Presence Is Not Performance

Evidence context

JLL surveyed 8,700 office workers in 31 countries. Sixty-six per cent reported clear expectations for office attendance and 72% viewed those policies positively. Yet JLL explicitly notes that positive sentiment does not guarantee compliance.

Badge swipes and attendance ratios answer whether somebody entered a location. They do not show whether the day supported concentration, collaboration, learning, decision speed or customer outcomes. Treating presence as performance encourages leaders to optimise the easiest measure instead of the most important result.

Osmos Global analysis

A better evaluation connects attendance patterns to the purpose of attendance. Team days intended for collaboration should examine access to colleagues, suitable settings and coordination quality. Individual workdays should examine focus support and digital reliability. Business outcomes remain function-specific and should be defined by operational leaders, not inferred from occupancy.

This approach also prevents the opposite mistake: assuming remote work is automatically productive because employees prefer it. Location, experience and output are related questions, but each needs its own evidence.

What this changes for decision-making The practical significance of “Presence Is Not Performance” is that workplace decisions must be framed as testable operating choices rather than expressions of preference. Leaders should identify the affected workforce, the work moment being improved, the constraint being removed and the evidence that would justify further investment. This prevents a global survey average from becoming a local design instruction and makes the decision transparent to finance, employees and operational teams.

The decision record should also include trade-offs. More collaboration space may reduce focus capacity; higher service coverage may increase operating cost; stronger attendance coordination may reduce individual flexibility; and greater data precision may create privacy concerns. A credible workplace strategy does not hide these tensions. It states which outcome has priority, which safeguards apply and when the choice will be reconsidered.

Leadership implications

Workplace, FM, CRE, HR and technology leaders should treat this issue as a connected operating decision. The objective is not to maximise attendance, satisfaction or space efficiency independently; it is to create an environment that supports defined work while using capital and services responsibly. Business leaders remain responsible for specifying the outcomes that workplace investment is expected to enable.

Implementation guidance

Begin with one workforce segment, location or recurring moment where the present experience can be reconstructed. Record employee perception, actual demand, environmental or service conditions and the business purpose of the setting. Design a bounded intervention, establish the expected evidence before launch, and compare the result across peak and normal periods. Scale only when the improvement is repeatable and material.

What the evidence does not prove

The cited research does not demonstrate that the proposed action will increase individual productivity, prevent resignation or produce a specific financial return. Survey respondents describe experiences, preferences and intentions; portfolio benchmarks describe participating assets and clients. Osmos Global uses those findings to

Practical actions

• State the business purpose behind attendance expectations. • Keep badge, occupancy and utilisation measures distinct. • Pair location data with task and experience evidence. • Avoid productivity claims unsupported by operational metrics.

Risks, limitations and unresolved questions JLL’s findings reflect employee reports within large organisations. They do not establish the productivity effect of a particular attendance policy.

Source notes

[1] JLL. Workforce Preference Barometer 2025: Beyond Mandates—The Future of Hybrid Work. 9 September 2025. https://www.jll.com/en-us/insights/workforce-preference-barometer [2] Gensler Research Institute. Global Workplace Survey 2025. 23 April 2025. https://www.gensler.com/gri/global-workplace-survey-2025