Peak office occupancy now averages 80% globally, surpassing the pre-pandemic average of between 65% to 70% for most organizations. This isn’t just a number but a key representation of how work formats are evolving as we speak, bringing employees back to their desks in droves to make the most of in-person operations. The return-to-work trends have been operating in full force in recent years, with organizations pushing for an end to remote work in their search for productivity and control.
While initial resistance to this return worked temporarily, organizations have since employed a range of techniques, including threats of firings, to convince workers to come back to the office. Managing these peak occupancy numbers isn’t easy, and managers have had to make significant adjustments to facilitate this change. CBRE’s 2026 Global Workplace and Occupancy Insights report, which brought us this data, shows that through rotating schedules and flexible arrangements, many have found a way to drive this shift, emphasising the idea that it isn’t just a matter of ordering employees back to work, but enforcing the right strategies to accomplish it.
With peak office occupancy numbers rising above pre-pandemic levels, a desire for collaboration appears to be driving this change. (Image: Pexels)
What’s Driving These Peak Office Occupancy Rates? Testing Out the Data
Tracking global office utilization numbers, essentially, the number of people using the office space, can be a very useful way to understand what the workplace of the future looks like. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a lasting impact on the workplace on multiple fronts, global average office utilization rose to 53% in 2025, a noticeable step up from 38% in 2024, marking the largest annual gain since 2021. With peak office utilization now averaging 80% globally, there are likely more reasons than just RTO orders driving the shift.
The CBRE office report states that the total share of global organizations actively enforcing an attendance policy has doubled from 17% in 2024 to 37% in 2025, with the oversight on policy compliance also rising to 69%. Several other reports have also emerged to instill a fear of remote work into employees by suggesting that they are more likely to show a decline in their work and be let go, but organizations aren’t solely relying on threats to encourage office utilization.
Connection Drives Compliance When Studying Office Utilization
One of the most important tools employers have at their disposal is the promise of better connection and collaboration in the workplace. About 93% of CBRE’s respondents state that collaboration with colleagues is a very or somewhat important reason to be in the office. 90% credit in-person meetings as key drivers, and 89% appreciate the social interaction and team-building opportunities. As is apparent, a primary reason for businesses hitting new heights of peak office occupancy is socially derived.
Of course, there is no shortage of workers who also believe that access to better equipment, work set-ups, and company resources are important or very important reasons to be at work. These resources allow workers to better focus and engage with their work, and this, in turn, drives attendance.
The Workplace Is More than Just a Building: What Goes In Determines What Comes Out
The sprawling corner office and a comfortable space to personalize and own may have once been the goals; it likely still is for many, but the demand for individual workstations has been on the decline. Utilizing benchmarking data from the Americas, CBRE notes that the need for individual “Me” spaces fell to 35% of total space composition in 2025 from 56% in 2021, while the space per seat has expanded by 14% since 2021.
A prime reason for how this is possible is the rise of flexible seating arrangements that no longer rely on a 1:1 employee-to-desk ratio. Assigned seating arrangements are being replaced by desk-sharing models, with job functions being factored into this planning. This set-up isn’t easy to manage, but it has advantages that many organizations are learning to capitalize on.
Additionally, the emphasis on shared support spaces such as meeting rooms and project rooms has gone up by 35%, while amenity spaces have surged 120% in relevance since 2021. These data points effectively reflect how the offices are evolving, giving employees access to the specific benefits that they don’t get to utilize at home. While offices are still built for utility and performance, this changing access to more communal locations, whether for work or leisure, may be key to building offices with actual use in mind.
Let Data Drive Your Organizational Space
Pushing to keep up with office occupancy goals isn’t just a matter of enforcing a wider variety of compulsions to force workers back into their desks, and neither is it about setting stricter regulations and consequences to ensure compliance. Rather than working against employee interests, the easiest path forward may be to assess how and where your employees work, and then channel that data into making upgrades to the workspace that actually benefit them.
Designing spaces for connections, acknowledging the extensive reliance on meetings, creating quality break spaces that allow room for employees to breathe and seek out moments of separation from their desks are just some of the many ways to consider how the organization wants to evolve, and build for it.
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