More U.S. employers are tracking how many days employees are in the office as the pandemic-driven hybrid work pattern settles into a new normal.
Of 184 companies surveyed, 69% said they measure office attendance policy compliance, up from 45% in 2024, while 37% have taken enforcement actions, versus 17% last year, according to the 2025 Americas office occupier sentiment poll from real estate services firm CBRE. In all, 85% of firms said they’ve communicated an office attendance policy with their employees, up from 80% last year, continuing a rising trend over the past several years.
The lack of an attendance policy and associated enforcement was the primary "barrier" keeping attendance from going higher, CBRE said. Employers “are clearly taking action to remove this perceived barrier,” according to the firm.
More than five years after the pandemic made working just some days in the office acceptable, the survey found 72% of employers have met their “attendance goals,” up from 61% in 2024, even though for more than half of employers, that goal means just three days a week in the office.
Despite the hybrid work pattern proving dominant, the trend is moving toward more time in the office, with 26% of companies expecting office attendance of four or five days, up from 23% in 2024, the survey found. In contrast, only 3% of companies expect employees to be in the office just one day a week.
“Hybrid work remains the favorite strategy,” CBRE’s Global Head of Occupier Research Julie Whelan said in a briefing Thursday. She added that companies and their employees are getting close to being “on the same page” about days they should be in the office.
Employers want employees in the office an average of 3.2 days per week versus employees actually showing up 2.9 days a week, the survey found. Companies with fewer than 500 employees had more frequent attendance, with an average of 3.4 days in the office. Large companies with at least 10,000 employees averaged 2.5 days.
“Large employers face greater difficulties in aligning expectations with employee behavior given the scale and complexity of their organizations,” CBRE said, adding that small companies, in contrast, report no gap between attendance expectations and actual show-up rates.
The big companies also trail in enforcing their attendance policy, with only 22% of those employers saying they police it.
Trying to ‘crack the code’
Employers are trying to figure out “how to crack the code of making offices feel inspiring on off-peak days,” Jamie Hodari, who oversees CBRE's building operations and experience business segment, said at the briefing. He's also CEO of the coworking company Industrious that CBRE bought in January.
The survey suggested unassigned seating is growing in popularity, as only 25% of companies report using assigned seating this year, down from 40% in 2024 and 56% in 2023.
In a positive sign for office leasing, the survey said a growing majority of occupiers, 67% this year versus 64% last year, expect to maintain or expand their space over the next three years. In contrast, the share of companies expecting contraction has steadily declined over the past two years, dropping from a peak of 53% in 2023 to just 33% this year, CBRE said, adding that the largest companies remain the most likely to downsize.
The survey also echoed the flight-to-quality trend found in leasing activities as companies, especially those occupying top-tier space, voiced their concerns about decreasing availability of desired space even as the U.S. office vacancy rate hovers near a historic high of 19%, CBRE said.
The so-called prime vacancy rate nationwide is more than 4.4 percentage points lower than nonprime vacancy, with desirable space “notably limited” in key commercial districts such as midtown Manhattan, the Preston Center in Dallas, Silicon Valley's Santa Clara, California, and uptown Charlotte, North Carolina, CBRE said.
“Everyone in the country is in an upgrade mode,” Hodari said, adding that companies would opt for taking less space rather than downgrading space.