Hybrid work is no longer a temporary adjustment. It is the permanent operating model for enterprise organisations.
That shift has changed the role of the office. In 2026, the challenge is not enforcing attendance, but designing an office experience that hybrid workers actively choose over working from home.
To understand what drives that choice, UC Today analysed findings from five leading, ungated industry reports from Gartner, EY, Microsoft, JLL, and Deloitte.
Related articles:
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Deploying Workspace Tech at Scale: Implementation, Adoption & Support for Hybrid Work in 2026
Which Workspace Tech Is Worth Buying in 2026?
Cisco: Hybrid Work Is Shifting Toward the Office – But Experience Is Falling Short
Cisco – 2025 Global Hybrid Work Study
The problem Cisco identifies
The study shows that hybrid work is not disappearing, but it is evolving. More organisations are expecting employees to spend time in the office, yet the office experience itself has not kept pace with those expectations.
The report finds that hybrid arrangements have declined, while office mandates have increased, with 72% of respondents saying their organization has in-office requirements. However, Cisco makes it clear that technology is a limiting factor in whether those office days feel productive.
Cisco states plainly that:
“Technology is an enabler but not meeting expectations.”
A core issue is inconsistency. Employees move between home, office, and meeting rooms, yet tools, workflows, and experiences often change with location. Cisco highlights that:
“Less than half (49%) of employees believe their organisation supports them with consistent tools and processes to work effectively from any location.”
For enterprise teams, this inconsistency erodes the value of the office. When meetings fail to start cleanly, audio and video vary by room, or workflows feel fragmented, commuting becomes an additional burden rather than a benefit.
The solution Cisco points toward
Cisco’s research points toward experience consistency as the defining requirement of modern office strategy.
The study shows that organisations are prioritising technologies that directly support hybrid collaboration, including:
“Meeting rooms capable of hybrid sessions (50%)” and “digital whiteboards and interactive displays (55%).”
This reflects a recognition that smart rooms are now core infrastructure, not optional enhancements. Cisco also underscores why this matters, noting that:
“On average, 40% of interactions in the office have at least one person joining remotely.”
Office relevance in 2026 depends on reliable, interoperable meeting environments that make in-person collaboration smoother and more inclusive than working from home. Read more about the best vendors to enable this here.
Gensler: Offices Must Align With Real Work Modes to Compete With Home
Gensler Research Institute – Global Workplace Survey 2025
The problem Gensler identifies
Gensler’s 2025 Global Workplace Survey frames the return-to-office challenge as a design and experience mismatch, rather than an attendance issue.
The research finds that while employees still value in-person work, many offices are not designed to support how work actually happens today. Gensler emphasises that:
“Human connection and collective work are fundamental elements of getting work done.”
At the same time, work patterns are changing. Gensler reports that:
“Time spent working with others in-person continues to increase while working alone continues to steadily decrease.”
Yet many workplaces still prioritise individual desks over collaboration-ready spaces, or fail to equip meeting rooms to support hybrid participation effectively. This disconnect weakens the case for coming into the office.
The solution Gensler points toward
Gensler’s research advocates a work-modes-first approach to office strategy — designing environments around what people actually come in to do.
The report explains that its goal is:
“To uncover what employees value most, what they need from the office/work environment.”
And its conclusion is explicit:
“Today’s workplaces must evolve with employee work patterns.”
For enterprise organisations, this reinforces the role of workplace experience technology and smart rooms in aligning space with behaviour. Meeting rooms, collaboration zones, and shared spaces must be equipped to support collective work seamlessly – with reliable AV, intuitive booking, and consistent collaboration platforms.
In this model, technology becomes the bridge between space design and work outcomes, helping the office compete with home by enabling the interactions that matter most. Read more about meeting equity in our article.
EY: Employees Engage When Work Environments Enable Performance
EY — Work Reimagined Survey
The problem EY identifies
EY’s research shows that employee expectations have shifted faster than many workplace strategies.
EY observes that work is becoming:
“Increasingly disconnected from old ideas of career, rewards and workplaces.”
While not focused solely on office attendance, EY’s findings highlight a core issue: employees disengage from environments — physical or digital — that slow them down or add friction.
The solution EY points toward
EY’s research reinforces the importance of workplace enablement, including:
- Technology that supports productivity rather than interrupts it
- Consistent experiences across locations and work modes
- Environments designed around outcomes, not presence
Applied to the office, this supports investment in return-to-office technology that removes friction and enables performance.
JLL: Without Data, Offices Can’t Adapt to Hybrid Work
JLL – Global Occupancy Planning Benchmark Report 2025
The problem JLL identifies
JLL highlights a structural challenge in hybrid workplaces: organisations often lack visibility into how offices are actually used.
As hybrid work disrupts predictable attendance patterns, legacy assumptions about desks, meeting rooms, and collaboration spaces no longer hold.
Without data, leaders cannot identify what works – or what drives employees away.
In the report, JLL states that:
“Data has become the critical factor in understanding how space is used and how workplaces perform.”
This lack of visibility creates risk. Without accurate utilisation and behaviour data, organisations struggle to identify which spaces support collaboration, which sit unused, and which actively undermine employee experience.
The solution JLL highlights
JLL points to increased adoption of workplace experience technology, enabling organisations to:
- Measure desk and meeting room utilisation
- Understand booking behaviour and peak demand
- Redesign spaces based on real usage patterns
Leading organisations are using occupancy data to optimise space while improving employee experience.
This data-driven approach helps organisations align space, technology, and experience, making offices more responsive to hybrid worker needs.
Deloitte: Office Investment Must Prove Measurable Value
Deloitte – Global Human Capital Trends 2025
The problem Deloitte identifies
Deloitte’s research highlights mounting pressure on leaders to justify workplace and technology investment with measurable outcomes.
In hybrid environments, traditional metrics like attendance alone no longer demonstrate value. Interestingly, a central theme of the report is that traditional metrics no longer reflect how work gets done. Deloitte states:
Organizations are being pushed to focus on outcomes rather than outputs.
In hybrid environments, this creates a challenge for office strategy. Measuring success by attendance or time on-site fails to capture whether workplace investment is actually improving collaboration, productivity, or employee experience.
The solution Deloitte encourages
Re-architect work, the workforce, and the workplace to deliver value in a boundaryless world.
Applied to office attendance strategy, this means linking physical spaces and return-to-office technology to measurable outcomes such as collaboration quality, engagement, and retention.
Deloitte emphasises linking investment to outcomes such as:
- Productivity and collaboration effectiveness
- Employee experience and engagement
- Retention and talent attraction
This reinforces the need for office attendance strategy grounded in evidence — supported by smart rooms, analytics, and experience data.
How Smart Rooms and Workplace Technology Support Office Attendance
Taken together, these reports point to a clear role for technology in bringing hybrid workers back to the office:
- Smart meeting rooms that support inclusive, reliable hybrid collaboration
- Consistent UC platforms across rooms and locations
- Workplace experience technology that provides insight into space use and behaviour
- Analytics and reporting that link office investment to business outcomes
Technology alone is not the solution — but without it, experience cannot scale.
Final Takeaway: Hybrid Workers Return When the Office Delivers Value
Across Gartner, Microsoft, EY, JLL, and Deloitte, the conclusion is consistent:
Hybrid workers come back to the office when it enables better work than home — supported by smart rooms, low-friction technology, and measurable outcomes.
In 2026, successful organisations treat the office as a strategic asset, not a mandate. Attendance follows when people, processes, and technology align around real value.
