From Zooms to Rooms: Real Data on the RTO Experience

What’s Really Happening with RTO? Density’s From Zooms to Rooms report dives beyond the headlines and straight into our occupancy sensor data to uncover how employees are actually using office space post-pandemic. 

By analyzing 19,000+ workspaces across global organizations, the findings reveal behavioral patterns that are insightful-and often surprising. 

Like the “office-moon” effect. In the week before a return-to-office policy kicks in, occupancy drops 13% as employees savor their final remote days. 

Perhaps more telling is how people use the office once they’re back. Face-to-face collaboration skyrockets-up 40% in the first week alone, outpacing the rise in general attendance. While that spike levels off, collaboration time remains 32% higher than pre-RTO, with employees averaging 50 minutes per day in active, in-person teamwork.

The report also includes a case study on Density’s own RTO experience and policies that have made it successful. That includes having “common hours” to ensure people overlap in the office  and the right mix of office space types to ensure people get to work in a way that prioritizes collaboration and productivity. 

Throughout the report are RTO takeaways for workplace professionals as well as a how-to on launching your own space-use study to guide future workplace decisions.