Employers have gained the upper hand in the struggle to get employees working in the office again, Avison Young CEO Mark Rose told the Globe and Mail.

Amid a weakening economy and increasingly competitive job market, companies and public-sector office tenants are leveraging their growing influence to push workers back onto into office environments.

“It’s more of an employer’s market,” Rose said in a recent interview with the Globe. He noted that office occupancy levels, though still below pre-pandemic standards, are steadily climbing as companies adopt stricter in-office work mandates.

Major employers such as Amazon and the federal government have ramped up in-office attendance requirements, the Globe noted.. Amazon is set to mandate its Canadian office workers to attend five days a week starting January, while Ottawa has required federal civil servants to work in the office a minimum of three days per week since September 2024. Other companies like Canada Life and Telus have similarly increased mandatory in-person workdays.

Rose told his interview that banks and financial services firms have been vocal about wanting employees back in the office. He also highlighted the career implications of remote work, asserting that visibility plays a crucial role in professional growth.

“I 100% believe that people missed out on promotions because they weren’t seen,” Rose told the Globe. “People’s careers, people’s social activities, people’s knowledge base all rely upon being seen.”

Toronto, a focal point for Canada’s business activities, has seen the highest office occupancy rates since the pandemic, with downtown office buildings operating at 72% of pre-pandemic levels in early November, the Globe reported. Despite this progress, the downtown Toronto office vacancy rate reached 15.7% in the third quarter of 2024—the highest level since before the pandemic. The city has faced challenges in regaining its former vibrancy, with long-standing remote work habits cited as a key obstacle.

Rose expressed concerns to the Globne about a lingering reluctance among senior employees just below the executive tier, who he said believe they have earned the right to forgo commuting. He emphasized the need for employers to enforce stricter in-office policies.

“What we still have is the layer below the C-suite of senior people,” he told the Globe. “They still believe that they earned the right during their careers to choose not to have a commute.”

While employers intensify their efforts to return staff to Toronto office spaces, the market continues to contend with high vacancy rates and the influx of newly completed office buildings, which were placed in the development pipeline before the pandemic. These challenges have left downtown Toronto with a surplus of office space—82.7 million square feet, up from 74 msf in 2019, the Globe reported.

Photo: NAIOP/Avison Young