How to Leverage a Data Quality Assessment as a Client Strategy Tool

In my experience, the quality of any workplace strategy depends directly on the quality of the data behind it. Throughout my career in workplace strategy & design, I’ve seen organizations focus heavily on transformation, optimization, and future-ready workplaces—but without strong data integrity, those efforts often become misaligned, inconsistent, and ultimately ineffective. That’s where an Organizational Data Health Check (ODHC) comes in. An ODHC is not just a data-cleanup exercise—it is a foundational step in unlocking the strategic power of workplace data. When an organizations people and space data is accurate, consistent, and aligned, it shifts from a static record to a dynamic tool that enables smarter, more responsive workplace decisions.

The ODHC Framework: before diving in, I always encourage teams to take a step back and ask a few key questions:

• Are your terms clearly defined?

• Does your baseline data reflect current conditions?

• Can your CAFM (computer aided facility management) system support how your workplace will evolve?
• Or, more importantly, does your organization have a CAFM system?

Step 1: Define the Metrics

One of the simplest—but most impactful—steps I see overlooked is clearly defining key terms.
For example:

• Utilization – How often a space or seat is actively used

• Capacity – How many people a space can support

• Occupancy – How many people are assigned to a space

• Vacancy – The amount of unassigned or unused space

These may seem straightforward, but in practice, I’ve found that different teams often interpret them differently. The result is inconsistent reporting and unclear insights. Establishing a data dictionary early on helps align everyone and builds trust in the data across workstreams. It turns data from something subjective into something measurable and repeatable.

Step 2: Validate the Baseline
A common mistake I’ve seen organizations make is jumping straight into analysis without first validating their data. Investing time upfront to understand and verify existing conditions is critical. This often includes:

• Validating interior architecture and furniture plans

• Confirming room numbers and space types

• Verifying seat and headcount assignments

These steps may seem basic, especially from a design perspective, but they form the backbone of data integrity. If the baseline is inaccurate, every metric derived from it will be flawed.

Step 3: Align Data with Systems

Once you’ve defined your metrics and validated your baseline, the next question I always ask is: does your CAFM system actually reflect that work? In many cases, this means evaluating how effectively your CAFM system supports both current needs and future flexibility.
For example:

1. If your system can’t accurately track people and space, it may miscount capacity- like treating a CAD boundary as a “seat.” I’ve seen how small discrepancies (+1 seat), when counted across buildings, can significantly overstate total capacity.
2. If your organization is moving toward shared seating instead of 1:1 assignments, your system must be able to support seat-sharing ratios effectively.

At its core, I don’t see an ODHC as just a data-cleaning exercise—it’s about unlocking the full potential of your data. When data is accurate, consistent, and clearly defined, it shifts from being a static record of what exists to a powerful driver of what’s possible.

In next month’s post, I’ll share how I’ve seen organizations actively use that data as a strategic tool to:

• Guide workplace decisions

• Measure performance and trends

• Align space with business strategy
• Support a more dynamic, responsive workplace

• Reach out to building management at both locations
• Walkthrough the current space (Origin) and the new space (Destination). What stuff is moving? What needs to be purged?
• Identify specialty equipment moving – who needs to move it? Does the Destination have the proper infrastructure? 
• Discuss roles and responsibilities
• Review Origin lease – are they any decommissioning requirements?

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