More than a third of companies polled by CoreNet Global, the premier association for corporate real estate professionals, say that employees are required to be in the office three days a week, but more than 50 percent also say that there is a gap between the number of days employees are required to be in the office and the number of days they are actually there.

How many days workers are required to be in the office:

0 – 25.3 percent

1 – 2.8 percent

2 – 10.3 percent

3 – 36.7 percent

4 – 12 percent

5 – 12.6 percent

Is there a gap between the mandated number of days and the actual number that workers are coming in?

Yes – 55.5 percent

No – 44.5 percent

"We are indeed seeing companies that wish to implement post-pandemic, return to office mandates, but employees are pushing back. We will be watching to see how this dynamic plays itself out over the next year," said Tim Venable, Senior Vice President, Research and Content Development at CoreNet Global.

Overall companies are still committed to having a corporate headquarters with more than 90 percent saying that they have not abandoned the headquarters in favor of remote work. Nearly half have redesigned the headquarters with features that include fewer individual workstations, air filtration, modifications to snack areas, touchless devices, and desk hoteling/unassigned spaces.

Many companies are using less space. More than half, 55.4 percent say that their corporate real estate footprint is smaller than it was two years ago. (18.5 percent by less than 10 percent, 17.9 percent by 10-20 percent; and 19 percent by more than 20 percent.

Thirty-one percent say that the portfolio has not changed compared to two years ago.

In terms of their view of the economy over the next six months, 41.2 percent believe that it is declining and 26 percent say that it is improving. Only 25 percent plan to institute layoffs over the next year.

The survey was conducted in July 2023; there were 174 responses globally.