It’s not just attendance: measuring the value of today’s offices

Since 2020, the success of the office has been judged by one question: how often are people coming in? Major employers’ work-from-office policies have dominated headlines, while occupancy dashboards have become a common measure of workplace performance.

But attendance only tells part of the story. The challenge for organisations is not just measuring how often people come into the office, but understanding what they do when they’re there and how the workplace helps drive business performance.

To gain an insight into these questions, Savills worked with CoreNet to create the Measuring the Value of the Evolving Workplace Survey, which analysed the views of more than 240 global corporate real estate and workplace leaders worldwide. The findings show that expectations of the office are evolving, with businesses starting to take a broader view of how to measure office performance.

The office has a clear purpose

The survey reveals broad consensus on where organisations believe the workplace creates value. Almost every respondent (99%) said the office plays an important role in supporting culture, collaboration and innovation. More than 96% also identified benefits for mentoring and learning, talent attraction and retention, and employee productivity.

Where organisations believe the workplace creates the greatest value

Source: Savills Research using CoreNet Global and Savills Measuring the Value of the Evolving Workplace Survey 2026. Note: combined results of the same survey questions across CoreNet Global membership and Savills global network

The findings also point to a broader shift in how business leaders view the workplace. Around two-thirds of respondents said executive leadership primarily sees the office either as a driver of culture and collaboration or as a source of strategic advantage. Only 13% said leadership primarily views the workplace as a cost to manage, although this remains an important consideration.

There is, however, some regional nuance. Executives at companies headquartered in the Americas and EMEA most strongly associate the office with supporting culture and collaboration. In Asia Pacific, by contrast, this factor was tied with the view that the office is a cost to manage – and the most common response was that leadership supports investment but wants stronger evidence of its value. This reflects differences in employee expectations, workplace culture and hybrid working norms across markets.

Which statement best reflects your leadership’s attitudes towards workplace investment?

“The purpose of the workplace is evolving for many organisations,” says Michelle Needles, Executive Vice President, Global Head of Enterprise Solutions, Global Occupier Services, Savills. “The office is increasingly valued as a place to strengthen organisational capability and to support the behaviours that are most effective in person.

“These attributes may be reinforced by the rise of AI,” she adds. “Many business leaders believe competitive advantage will increasingly depend on uniquely human capabilities. AI is therefore likely to increase the importance of environments that help develop the human skills and relationships that technology cannot replicate.”

What academic research tells us about office working

Academic research also demonstrates the benefits of working together in person.
For example, a study of software engineers at a Fortune 500 tech company found people working together in the same office exchanged 23% higher-quality peer reviews on code than colleagues working remotely, contributing to the development of better software.
The benefits were particularly pronounced among less experienced engineers, highlighting the workplace’s role in accelerating learning.

Measuring the return on workplace investment

For many organisations, real estate is among the largest operating costs after people. Savills analysis of corporate reporting across 50 publicly listed global businesses found that workplace costs average 8.4% of total revenue and 12.5% of total operating costs. As expectations of the office continue to evolve, so too should the way organisations assess the return on this investment.
Today, employee engagement surveys are the most widely used measure of workplace performance, cited by 73% of respondents to our survey. Utilisation and occupancy metrics follow closely behind (65%), reflecting the widespread tracking of access card and desk booking data to understand how space is used.
While half of respondents assess how office data correlates with financial or business performance metrics, only one-third track employee retention or talent outcomes. Even fewer assess productivity or performance indicators (22%), and just 13% track collaboration or innovation metrics.

Metrics used to track office performance

Confidence in these approaches varies. For example, just 25% of those using employee engagement surveys were very confident they capture the value of a workplace strategy. Survey fatigue was cited as a challenge, particularly where employees are regularly asked the same questions.

Many respondents said they were moving to AI-enabled conversational surveys. These adapt questions based on individual responses to provide a more nuanced picture of workplace experience, while encouraging greater engagement.

Of those tracking broader financial or business performance metrics, cited indicators relate to revenue, billable hours, error rates and project completion times, as well as the relationship between workplace strategy and client outcomes – for example, examining whether the frequency of office-based client meetings correlates with client retention.

Connecting the dots on workplace data

The next generation of workplace measurement will likely combine operational data with employee experience and wider business indicators. This approach recognises that no single measure can capture how the office creates value.

Occupancy data shows whether people are coming into the office; experience data helps explain why they choose to; and business metrics begin to demonstrate whether workplace investment is contributing to organisational performance.

A framework for measuring workplace value

Source: Savills Research

Approaches like these are gaining traction. The Savills RISE methodology is one example of a certification system that brings together these key areas and assesses workplace performance across a wide range of factors: building operations, customer experience, workplace technology, sustainability, the quality of the physical environment and relationships with building management teams.

“The RISE method helps organisations benchmark buildings using a broader set of performance measures,” explains Sylvain Thouzeau, Building Performance Manager, Savills. “This allows businesses and landlords to compare tangible value and performance across portfolios, identify opportunities for improvement and track progress over time.”

Using technology to unlock data

One of the key challenges for organisations adopting this more holistic approach is combining all the data sets they may hold in a way that provides meaningful insight.

“The next step is about bringing together different sources of data to give a clearer picture of where the office is creating value and where improvements can be made,” explains Simon Raper, Head of Savills Design, APAC. “But for years, data – such as occupancy, employee feedback, HR outcomes and business performance metrics – have been collected in isolation. This makes it harder for organisations to understand how the workplace contributes to wider business outcomes.

“AI tools are beginning to offer a solution: they analyse different data sets to identify patterns, benchmark performance and understand which workplace intervention has the greatest impact.”

“Technology can also reveal more about employee behaviour” explains Laura Woolcock, Associate Director, Strategic Consulting. “Microsoft’s Viva Insights tool, for example, can map collaboration networks”, she adds, “giving businesses a clearer picture of how people collaborate across teams, how quickly new employees build relationships and where there are opportunities to strengthen knowledge-sharing.”

Our survey reflects technology’s potential: 22% of respondents said data and workplace analytics is their top investment priority. It ranked as the leading priority in Asia Pacific, second in the Americas and fourth in EMEA.

Top workplace investment priority (next three years), by region

A better way to show the value of workplace strategies

The way businesses assess the office’s impact and value is changing. Tracking attendance and utilisation remains vital but only tells part of the story. Companies need to bring different types of data together to see what is working, where investment is having an impact and where changes could make a difference.
This raises the bar for real estate owners. A premium building is no longer just about high-quality space. Increasingly, businesses want their landlords to provide metrics that can demonstrate the success of their office space.