workplace.
Digital basis: PULT as a workplace management software combines booking, attendance recording, and analysis in one software. Other systems can be connected via API.
What is workplace management?
Workplace management refers to the coordinated control of the use of workspaces, workstations, and associated resources in companies. It ensures that available space reflects the actual needs of the team and is operated economically.
Typical tasks in workplace management are:
Recording and analysis of space utilization,
management of booking and occupancy systems,
adaptation of space structure to organizational changes,
ensuring workplace and data protection requirements.
Software is used for implementation, for example, desk and room booking software, sometimes in conjunction with sensors for occupancy recording. These systems combine data from space planning, HR, and IT.
How do I set up workplace management?
Workplace management is introduced in four steps: First, record the actual use of your space, establish rules for occupancy and booking, map these processes technically, and then optimize them during ongoing operations.
1. Record the initial situation
Determine how your workspaces are currently being used. Count the available workstations, room types, and space sizes. Document which areas are regularly occupied and where vacancies occur repeatedly.
Use existing sources such as booking systems, access data, or simple inspections. Based on this, create a profile of office attendance with the most important key figures:
Utilization per zone
Average occupancy per weekday
Space requirements per person.
In addition, ask your employees which workstations, rooms, and zones are desired and used on a daily basis.
Tip: With the office evaluation in PULT, you can see exactly how your office is actually being used. You can record actual attendance, bookings, no-shows, and peak days in one system in PULT.
Define how workstations and rooms should be used. Formulate booking rules with lead times, maximum booking duration, and no-show policies.
Assign activities to specific room types: quiet and concentrated work, teamwork, meetings, phone calls.
Take into account the legal minimum standards from the Workplace Ordinance and internal guidelines on data protection and works council participation.
The goal of this step is to create a space concept that reflects how your employees actually work.
3. Choosing the software
To implement this, choose software that covers all aspects of your workplace management:
Booking individual workstations, rooms, zones, and, if applicable, parking spaces
Filter options by equipment (e.g., height-adjustable table, two monitors)
Integration with calendar software such as Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, MS Teams
Definition of booking rights and restrictions (e.g., zones only available to certain teams)
Automatic release of booked but unused spaces (no-show rule)
Utilization reports for rooms, workstations, zones, floors, and buildings
Some software requires sensors to be installed for occupancy tracking. This is not the case with the workplace management system PULT: PULT Presence automatically tracks your employees' attendance as soon as their laptop or smartphone connects to the company Wi-Fi.
This way, you always get reliable utilization figures, even if the raw booking data is distorted by no-shows.
The workplace management platform PULT provides numerous functions for comprehensive workplace management: space and room booking, filters and floor plans, booking rules, calendar integration, and much more.
All your workplace management in one software package. Get started with PULT now.
After implementation, carry out regular evaluations on a monthly or quarterly basis. Compare current occupancy data with target values and identify deviations.
Based on the data, you can continuously adapt the office space to actual needs and provide your employees with the resources they actually require in the best possible way.
The goal is continuous improvement that constantly balances space requirements and operating costs with the demands and needs of employees.
Which key figures are relevant for workplace management?
Digital workplace management works with data from the booking software and draws on attendance figures and utilization values. The key figures show how intensively workspaces are used, where over- or undercapacities arise, and how space utilization compares to costs and demand.
Occupancy rate: Measures how many workspaces are in use at a given time. Formula: occupied workspaces ÷ available workspaces × 100
Utilization rate: Shows how much workspaces or rooms are actually used over a period of time. Formula: total usage time ÷ available time × 100
No-show rate: Percentage of booked but unused workspaces or rooms. Formula: unused bookings ÷ total number of bookings × 100
Desk sharing ratio: Ratio of employees to available workspaces. Formula: number of employees ÷ number of workspaces
Space costs per workspace: Compares total costs (rent, utilities, services) to actual usage. Formula: total costs ÷ number of workspaces used.
Space productivity: Links space usage to operational output, e.g., revenue or project performance per square meter.
Reporting: Regular evaluation and visualization of key figures, e.g., as a dashboard with time series or heat maps.
Comprehensive workplace management with PULT
Your workplace management with PULT covers bookings, usage data, and evaluation, as well as integration with HR software and building management systems.
PULT handles the entire operational process: bookings, attendance tracking, and analysis. Other systems can be integrated as needed and as a supplement, usually via API.
In PULT, employees book workstations, meeting rooms, zones, or parking spaces. This can be done directly in PULT or via integrated calendars such as Microsoft Outlook and Google Workspace. Connection to chat software such as Slack is also possible.
Synchronization is two-way: bookings automatically appear in the calendar, and reservations from the calendar are visible in PULT.
Your employees check in automatically in PULT Presence; and booked but unused spaces are automatically released.
The integrated reporting measures key figures such as occupancy rate, no-show rate, desk sharing rate, and space costs. The dashboard provides you with all the figures in a clear overview.
PULT imports employee data, departments, supervisors, working time models, and absences via integrations with Personio and HiBob.
Home office days are transferred as a separate absence type and can be taken into account in booking rules and evaluations. This keeps the system synchronized with actual working times and locations.
If you already use or plan to use building management systems in the future, you can also connect them to PULT. The data from PULT supplements these systems with the current usage level:
It provides data on how the space is actually occupied.
Your facility team can see how intensively individual rooms and areas are being used.
Cleaning intervals and maintenance times can thus be planned intelligently.
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How does data protection affect workplace management?
Personal data may only be processed if there is a clear purpose. PULT works with anonymized usage data from which no conclusions can be drawn about the behavior of individuals. The software is therefore GDPR-compliant.
Do you need building sensors to implement workplace management?
No, it is also possible without sensors. Initially, the booking data is sufficient to perform initial utilization analyses. With PULT Presence, you can expand this with real attendance data: when your employees' laptops or smartphones connect to the company Wi-Fi, their presence is recorded.
How can workplace management solutions be combined with home office regulations?
Home office days can be entered as absences in the booking system. This allows you to keep track of employees who are present and those who are working remotely.
Can PULT be connected to existing systems in the company?
Yes, PULT can be integrated with Microsoft Outlook, Google Workspace, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Personio, HiBob, Azure AD, and Okta. This means that bookings, calendars, and user data are automatically synchronized.
Can PULT also manage meeting rooms and parking spaces?
Yes, PULT supports the booking of desks, rooms, zones, parking spaces, and catering in one software package.
At PULT we're designing the future of the hybrid workplace for companies and their employees. Focused on SME and mid market customers in Eruope, I'm working on everything from Customer Discovery to Onboarding. I'm very passionate about new work and moved to Hamburg in 2024 even though I'm originally from France.
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Office Insights
The Paperless Office: A step-by-step guide from piles of paper to a digital workflow
The paperless office describes an ideal state in which documents, approvals, and internal processes are handled without a parallel analog system. However, many attempts at digitization result in duplicate records, a situation that can be avoided.
A paperless office can only be achieved when processes and documents are transformed together. However, parallel structures undermine both the concept and the benefits.
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For legally compliant archiving in accordance with GoBD, retention periods of 6 and 10 years apply. Digitally archived documents must be stored in a manner that ensures they are complete, unalterable, and can be reconstructed at any time for audit purposes.
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Implementing a paperless office: Assess the current situation, prioritize appropriate processes, select software, involve the team, and evaluate the results after 90 days.
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PULT digitizes room reservations, desk bookings, and visitor management in a completely paperless manner and integrates directly with MS Teams, Slack, Personio, and HiBob—as part of a paperless office management system.
What distinguishes a truly paperless office from a digital filing system?
Going paperless starts with ensuring that a process—such as approving a vacation request or processing an incoming invoice—runs from start to finish without any physical documents. If, on the other hand, you simply scan a document and forward the PDF via email, you’ve eliminated the paper, but not the process.
Document vs. Process: What's the Difference?
Document digitization converts a paper document into a file. Process digitization redesigns the workflow behind it: Who submits the request, and where? Who approves it, and how? Where is the result stored in an audit-proof manner and immediately retrievable? Only when both are combined can a paperless office without parallel structures be achieved.
What aspects of office work can be made paperless?
As a general rule, almost all processes that have been handled on paper up to now can be digitized:
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Inbox: digital inbox with automated forwarding.
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Invoice Processing: Digital Incoming Invoices with Accounting Integration.
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Contracts and Documents: DMS with full-text search and access rights.
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HR documents: digital personnel file, electronic time tracking.
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Visitor Management: Digital check-in processes instead of paper lists, as with visitor management using PULT.
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Room and desk reservations:Reservation systems instead of notice boards and in-person reservation arrangements.
Digital booking of rooms and seats in PULT, with automatic check-in and AI-powered meeting room management.
What legal considerations do I need to keep in mind when setting up a paperless office?
The key legal pillars of the paperless office in Germany are the GoBD, document retention periods, and the e-invoicing requirement.
GoBD and Audit-Compliant Archiving
A digitally archived document is considered GoBD-compliant if it meets three principles:
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Completeness: No document may be missing or deleted without verification.
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Immutability: Subsequent changes must be prevented or fully logged.
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Traceability: Every access can be reconstructed by auditors.
Retention periods apply regardless of format: 10 years for accounting documents, balance sheets, and tax-related business correspondence; 6 years for other business correspondence. A GoBD-certified document management system (DMS) then technically implements these requirements.
E-Invoicing and Other Digitalization Requirements
Starting in January 2025, all B2B companies in Germany must be able to receive e-invoices. The requirement to send e-invoices will take effect in 2027 for companies with annual revenue exceeding 800,000 euros, and in 2028 for all companies.
Beforehand, the general processing of invoices should already be fully digitized so that the transition to e-invoicing can then be made with comparable ease.
What software do I need for a paperless office?
Setting up the right software infrastructure for a paperless office means making a decision for each category and finding the best tools for hybrid work for the company. Four categories cover the majority of paper-related processes:
Category
Tools (Examples)
What is it for?
Document Capture & DMS
DocuWare, ELO, M-Files
Audit-compliant archiving, full-text search, access rights
Digital Signature
Skribble, DocuSign
Legally valid signature without a printout
Invoice Processing
DATEV, Lexware, Candis
Incoming invoices, accounting integration
Office Management
PULT
Room booking, desk booking, visitor management, and parking management, integrated with Microsoft Teams, Slack, and HR systems
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How do I implement a paperless office step by step?
To move toward a paperless office, first map out the processes taking place in your office, review and streamline the most important ones, select the appropriate software, and then work with your team to implement the now-digital process.
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Assess the current situation. Document all paper-based processes, including the steps involved: who does what, when, and using what medium?
2
Prioritize processes. Start with the area that offers the greatest time savings. This typically involves incoming invoices or HR processes, as they are time-consuming and prone to errors.
3
Consolidate your tool stack. A few comprehensive platforms are better than a multitude of individual tools, because data interfaces remain the most common source of errors. Choose tools that communicate with each other.
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Involve the team before rolling out the tool. Employees won't use tools they know nothing about and don't see as benefiting them personally.
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Evaluate after 90 days. What usage rates have the tools achieved? Where are there still media breaks? What needs to be revised?
How to Keep Your Office Paperless for the Long Term
Your employees will follow the digital processes as long as there is no reason to deviate from them. Therefore, the processes—and especially the software—in the paperless office must offer them everything that was previously possible on paper and even go beyond that.
With PULT, you can manage all aspects of your office operations: room reservations and automated meeting room management, presence detection, office usage analytics, visitor reception, and more:
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Visitor Management
Organizing an Event: Checklist, Permits & Legalities 2026
If you organize an event, you now bear more legal responsibility than you did just a few years ago. New requirements for safety documentation, GDPR obligations regarding participant data, and changes to liability rules mean that event planning has become a task where relying on an outdated checklist can quickly become costly.
Public events involving a large number of people are subject to a require a permit in Germany: Depending on the state and the type of event, applications must be submitted to the relevant authority at least 12 weeks in advance
Since the stricter requirements took effect in 2025/2026, event organizers must actively maintain their safety documentation: In the event of a claim, anyone who cannot provide complete documentation bears the burden of proof, regardless of whether there was any fault
The GDPR applies to participant data when organizing an event, and specifically to event photos and video recordings as well: Without explicit consent or a documented exception, substantial fines may be imposed.
Event management feature: With PULT, companies can coordinate corporate events, room scheduling, and attendee management all within a single system, directly integrated with Personio, HiBob, MS Teams, and Slack.
What permits do I need before organizing an event?
As soon as you start planning an event in Germany, you’ll encounter a complex web of regulations that vary depending on the state, the type of event, and the number of attendees. The key regulations include the Public Gathering Venues Ordinance, GEMA, and guidelines from the public order office.
Your city or town’s Public Order Office: The first point of contact for public events. The Public Order Office generally approves the event and coordinates with other authorities as needed. Private corporate events with a fixed guest list held at an approved venue do not require a separate permit from this office
Department of Streets and Green Spaces (also known as the Department of Civil Engineering or the Department of Urban Planning, depending on the city): You can apply here for a special use permit for events on streets, squares, or in parks. The exact name of the agency varies by municipality. The quickest way to find the right contact is to search for “special use permit for events” on your municipality’s city portal. Many municipalities now bundle this application in the Servicekonto Deutschland
Business Licensing Office: If you sell food or beverages, you need a temporary permit under the restaurant regulations of the respective state. This is a separate application, independent of the event permit.
Three additional points that often come up too late in the planning process:
GEMA: You must register music that includes GEMA-licensed tracks in advance at gema.de, whether performed live or played from a recording. The fees depend on the size of the event and the venue area.
Regulation on Public Gathering Places (VStättVO): For events with 200 or more people, the relevant building authority will verify whether the venue is licensed as a public gathering place. Clarify this in advance with the venue’s landlord, because as the organizer, you are jointly liable if the operating permit is missing or has expired
Fire Department and Public Health Department: For events featuring stage setups or food service, the Public Order Office often requires a fire safety plan and a hygiene plan. Make sure to get written confirmation that this applies to your event.
For all applications for which your municipality offers an online portal, the following applies: The Servicekonto Deutschland consolidates many of these forms. Start the application process at least 12 weeks before the event.
What has changed for events as a result of new safety regulations and the reversal of the burden of proof?
DGUV 115-002 sets forth safety requirements for event and production technology and applies to all events where technical equipment such as stages, lighting, or sound systems is set up. Starting in 2025/2026, authorities and courts expect event organizers to actively maintain their safety documentation rather than compiling it only upon request.
This means that risk assessments, evacuation plans, protocols for briefing service providers, and participant lists must be fully documented. If you cannot present complete documentation in the event of a claim, the burden of proof falls on you. A structured documentation system in place before the event should therefore be considered a requirement that you must comply with.
How do I comply with the GDPR when organizing an event?
As soon as you register participants, you are processing personal data and therefore need a legal basis under Article 6 of the GDPR. For corporate events, this basis is generally derived from legitimate interest. In this case, the data may not be used for purposes beyond the event and must be deleted after 90 days at the latest. The only exception to the deletion period is tax-related retention requirements.
Things get more complicated when it comes to event photos and video recordings:
Portraits and identifiable individuals: Publication is prohibited without express consent, even in the case of seemingly harmless group photos
Panoramic photos of large crowds: In such cases, a legitimate interest may apply, provided that individuals are not recognizable.
Online events and recordings: If you record events or meetings , you must inform participants in advance and obtain their consent. Starting a recording without prior notice is a violation of the GDPR.
When registering, provide a consent form that explicitly asks for permission to take photos and record videos. The same rules apply to hybrid events—that is, formats in which some participants join remotely—with the addition of recording requirements under data protection law.
Organizing an Event Step by Step: The Checklist
What tools can help with organizing events?
When it comes to organizing your event, three categories of tools cover the most important planning areas: tools for checklists and risk analysis, online portals for submitting official applications, and office management platforms for room scheduling and attendee management.
Checklists, AI: Use our event checklist and consult an LLM (Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, etc.) to research the local and municipal requirements or guidelines specific to your state, as these cannot be summarized in a single, universal list.
Online permit portals: The Servicekonto Deutschland and municipal application portals allow users to submit permit applications via browser-based forms. However, availability varies by state.
Office management platforms with event features: A direct link between event planning, room management, and attendee management saves you the hassle of back-and-forth coordination.
PULT combines room booking, guest management, and catering into a single platform. You can book rooms, filter by capacity and amenities such as projectors or whiteboards, reserve areas on the interactive office map for your event, and add catering directly during the booking process.
Rooms, catering, parking, and guest workstations—all in one booking.
Guests check in at the kiosk, and the host immediately receives a notification in Slack or Microsoft Teams.
At the reception desk, guests sign NDAs, photo release forms and receive a visitor badge and privacy notices.
In an emergency, PULT generates an Emergency Export of all currently present individuals at the push of a button.
The weekly planner shows in advance how many employees will be in the office on the day of the event, so that room planning and space utilization can be coordinated.
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Office Insights
Workforce Analytics: Definition, Key Metrics, and EU-Compliant Implementation by 2026
Workforce analytics refers to the analysis of personnel data to manage headcount, productivity, and workforce planning. HR teams use this method to support personnel decisions with data. Starting in August 2026, the EU AI Regulation will tighten requirements for AI-powered HR analytics and mandate specific structures.
Workforce analytics is the quantitative analysis of HR data—such as turnover, absenteeism, headcount, and office utilization—to derive actionable recommendations for workforce planning.
Key metrics for workforce planning analytics include turnover rate, time-to-hire, absenteeism rate, office attendance, and team-level productivity metrics.
The EU AI Regulation classifies many HR analytics systems as high-risk AI starting in August 2026, imposing obligations regarding disclosure, human oversight, and data protection impact assessments.
PULT provides the data foundation for workforce analytics in hybrid teams—including attendance, desk utilization, and room bookings—and thus complements traditional HRIS systems such as Personio or HiBob.
What is workforce analytics, and how does it differ from people analytics?
Workforce Analytics focuses on the quantitative aspects of the workforce. It centers on headcount, productivity, turnover, and workforce structure in medium-term planning. People Analytics takes this a step further and also examines behavior, engagement, and collaboration based on qualitative data. HR Reporting, on the other hand, provides only retrospective reports without a forecasting component.
In day-to-day work, these two areas are closely intertwined. When you implement your own workforce analytics, you create the data foundation for people analytics and the overarching workplace management.
Which metrics are suitable for workforce analytics?
Workforce Analytics uses metrics such as turnover rate, time-to-hire, absenteeism rate, office utilization, headcount trends, and others, which are regularly collected and analyzed. Together, these metrics provide an overview of how the workforce is evolving and which areas of the company are over- or under-staffed.
What tools are suitable for workforce analytics?
Workforce analytics tools can be divided into three layers. An HRIS layer as the data core (Personio, HiBob, Workday), an analytics layer for evaluation (Visier, Tableau, supplementary HRIS modules), and an office layer for attendance and space data in hybrid setups. The right combination depends on company size, data architecture, and EU compliance status.
When making your selection, consider the following five points:
Hosting region: EU hosting with a data center in Germany or elsewhere in Europe.
API Capability: Interfaces with HRIS, time tracking, and office management systems to eliminate data silos
EU AI Act Status: The provider documents whether and how its tool falls under the category of high-risk AI
Level of detail: Customizable KPIs and freely configurable dashboards
What does the EU AI Regulation 2026 require of HR analytics systems?
According to Annex III of the EU AI Regulation, an HR analytics system is considered high-risk AI as soon as it automatically supports personnel decisions. These include recruitment, promotion, termination, and performance evaluation. As a result, many workforce analytics functions are subject to strict requirements as soon as algorithms independently generate recommendations for or against individuals.
What requirements will apply to HR analytics systems as of August 2, 2026?
The high-risk classification gives rise to four key obligations for new systems:
Risk Management and Technical Documentation in accordance with Articles 9 through 11 of the EU AI Regulation
Human oversight for every decision involving personal data, not just at a later stage
Data Protection Impact Assessment pursuant to Article 35 of the GDPR, plus a Fundamental Rights Impact Assessment pursuant to Article 27 of the EU AI Act
Co-determination by the works council pursuant to § 87(1)(6) of the Works Constitution Act (BetrVG) in connection with any introduction or adjustment
How can I ensure that my workforce analytics setup remains compliant?
You can ensure compliance by clarifying your data architecture and processes before purchasing a tool. This involves five key points:
EU Hosting: Servers located in the EU, documented data processing.
Purpose limitation: You must document in writing which data you are analyzing and for what purpose.
Human final decision: No algorithm makes the final decision regarding hiring, termination, or promotion.
Disclosure: You proactively inform employees about what data is collected and how it is analyzed.
Involve the works council: A works council agreement fulfills the requirement for employee participation.
How to Build a Future-Proof Workforce Analytics System
Workforce Analytics provides you with a quantitative overview of your workforce, from headcount forecasts and turnover to office utilization.
Starting in the fall of 2026, the EU AI Regulation will require specific frameworks for high-risk AI, documentation, and human oversight. With PULT, you can meet these requirements while still gaining reliable data for your workforce planning and site strategy.
PULT Workplace Analytics provides real-time attendance, desk, and room data as a data source for workforce analytics.
Native integrations with Personio, HiBob, Microsoft Teams, and Slack, so all your HR data is centralized in one place.
EU hosting and ISO 27001 certification as the basis for your GDPR and EU AI Act documentation.
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