According to a report, one in three companies apply RTO due to their office leases.

Lease agreements appear to anchor many return-to-office policies, with a third of companies that lease space saying the current terms of their office lease are affecting their RTO strategies, according to a Dec. 3 report from Resume.org.

Among two-thirds of companies with office space, about half have leases that run through 2028 or beyond, which could dictate their longer-term RTO policies. About 14% have leases expiring in 2024 or 2025, according to the report.

When these leases expire, about 23% of companies plan to reduce the square footage they lease. Of these companies, a third said they would reduce the number of days required in office and 8% would end RTO policies.

In the survey of 900 business leaders from companies that have implemented an RTO policy, about three-quarters of them will require their employees to be in the office at least three days a week in 2025. Among them , 28% will require a full five-day work week. in the office.

Executives highlighted several reasons behind their RTO policies, such as facilitating collaboration and teamwork, encouraging better communication, improving company culture, increasing productivity, enabling better management, and utilizing paid office space .

“The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of remote work and many companies are now questioning the need for large office spaces,” Matt Morgan, a commercial real estate salesperson in California, said in a statement. “I have observed that companies are reassessing their space needs and reducing their office space requirements as leases expire. »

About a third of executives expressed concerns about employee resignations due to RTO policies, and 6% said they were very concerned. However, about half said they were not worried about turnover.

Although RTO may lead to higher employee turnover, 70% of companies said they would increase or maintain the number of days in the office in 2025, according to a Resume Builder survey. And about 80% of employers reported losing talent due to RTO mandates.

Despite a growing number of RTO policies, job seekers continue to seek flexible work, according to remote job site Flexa, which reported the highest number of flexible job seekers over the last quarter. Although 59% of job seekers said they preferred fully remote jobs, only 2% of job postings offered fully remote work between July and September, according to the platform.