Meet Kastle Systems, the Covid-Era Kings of Back-to-Work Data
The security company’s weekly “back-to-work barometer” has become a staple of the pandemic’s ongoing conversation about office occupancy and the fate of the in-person workplace.
Empty office spaces in New York City in 2002. Since early in the pandemic, Kastle Systems has been tracking office occupancy in 10 US cities.
Photographer: Amir Hamja/BloombergLike most that season, the April 2020 meeting between building security company Kastle Systems Inc. and its largest client started on a grim note. Coronavirus cases were rising, and cities were shutting down. As hospitals filled up, office buildings, which account for about 60% of Kastle’s revenue, were emptying out. The client, a real estate developer based in Washington, DC, wanted to know what they could do to keep the people inside their properties safer.
The thing was, barely anybody was inside anymore. Kastle knew this because the company was monitoring them: Besides physical security, the company provides building-access swipe cards to employees at over 2,600 office buildings in 138 cities, tracking their movements in and out each day. As they put together a presentation for the client, Kastle drew up an occupancy graph that showed a February 2020 baseline, and then a steep cliff down.