FlexIndex February 2022 Update: The Delayed Post-Holiday Recovery is Here

FlexIndex Overview

After the slow start in January, the FlexIndex reached one of its highest levels since the COVID-19 pandemic started. February’s score of 4.3 fp (flex points) is comparable to October and November, which had scores of 4.2 fp and 4.4 fp, respectively.

All five FlexIndex KPIs are recovering well, with ‘Static Desk Occupancy’ becoming the first one to reach the 2019 benchmark since the pandemic started. Hopefully, this trend will continue during the upcoming months and will positively affect the rest of the FlexIndex components.

The 5 FlexIndex Components (KPIs)

Here’s a breakdown of the 5 FlexIndex components in February 2022:

1. Static Desk Occupancy’s positive trend accelerated and this KPI became the first one to reach and even surpass the 2019 benchmark! Currently, Static Desk Occupancy sits at 1.7% above the benchmark.

*Please note that our data comes exclusively from active OfficeRnD clients at the moment of the index calculation. This could lead to minor discrepancies between the monthly FlexIndex updates but the data trends and conclusions remain the same.

2. Revenue per Available Workspace (RevPAW) continued its sharp recovery (which started back in March 2021), finishing the month only 3.1% below the 2019 benchmark.

3. After the seasonal decline in December, ‘Bookings per Meeting Space’ has been steadily trending upward. As of February 2022, this KPI is 28.5% below the 2019 level.

4. The second booking KPI — ‘Average Booking Duration per Paid Meeting Space’ — didn’t recover from the holiday slump right away, reaching lower levels in January compared to December. However, this KPI performed much better in February, as it had a sharp rally, finishing the month 17.4% below the 2019 benchmark.

5. Similar to the previous component, ‘Booking Revenue per Paid Meeting Space’ had a disappointing start to the year, being almost 40% below the benchmark in January. Fortunately, this KPI also rallied, finishing February 26.8% under the 2019 benchmark.

For comparison, here’s a chart of all 3 Booking KPIs:

And a chart of all 5 FlexIndex components:

As you can see, all 5 components are trending upward as of February 2022. This is a promising sign for the industry, especially since the expected post-holiday recovery didn’t materialize in January. We hope this trend continues over the next months, with even more KPIs reaching the 2019 benchmark.

Next month, we will compile everything we learned about the industry over Q1 2022 in a new downloadable FlexIndex report. You can sign up here to receive the report via email and follow us on social media to stay up to date with the latest FlexIndex updates.

A Short Note on Our Methodology

The data we use to calculate the FlexIndex and its KPIs comes exclusively from active OfficeRnD clients at the moment of the index calculation, who are not subject to a special exemption. We don’t keep data from our former clients and their historical data isn’t reflected in the index.

However, note that the 2019 benchmark is locked, so it includes companies, which are no longer active as of today. This can lead to some small inconsistencies between the different FlexIndex editions.

Also, for some of the KPIs, the data is normalized to exclude outliers and demonstrate the real trends. In addition, our platform does have the flexibility for new customers to upload their own historical data. This could lead to minor deviations (up to 5%) in the historical trends of the FlexIndex.