Occupiers Take a Firmer Stance on Remote Working Policies

Office-using employers are boosting expectations for their workforces to return to those offices, according to research from MRI Software and CoreNet Global. Occupiers’ willingness to allow all employees the choice to work remotely fell dramatically from 39% to 26% between March and September 2021.  

Seventy percent of survey respondents planned to institute policies that tighten up remote work eligibility and onsite requirements, up from 60% in March. The research also showed that landlords’ apprehension over the rise of remote working increased significantly over the same period, with 43% concerned about its impact on their business compared to just 26% in March. 

At the same time, nearly 80% of responding commercial occupiers have increased the availability of remote work. The MRI Software/CoreNet Global research also shows 69% of respondents saying that the worldwide shift to remote working during the pandemic has fundamentally changed their long-term approach to space usage, down only slightly from 71% in March. 

“Many companies already made remote work available before the pandemic, but the mass shift to home working demonstrated to most businesses that staff and executive teams could continue to be productive outside of the office,” said Brian Zrimsek, industry principal at MRI Software and author of the research report. “Pandemic-driven technology adoption simplified the process of staying connected and collaborative, but organizations still recognize the benefit of bringing employees back to the office and offering hybrid work arrangements that support engagement, workplace culture and productivity.” 

As more employees are expected to return to the office, occupiers’ views on the future of work have continue to evolve. Fifty-seven percent of corporate tenants expect to have more than half of their workforce back in the office by the end of the first quarter of 2022. Landlords were more optimistic, with 67% expecting the majority of workers to be back onsite by the end of Q4 2021.  

Other key findings that show some change in thinking in recent months include: 

• 49% of commercial occupiers are converting or expanding their use of hot-desking, down from 54% in March 
• 42% of corporate tenants indicated that they would require less space after the pandemic, down from 56% previously 
• Simultaneously, 61% of landlords expected their tenants to lease the same or more space despite the prospect of more remote working in the future, but this figure was also down from March (67%) 
• By September, 74% of landlords saw tenants negotiating new lease terms (up from 58% in March), while nearly double said tenants were letting leases lapse (48% versus 26% in March)   

The latest survey showed that 70% of corporate occupiers plan to adopt new technologies to manage changes in space usage. The proportion of landlords that believed their existing technologies were sufficient to manage changes in space usage dropped from 61% to 45% between March and September. Sixty-one percent of landlords expect to adopt new technologies to handle changing space needs, compared to 55% in the previous survey.