CoreNet Global Summit 2026 Recap: 8 Key Learnings About The Future Of Hybrid Work

At OfficeRnD, we always try to expand our knowledge, learn, and improve. Attending industry-leading conferences is one of the better ways to do it.

The CoreNet Global Summit brings corporate real estate leaders, workplace strategists, and facilities heads together to work through what’s actually happening in offices. We came away with a clear read on where hybrid work is heading, and we want to share it.

The CoreNet Global Summit is the flagship gathering for corporate real estate and workplace professionals, focused on how organizations design, use, and invest in their offices.

Here’s what stood out.

#1 The mass return to the office never fully arrived

The forced, five-days-a-week comeback that headlines kept predicting hasn’t materialized for most organizations. Full-time in-office work remains the exception, and hybrid is the default for remote-capable roles.

The gap between what employers want and what employees actually do is now small. CBRE’s Americas Office Occupier Sentiment Survey found employers expect an average of 3.2 in-office days per week, while employees average 2.9. That’s the closest alignment yet.

Large companies still face the widest gap: 3.1 days expected against 2.5 actual. So the strong push back to the desk is mostly a big-employer story, and even there, reality lags the mandate.

City size shapes attendance too. The pattern operators described at the Summit still holds: the smaller the city, the more time people spend on-site.

• In large metros like New York, hybrid workers often cluster into a single midweek day, packing in face-to-face meetings before heading back out.
• In mid-sized cities like Chicago, attendance runs higher across the week.
• In smaller markets like Phoenix, people are in the office most days.

The obvious driver is the commute. A shorter trip lowers the friction of showing up, and attendance follows.

That variation is exactly why measuring hybrid work is so tricky, which brings us to the next point.

#2 Measuring hybrid work is still hard

Most companies still don’t have a reliable way to measure whether their hybrid policy is working.

There’s no single formula, and the workplace keeps shifting under everyone’s feet. What matters is setting clear expectations for employees, running experiments, learning fast, and iterating on your existing policies. The operators getting this right treat attendance data as a signal to adjust, not a scoreboard.

#3 Enforcement is rising, but it’s still uneven

More companies now track attendance than a couple of years ago. Enforcement climbed sharply as the labor market softened and employers gained leverage. Even so, plenty of mandates go loosely policed or unpoliced.

The pattern is counterintuitive: smaller firms lead on adherence, while only about 22% of large firms actively enforce attendance. Big organizations write the strictest policies and struggle most to make them stick.

Why the caution? Leaders know a heavy-handed mandate can dent morale, especially among teams that worked remotely for years. The companies seeing better results lean on a people-first approach that encourages intentional collaboration rather than punishing absence.

#4 Physical space is for collaboration

The office isn’t just desks, chairs, and meeting rooms. It’s where people connect and create together, and that’s the reason most of them come in at all.

Companies are redesigning space around interaction and group size. Owl Labs found 76% of employers made changes to their offices, from expanded collaboration areas to upgraded meeting-room equipment. The redesigns tend to fall into three buckets:

• Communities. Larger corporations set aside space for gyms, big kitchens, and cafés where people can relax or talk shop informally.
• Groups. Office neighborhoods help teams work together, so companies build them into floor plans alongside better meeting rooms.
• Individuals. Small, quiet rooms handle focused work and one-on-ones, which is why huddle spaces keep multiplying.

#5 People come in for the human connection

Remote work has real upsides, but it comes with costs that even committed remote workers admit: isolation, longer hours, weak home setups, too much sitting.

The strongest pull back to the office is other people. Employees show up for:

• Team moments: all-hands meetings, quarterly celebrations, food and drinks and time to socialize.
• Learning and development: in-person training tends to be more hands-on and interactive.
• Amenities: game rooms, green space, and libraries that make the trip worthwhile.

This matters for anyone weighing a mandate. Owl Labs found 40% of workers would start job hunting if flexibility were taken away. Give people a reason to commute, and they’ll come. Remove the flexibility without one, and some will leave.

#6 It’s more about places than spaces

More companies now understand that turning a space into a place is what drives productivity and engagement.

A space is carpet, desks, and chairs between four walls. A place is that same room with people, meaning, and purpose. It’s somewhere people gather and share an experience.

It’s good to see more companies working to make the office feel like somewhere people actually want to be.

#7 Hybrid workplaces are becoming intentional workplaces

The blunt return-to-office push created a disconnect between employers and employees, and the phrase itself picked up a negative charge.

Coming in “because I said so” doesn’t hold up. An intentional workplace does two things instead:

• It creates a work experience that lets people do their best work.
• It gets people into the office together, with a clear purpose for being there.

Anchor days are the practical version of this. Many companies designate a couple of midweek days for in-person collaboration and keep the rest flexible, so teams actually overlap when they show up.

#8 Companies are cautious about scaling real estate

The picture here has shifted. A few years ago, the consensus was that everyone would shrink their footprint. Now most occupiers are holding steady or planning to grow.

CBRE found 67% of occupiers expect to maintain or grow their office space over the next three years, with smaller companies driving most of the expansion. The bigger move is toward flexibility inside the footprint: 75% of companies now use unassigned seating for at least some employees.

That’s the real lever for reducing real estate and maintenance costs. Instead of paying for a desk per person, you right-size the space to how it’s actually used and let people book what they need.

Where OfficeRnD Workplace fits

OfficeRnD Workplace is hybrid workplace management software that lets employees book desks and meeting rooms, see who’s in the office, and coordinate onsite days directly inside Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Slack, or Google Workspace.

That last part matters for the problems above. If you’re trying to measure hybrid work, workplace analytics show daily and weekly desk and space usage so you can refine your policy on evidence rather than guesswork. If you’re trying to right-size real estate, desk hoteling and hot desking let you cut unused seats. And because it works inside tools people already use, adoption doesn’t hinge on getting everyone to learn another app.

Frequently asked questions

How many days a week do hybrid employees actually work in the office?

Most average around 3 days. CBRE puts employee attendance at 2.9 days per week against an employer expectation of 3.2. Owl Labs found the largest groups of hybrid workers go in 3 days (39%) or 4 days (34%).

Are return-to-office mandates working?

Enforcement has increased, but it’s patchy. CBRE found only about 22% of large firms actively enforce attendance. Companies that pair clear expectations with a genuine reason to come in tend to see better attendance than those relying on strict mandates.

Are companies reducing their office space?

Mostly no, not anymore. CBRE found 67% of occupiers expect to hold or grow their space over the next three years. The shift is toward flexible layouts and unassigned seating rather than shedding square footage.

What’s the difference between a hybrid workplace and an intentional workplace?

A hybrid workplace splits time between home and office. An intentional workplace adds a reason for the office days: collaboration, onboarding, team moments, or focused group work, so people come in for something specific rather than to satisfy a rule.

What software helps manage hybrid work?

Hybrid work software handles desk booking, meeting room scheduling, and space analytics. OfficeRnD Workplace does this inside Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Slack, and Google Workspace, so employees can book desks and rooms and see who’s in without adopting a separate app.

In conclusion

The future of hybrid work is still moving, but the direction is clearer than it was.

The takeaways from the Summit:

• The forced full-time return didn’t happen. Most companies land around 3 office days a week, and attendance rises in smaller cities with shorter commutes.
• Enforcement is up but uneven, and large firms enforce least. Measuring hybrid success remains hard, so treat data as a signal to adjust.
• Companies are redesigning offices around collaboration and holding or growing their footprint while shifting to flexible, unassigned seating.
• Human connection is what brings people in. Intentional workplaces give them a reason to come, and pull ahead of blunt mandates.

Check out our blog for more hybrid work and future of work insights, and don’t miss our guide to the best coworking conferences to attend.