Employers are turning up the heat on workers who headed home during the pandemic to return to the office.
The share of companies that say they are requiring in-office work has more than doubled in the last year, according to a new study by commercial property firm CBRE Group. More than 65% of office-using firms say their employers are back in the building at least some of the time.
Even so, more than 50% of companies say they expect their office footprint to get smaller over the next three years. Earlier this week, for example, AT&T CEO John Stankey said in a radio interview that the Dallas-based telecommunications giant is reducing its office footprint and requiring managers to show up in person at least three days a week. It’s consolidating into nine core offices across the U.S., with its corporate headquarters in Dallas and Atlanta as main hubs.
“Real estate evolves to accommodate changes in human behavior, and we’re seeing that as the office market adapts to hybrid work,” CBRE’S Manish Kashyap said in the just-released report. “This means greater flexibility in lease terms, more occupiers gravitating to higher quality office space, and an increase in adaptive reuse of obsolete buildings.
“Through it all, the office remains a cornerstone of employee engagement – our survey found that more than three-quarters of companies want employees in the office at least half the time.”
About 40% of the more than 200 companies CBRE surveyed said they plan to ramp up their office attendance. Almost 60% of the companies said they are renewing their current office leases, even if it’s for less space.
Office leasing activity has plunged in the last year because of the large number of employees still working at home and fears of a pending recession.
In Dallas-Fort Worth, more than 60% of offices are reporting workers back in the building on the busiest days of the week, according to a survey by Kastle Systems. Houston, Austin and D-FW have some of the highest office occupancies in the country, according to the weekly surveys.
In April 2020, during the pandemic shutdowns, Dallas-area office occupancy fell to less than 12%.
Financial firms now have the highest office occupancy, with 71% reporting they now require workers to be in the office more than half the week, CBRE researchers found.
But only 56% of technology firms say they are requiring a return to office, with most allowing attendance for less than half the week.
Only 9% of the companies CBRE quizzed said their workers were back on Fridays.
Companies listed building features, including onsite food service, meeting space, access to fitness centers and public transportation access as important to getting their employees back to the office.
“Overall, we found that top executives at finance companies are more focused on office attendance, especially amid economic uncertainty, than are their counterparts at tech companies,” CBRE’s Julie Whelan said. “Similarly, finance and professional services companies are more likely to encourage employees to spend most of their work days at the office, while tech companies are more likely to allow mostly remote work.”
