As hybrid work settles into its long-term role, a growing number of U.S. companies are getting stricter about tracking who shows up to the office, and how often.
A new 2025 survey shows that 69% of businesses now monitor employee attendance, a sharp jump from 45% just a year ago. Even more telling, 37% of employers are now enforcing their policies, more than double last year’s figure.
In total, 85% of companies have established clear office attendance guidelines, continuing a steady climb since the pandemic began to reshape work habits. According to CBRE, the biggest factor holding back higher attendance has been the absence of official rules or follow-through—something more employers are now determined to change.
Over five years after remote and hybrid work became normalized, companies are starting to close the gap between expectations and reality, according to CoStar. In 2025, 72% of organizations say they’ve met their attendance targets, compared to 61% in 2024. For most, that target sits at three days per week in the office.
Still, the momentum is shifting slightly toward more in-person time. One in four companies now expects employees to be on-site four or five days a week, up from 23% last year. Only 3% of businesses still see one day in the office as enough.
Hybrid is the preferred model, but yet there’s still a slight mismatch: companies want staff in the office an average of 3.2 days a week, while the reality is closer to 2.9 days. Interestingly, smaller firms (under 500 employees) are seeing better compliance, averaging 3.4 days, while larger organizations (10,000+ employees) lag behind at just 2.5 days.
CBRE suggests large corporations struggle more with scaling policies and getting consistent buy-in across their wide-reaching teams. Only 22% of big employers actively enforce attendance, compared to stronger compliance at smaller firms where leadership and culture may feel more personal.
Jamie Hodari, who heads CBRE’s building experience division and also serves as CEO of coworking brand Industrious, says companies are still trying to crack the code: how to make offices appealing even on quieter days.
One emerging solution: more flexible, unassigned seating. The use of fixed desks has steadily dropped — just 25% of companies now use assigned seating, compared to 40% last year and 56% in 2023.
There’s good news for landlords, too. More companies are thinking long-term and betting on their office footprint. About 67% plan to maintain or expand their space over the next three years, up from 64% in 2024. Meanwhile, the number of firms expecting to downsize has shrunk from over half in 2023 to just 33% this year.
