Fully-Remote Companies Have Higher Turnover Rates

CBRE has been tracking office policies for more than 340 U.S. companies since January 2023. Now, in the middle of 2024, they’ve pulled together information to show some trends in what is happening within at least their sample, although it’s difficult to know the degree to which this represents the country as a whole.

Most organizations at this point expect employees to be in the office from two to four days a week, with 14% running with full-time office attendance and 36% having employees in the office at least three days a week. That’s half of all the companies. But then 6% of companies see employees in half the time, 15% have workers at home three days or more a week. Another 28% make it employee choice, meaning companies have office space but no demand for employees to work there, and 1% work fully remote.

For all the talk of in-office, hybrid, or work-from-home, 99% of companies maintain office space for the business and employees. It suggests that the concern of companies dropping all their real estate has been overdrawn. Most companies apparently need space. And yet, only 71% of organizations expect at least some in-office attendance.

The split in models by industry is interesting. The types of companies with the highest equipment-dependent operations are, as makes sense, going to have strong in-office policies. About 60% of life sciences and 63% of industrial and logistics companies expect workers to be fully or mostly in the office. In addition, 75% of financial services firms and 76% of law firms also have fully or mostly in-office policies. They may not depend on equipment, but they do place a premium on meeting with clients, negotiating deals, and presenting a strong image.

On the other end of the scale, technology and professional services firms tend to have more remote-centric attendance policies. Also included is healthcare corporate office policy. While 28% of all companies have employee choice policies (no demands for in-office but office space for those who want it), 40% of tech and 45% of healthcare office do.

One more key observation is who has the lowest average turnover rates. As CBRE noted, 10% annual turnover is normal for a “healthy” company. Some people will choose to move on for personal opportunity and a company may ask some to leave, either for performance issues or changing staffing needs.

The lowest average turnover, 10.7%, was among companies with an equal mix of office and remote attendance. Next is 11.8% for mostly office and 11.9% for full-time office. Employee choice companies averaged 12.8%. Fully remote companies had the highest average at 16.5%, perhaps meaning that the less time in the office, the more easily people might move on to something else.