The week following Labor Day, for many major companies, marked a bigger return to the office for their employees, the latest chapter in the national RTO saga.
"Anecdotally, everybody I’ve talked to over the last week feels a difference with trains or roads, or offices themselves," said, global head of occupier thought leadership at CBRE Group Inc. ."There's a general feeling out there that things have changed." The week of March, 2, 2020 — the last full week before work-from-home was implemented en masse — had average office weekday visitor volume of nearly 1.3 million visitors, on average, across the buildings tracked in 24 major North American markets. That sunk to 111,544 the week of April 13, 2020 — one of the lowest weeks following the onset of the pandemic, excluding weeks major holidays fall on.
Avison Young has also tracked RTO by industry, using Orbital data. Perhaps unsurprisingly, real estate has had the biggest RTO comeback, posting an 11.9% gain from March 2, 2020, visitation levels for that industry. Even optimistic real estate professionals say office use won't get back to where it was pre-pandemic. And more forceful post-Labor Day RTO requirements for companies could backfire, as some employees in what had been office-using industries may continue to resist going back more routinely. The labor market, for now, remains tight.
Whelan said she's seeing a greater propensity for companies to deploy top-down approaches, although not necessarily ones with repercussions. Those strategies may include communicating company policies around RTO — with managers explaining why they want people back — surveying employees to understand needs and preferences, and establishing team-level agreements about when workers should be in the office. Perks like in-office amenities and free food are also in the mix.