Office attendance rates continue to lag employers’ expectations, a new survey of large corporate real estate managers reveals. More than 55 per cent of respondents to CoreNet Global’s queries earlier this month report that corporate personnel are not fully complying with directives to return to the office.

Theoretically, about 97 of the 175 large global firms participating in the survey now decree staff should work in the formal office at least three days per week, with the largest share of those companies establishing a three-day standard. About 25 per cent of the surveyed corporations still allow employees to work entirely from home, while 12.6 per cent call for five days in the office. Only 2.8 per cent of have a one-day prerequisite.

“We are indeed seeing companies that wish to implement post-pandemic, return to office mandates, but employees are pushing back,” observes Tim Venable, senior vice president, research, with CoreNet Global. “We will be watching to see how this dynamic plays itself out over the next year.”

Other survey findings point to general shrinking of the corporate office footprint with more than 55 per cent of respondents currently occupying less space than they did in 2021. Nineteen per cent have trimmed more than 20 per cent of their office footprint. Meanwhile, nearly half of respondents have redesigned their headquarters — often reducing the number of individual workstations — and upgraded air filtration and added touchless devices.