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Corporate HQs Are Being Reimagined, Not Disappearing

Most companies require employees to be in the office three days a week, but not all employees are compliant, according to a new CoreNet Global survey.

July 25, 2023

More than a third of companies require their employees to be in the office three days a week, according to a new CoreNet Global survey. However, more than 50 percent of those companies report a gap between the number of days employees are required to be in the office and the number of days they are actually there.

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

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

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

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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. Of those, 18.5 percent say it’s smaller by less than 10 percent, 17.9 percent by 10-20 percent; and 19 percent by more than 20 percent.

Conversely, 31 percent say that their real estate 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.