What’s Really Going on with RTO?

For many businesses and organizations across the country, return-to-office is the name of the game in 2026. Several major corporations (PNC, Dell, Instagram) have announced a mandatory, five-day in-person office policy, effective in Q1 2026. For businesses that have yet to formalize a return-to-office schedule, understanding the realities of office space usage and utilization in a post-2020 office world is essential. 

Informing RTO Strategy: Policy, Expectations, and Utilization

A large body of evidence-based research has emerged over the past five years, examining the realities and challenges of place-based office attendance policies. Companies that pivoted to a hybrid or entirely remote workplace must now contend with empty offices and rising rent—and how to justify the former with the latter. 

This blog synthesizes top research from this white paper and identifies three key areas that can help inform businesses as they create updated hybrid, remote, and in-office policies: 

• Policy pattern
• Utilization levels
• Enforcement and expectations

Policy Patterns Set In-Office Precedent

According to CBRE’s 2024-2025 Global Workplace & Occupancy Insights series, 92% of workplace policies now include hybrid programs, up from 71% in 2022. These hybrid programs have become the dominant policy framework. A survey conducted by CBRE in 2025 found that 77% of respondents expect employees in the office at least three days per week, and 26% expect employees in office 4-5 days per week. 

Daily occupancy over the five-day business week has been shown to consistently peak mid-week. According to research from Kastle and related analyses, Tuesdays are the busiest days, with office occupancy as high as 94% in A+ assets. Taken together, this data shows the RTO debate is no longer centered on whether employees will return, but on the terms under which they will do so. 

For designers, workplace strategists, and business leaders, the “new normal” means planning for demonstrated employee behavior, which is shown to stabilize around a mid-week peak, and a continued gap between capacity and actual usage. 

Utilization and Capacity Potential Are Out of Balance 

Most large organizations now confront a structural imbalance between people and seats: headcount has grown beyond 2020 levels while the number of workstations has remained flat or even declined. 

Solutions include intentional overbooking of space, higher employee-to-seat ratios, and more dynamic planning to align attendance patterns with available capacity. Data from CBRE shows that assigned seating as the norm has fallen out of favor; the share of organizations assigning seats dropped from 83% to 55% in recent years. Hybrid and desk sharing, hoteling, and visitor seats are on the rise. 

By accurately predicting peak attendance, organizations can now tailor space types to support high-value, in-person work and provide their teams with clear operating rules for how shared assets are utilized. 
 

 

Common tactics include: 

• Desk sharing – with guardrails

  Use “neighborhoods,” i.e., designated common spaces to preserve team proximity and identity, rather than “any desk, anywhere.”

• Peak management

  Design around realistic peak days (such as the above-mentioned Tuesdays) and use meeting policies and anchor days to spread high-collaboration activities across the week. 

• Optimizing and rebalancing space

  Reduce assigned workstations and small private offices, increase high-demand space types such as focus rooms, small video-equipped rooms, project rooms, and social/team hubs. 

• Technology-enabled seat management

  CBRE notes that 70% of effective hybrid programs prioritize collaboration and workplace tools, and a rising adoption of reservation systems to manage shared seating. 

Structured Policy Enforcement and Expectations 

As hybrid work increasingly becomes standard practice, organizations are adopting explicit, codified rules about where and when people are expected to work. Expectations need to be written down, tracked, and increasingly linked to performance management and employee experience initiatives. 

Summaries of the CBRE 2025 occupier survey show that some 69% of employers now track attendance compliance, up from 45% in 2024. The average expectation is 3.2 days in office, with about one-quarter of employers expecting 4 to 5 days. CBRE also reports that 72% of organizations say they are achieving desired attendance levels, up from 61% in 2024. 

With clearer rules and more purposeful workplaces, more organizations are now meeting their attendance goals. 
 

Making RTO Stick, Not Stink 

Research is increasingly clear: the success of RTO efforts is less about the precise number of required in-office days and more about the in-office quality of experience. CBRE found the main driver for returning to office is morale and relationship building with colleagues. JLL’s 2025 global research shows employees who view in-office requirements positively tend to work where business needs and wellbeing are both prioritized. 

The most effective hybrid programs invest heavily in communication and change management alongside technology. Organizations that handle RTO well offer: 

• Clear rationale by role
• Better work experience on in-office days
• Shared anchor days, tuned over time
• Transparent measurement and adjustment  

 

How BHDP Can Help Your Office Thrive

 The research is irrefutable: managing RTO policy is a top priority for companies and organizations worldwide in 2026. Doing so effectively requires establishing clear, cohesive, and well-communicated policies. 

BHDP, an award-winning, international, multi-disciplinary firm, is recognized for innovative and inspiring solutions across a spectrum of services, including strategic consulting and applied research. Our team of experts helps bridge the gap between theory and practice, providing the necessary groundwork for innovations that directly influence the design of places where people live, work, and grow. 

Ready to establish an effective and harmonious RTO policy in new or existing office space? Fill out the contact form below to see how we can help.