CBRE Survey: Companies That Communicate Office Benefits See Higher Employee Attendance

Office attendance improves when company leadership clearly communicates the benefit to employees, a new study from CBRE shows. More than half – 57% - of companies that do so report an average office attendance of three days a week or more.

The survey, conducted in October by CBRE and CoreNet Global, a leading trade organization, heard from 235 corporate real estate professionals across the world*. Survey topics included differences between leadership expectations and employee behavior around office attendance, role of the office in driving organizational success, office utilization levels, value of the office, and change management strategies geared toward increasing office attendance.

“After almost four years, people need extra motivation to change their work habits, and communicating how the effort employees make to come into the office benefits them has proven to be an effective start to that process,” said Julie Whelan, CBRE’s Global Head of Occupier Research. “Ensuring the workplace and organizational culture delivers this value isn’t easy, but it is imperative for better office attendance.”

Communication alone isn’t always enough to boost attendance, so to ensure employees have a valuable experience in the office, 37% of companies implemented change-management strategies to align their culture to the communicated value of the office.

Those additional steps include ensuring leaders themselves are in the office with the expected frequency (67% of respondents), re-training managers on how to convey expectations around office attendance and foster in-person engagement within their teams (52%). Other strategies include hosting more or better events (48%) and investing in in-office technology for use in the office (43%).

Change Management Strategies for Greater Office Attendance

Almost all (92%) respondents say the office is an important component to organizational success. Clear communication in that regard makes a difference. Since return efforts began, 57% of companies that communicated the benefits of office attendance to employees subsequently saw better attendance, only 41% of those that didn’t relay those messages saw attendance improve.

Still, companies and their employees are out of sync on the amount of time workers should be in the office. For example, nearly 50% of employees come to the office 1–2 days a week, but most leaders feel that attendance should be higher (only 17% are aligned with employees coming in 1–2 days a week). It is worth noting that 41% of respondents expect utilization rates to increase from their current levels, but only 30% say they plan to enforce a policy.

Meanwhile, 53% of respondents are reducing and repositioning their office footprint to improve the experience their employees have in the office.

“Companies are redesigning office space to accommodate new working patterns and reinforce the in-office benefits they are communicating to their employees, such as collaboration and community,” said Lenny Beaudoin, CBRE’s Global Head of Workplace & Design. “The strategy looks different for each company but could include upgrading services and amenities or relocating to a newer building that better meets their needs.”

To read the full report, click here.

*Respondent breakdown: 108 North America, 94 Global, 17 Asia Pacific, 15 Europe, 1 Latin America.