Office occupiers look to workplace experience improvement strategies to increase office presence: CBRE

Listen to the article
5 min

This audio is generated automatically. Please let us know if you have any feedback.

Dive short:

• While hybrid workplace models will continue to exist, The number of visitors to the office is expected to increase as companies and employees align their expectations for on-site work, according to CBRE's 2025 Outlook for Office Attendance. Just now more than half of business leaders said they would like to increase footfall from current levels, the company said in its report detailing the findings of a fourth-quarter user survey of 198 corporate real estate professionals conducted in partnership with CoreNet Global.
• While many users accept current visitor numbers as the new normal, 39% are working to bring attendance levels in line with current policies, while 36% are looking for a less hybrid workplace policy, CBRE says.
• Eighty-three percent of respondents identified a lack of mandatory policies or enforcement as the biggest barrier to increased office attendance. But more is needed than just policies, mandates and enforcement, the CBRE report said, noting strategies that include role modeling of business leaders, capital investments in technology and more or better event and social programming.

Diving insight:

Although more than 50% of respondents to CBRE's 2024 Americas Office Occupier Sentiment Survey said their employers had attendance mandates, only 17% reported that these mandates were actively enforced, CBRE says. A lack of attendance policies or mandates was cited by 83% of respondents as a barrier to increasing office visits, followed by 57% of employee travel time, and employee standards or when most employees' office visit behavior conflicts is with the policy, with 47%.

Strategies that many companies are implementing to increase workplace effectiveness include redesigning workplaces to reflect new work patterns and focusing on amenities for their employees despite budget constraints, according to the occupancy report released in December. Forty-five percent of respondents say they are using change management strategies to encourage more office visits. Among those respondents is 66% identified business leaders who serve as role models as top strategy, while 56% highlighted investments in new workplace technology and much more 56% Emphasis was placed on manager training to align teams on attendance expectations.

Fifty-two percent of those implementing change management strategies say they are increasing or improving event and social programming half According to the study, these strategies would include improved food and beverage options. Because current attendance levels challenge interpersonal connections, it makes sense that change management strategies are highly people-oriented, CBRE notes.

While workplace experience plays a supportive role in driving greater on-site presence, the office must remain effective as a tool to continue achieving business objectives, CBRE says.

According to the CBRE report, 63% of respondents say their companies are changing the design of their workplace to accommodate changing work patterns. These strategies include adding more amenities and activity-based spaces instead of a large number of dedicated workstations, the company says. The survey also found that 45% of employees cited upgrading services and amenities in existing buildings as a common strategy to improve the workplace experience, while 40% indicated a move to better buildings.

Everyone does what works for him or her [or] at least what they think works for them, Julie Whelan, Global Head of Occupier Thought Leadership at CBRE, said in an interviewBut the question is: how does that translate into the actual use of office space?

While average occupancy has hovered around 50%, attendance on peak days, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, has increased over the past year, Whelan noted. That means more people are enticed to come to the office because there are other people there, Whelan said. And because of the high occupancy on those peak days, people think, maybe I shouldn't downsize so much, because my space is used in a pretty lively way at least a few days a week.