Office attendance has yet to build on last year's gains, despite a gradual tightening of return-to-office policies among many of the nation's largest employers.
A new report from Savills found that office visits stood at 67% of January 2020 levels in March 2026, down from a recovery high of 75% reached in 2025. At the same time, workplace policies among the top 200 Fortune 500 companies continued to shift incrementally toward greater in-office expectations, suggesting that stricter attendance requirements alone may not be enough to drive a sustained rebound in office utilization.
The findings come as employers navigate a softening labor market and heightened economic uncertainty. According to the report, U.S. unemployment reached 4.3% in March 2026. Savills said a cooling labor market could shift leverage back toward employers, potentially making it easier for companies to reinforce office attendance expectations.
Still, the report found that workplace strategies among large employers have largely stabilized.
Fixed hybrid arrangements remain the dominant workplace model, accounting for 55% of the Fortune 200 companies analyzed, compared with 56.4% in 2025. Another 27% of companies now operate under an office-first model, up from 24% a year earlier. Flexible hybrid arrangements slipped slightly to 16.5% from 17.1%, while remote-first strategies declined to just 1.5% of companies, down from 2.5% in 2025.
The relatively small year-over-year shifts suggest most companies have settled on long-term workplace frameworks rather than pursuing sweeping changes to attendance requirements, Savills said.
Nearly 90% of companies maintained their existing workplace structures, according to the report. Among firms with defined office attendance requirements, 78% made no changes to the number of required in-office days between 2025 and 2026. Just 6% increased required attendance, while 3% reduced requirements and another 3% introduced defined attendance expectations for the first time.
Savills characterized the changes as modest tightening rather than a broad escalation of return-to-office mandates. The report noted that most companies with defined attendance policies continue to center expectations around three to four days per week in the office.
Industry trends also point to the durability of hybrid work. Fixed hybrid was the most common workplace model across nearly every sector analyzed, including technology, financial services, retail, healthcare and energy. Agricultural services was the lone exception, where office-first policies were the most prevalent arrangement.
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