Average weekly - 59%
Peak Day - Wednesday 68%
Low Day - Friday 37%
Your SRRA team.
A Mid-March Drop
If the Index was intended for on-going analysis over a longer period of time, we could apply a seasonally adjusted component to account for significant holiday periods like the Mid-March school break, but we have not and therefore the data for the 1st two weeks of March shows a significant, but reasonable and explainable, drop in line with the same period in 2023.
Our anniversary series of commentaries continues. Last week we prepared commentaries based on our articles from around the world and research here on the future of office space markets. This week we have prepared commentary on who is coming back to the office. The third of these commentaries will be included with the April 1st Index and will address mobility challenges and the impact of COVID on congestion.
We hope these expand commentaries will be useful for you.
Who is leading or trailing the Index?
When we started to collect data at the outset of the pandemic, we made a commitment to every data contributor that we would respect their confidentiality. As a result, our comments in this summary will be deliberately very general. Few companies measured how many employees were in the office on a daily basis before the pandemic making the initial collection of data difficult and leaving the on an on-going post-pandemic basis measurement of remote work without a benchmark. To this day, there are many different ways companies are measuring the return to the office and just as many policies related to when, and how much, remote work is allowed. Equally uncertain is how many of the mandates regarding in-office work are being followed especially when there are few discernible penalties for non-compliance.
This uncertainty makes predicting long term trends still very difficult. What we do know of the return is that employees are still largely making their own decisions. This is most apparent in situations where there is either a competitive challenge to retaining the job or a job where competitive success measures are a factor in job performance. In large institutional entities, where there are widely different job functions, the return is uneven determined at the lower management level. Mid-sized companies in highly competitive market situations are clearly leading the return to the office.
Since the removal of government restrictions on travel and congregation, the return to the office has steadily increased in most cases. However, we are seeing a leveling off in large institutional settings where job functions are at less risk and accommodating the benefits of not commuting to the office – family organization, elder care etc. – are, and will likely continue to be, allowed as long as productivity can be retained. This levelling phenomena may last for some time.
Personal networking to build corporate culture continues to be a challenge with large scale remote work. Some argue, however, that the younger generation is far more adapt at networking through technology rather than in person. How far this goes to lessen the degree to which work is performed in an office environment is again too early to tell. What is evident is that individuals with established business networks, clients and colleagues are more likely to embrace remote work. What the data shows is companies with an abundance of either established networks or emerging new networks in technology are more likely to have a higher degree of remote work.
Finally, weak attendance on Monday and Friday is starting to become a problem for many companies. To counter this we are beginning to see Mondays and Fridays included with mandates to return to the office. The immediate impact of this on employee acceptance is still to be determined. Knowing if spreading the week back out to five days is going to occur will shed more light on how the Hybrid Model evolves.
Links to Articles of Interest
Shifting Travel Patterns in Downtown Vancouver Keeping Restaurants in the Red
Although Vancouverites have rediscovered downtown post-pandemic they are visiting less often and spending less in response to rising food prices, a new report by the U of T’s School for Cities has found. The report, which compares recovery rates among hundreds of downtowns across North America, places Vancouver ahead of Toronto, citing the benefits of a large resident population downtown. Restaurants and entertainment venues remain the hardest hit.
Foot Traffic Higher in Pricier Digs? Amenity-Rich Offices Generate More In-Office Activity
Although not a scientific assessment, a report from New York that looked at 25 buildings with highest rents suggests that employers’ expectations for investing in the quality of office space pay off in terms of workers showing up in-office.
Office Utilization Across U.S. Federal Government Barely in Double Digits
A new report from the Public Buildings Reform Board suggests that government leaders are not pushing employees to return to their offices. Some buildings in Washington D.C. have 12% occupancy.
Manhattan Landlords Struggling as Employers Reduce Office Footprint
Availability is uncomfortably high suggest some landlords, although the numbers cited include older, less competitive buildings.
WeWork Close to Emerging from Bankruptcy – Puts a Brave Face on Its Future
By significantly reducing the number of locations across the world from 500 to 300 plus or minus, WeWork expects to be ready for a more positive future, reports suggest.
“The Occupancy Index is supported by the City of Toronto, Downtown Yonge BIA, and Downtown West BIA. It is a measure of the percentage of office employees returning to the office compared to the number of employees who would normally have come to their offices pre-COVID. For a detailed description of the calculation please contact Iain Dobson at [email protected],”
