Robin: Large U.S. cities see teams return to the office in July

Recent analysis found that the average U.S. office capacity rose to nearly 30% for the month of July, according to data from workplace management platform, Robin.

Above: In July, 2021 the U.S. saw the percentage of employees returning to the office increase across major cities.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the past year, it’s that change is always just around the corner for businesses.

Despite growing concerns over the Delta variant surge, companies in major U.S. cities continued to move forward with their return to the office plans in July. Robin found that the average U.S. office had a 43% increase in the number of employees returning and a 45% increase in desk bookings last month.

However, Robin identified a steady increase in the “employee bounce rate despite this upward trend.” The bounce rate represents the percentage of employees that worked in the office once and didn’t return that month. Robin’s data team believes this metric is indicative of employees’ comfort with in-person work. Rising bounce rates in July likely show that employees aren’t ready to come into the office regularly despite employers’ in-process RTO strategies. This line of thinking is supported by the data showing a slight dip in the average number of days employees work from the office per week, going from three times every two weeks in June to just one day a week in July.

Globally, Australia and New Zealand were the first countries to lead the return-to-office, but the Delta variant has caused the countries’ office workers to head back home. Office use decreased from 50% in May to the 20%-30% range for July.

Robin’s team of data scientists analyzed millions of real-life desk, conference room, and office asset reservations from its global customer base to identify significant trends in the worldwide return-to-office (RTO).

Read the full Return to Office Tracker Report by Robin