Rising In-Office Attendance | Latam March 2026
Back to the Office on the Rise: More and More Companies in LATAM Are Returning to the Office
The pendulum has swung back. And in Latin America, it swung harder than anywhere else in the world.
While in Europe the debate still centers on whether to mandate three or four days in the office, here 58% of companies are already operating on a five-day in-office schedule. We're the region with the highest office attendance on the planet, surpassing Asia-Pacific (48%), the United States and Canada (43%), and Europe and the Middle East (35%), according to JLL's global report.
But that 58% figure hides nuances that matter a lot if you manage teams. The data changes dramatically depending on who's running the study, what industry your team works in, and how much negotiating power each person has.
First: Who's Measuring What (and Why the Data Doesn't All Say the Same Thing)
Before diving into the numbers, it's worth understanding the bias behind each source. Not all reports on office attendance are looking at the same thing.
Real Estate Consultancies (JLL, CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield) These produce the most widely cited data. JLL surveyed over 2,300 Corporate Real Estate managers worldwide—including LATAM for the first time—and published the most comprehensive report on work arrangements in the region. Their focus is on real estate portfolios: how many companies use their spaces and how often. They measure attendance days, not satisfaction. They're the most reliable source for understanding what's happening in office buildings.
Talent and HR Consultancies (Cornerstone, Page Group, ManpowerGroup) They target HR leaders and managers. Cornerstone's "Talent, Technology and Purpose" report was based on 700 HR leaders in LATAM. Page Group interviews workers and employers about preferences. These are useful for understanding intent and perception, though they tend to over-represent mid-sized and large companies with formalized HR departments.
Market Research Firms (Ipsos, Capterra) They survey workers directly, not leadership. These best capture the gap between what companies decide and what employees want. The Ipsos report on LATAM is the most revealing in this sense.
Benefits Platforms (Cobee) They generate real usage and behavior data. Cobee has concrete data from Mexico on current work arrangements because they see it reflected in benefits consumption.
What This Means for Reading the Data: When a real estate report says "58% of companies have five-day in-office schedules," it's talking about what leaders declared in a real estate survey. When Ipsos says "57% of workers go to the office more days than they'd like," it's measuring real daily experience. Both are true. They just don't measure exactly the same thing.
The Country-by-Country Breakdown
With that critical lens in place, the numbers from JLL's report are the most robust for the regional picture:
- Peru: 80% of companies with five-day in-office arrangements
- Colombia: 72%
- Brazil: 60%
- Chile: 56%
- Mexico: 54%
- Argentina: 24%
Argentina is the outlier: 44% of its companies are betting on four-day schedules and hybrid models remain dominant. The rest of the region has returned, and decisively so.
In Mexico, Cobee confirms the trend: 69% of workers operate in fully in-office format. And Capterra adds that 32% of Mexican companies requested more office days compared to the previous year, when the global average was 20%.
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Office Attendance by Industry: It's Not the Same Everywhere
Office attendance isn't distributed evenly across sectors. Some industries have seen nearly total returns while others still use flexibility as a real bargaining chip.
Manufacturing, Logistics, and Construction The return to 100% in-office was never up for debate. These are industries where the nature of work doesn't allow for alternatives. According to Flex Index, construction and installation sectors have some of the highest rates of mandatory in-office work, even for administrative roles. In LATAM, advanced manufacturing—especially in Mexico, driven by nearshoring—is driving demand for industrial engineers and technical profiles who must be physically on-site.
Financial Services and Banking A historically conservative sector that returned quickly. Colombia leads the region at 72% full-time office work, and financial services and insurance are among the most active in driving that return. Regulatory pressure, data security, and traditional corporate culture accelerate the comeback. Digital banking and fintech are the exception: they maintain more hybrid arrangements to compete for scarce tech talent.
Consulting and Professional Services A mixed model leaning toward more in-office presence but with greater tolerance for hybrid work given project-based nature. ManpowerGroup identifies professional, scientific, and technical services as a hiring focus in Colombia and the region, with models that blend project work with intermittent presence.
Technology and Startups This sector has the most tension between employer and employee, but also the most capacity to maintain flexibility. The IT industry was historically most likely to offer remote work. That number has dropped, but tech still maintains more hybrid arrangements than others. In LATAM, tech companies, fintechs, and regional digital services firms are most resistant to full returns, according to Tesoro AI analysis published in late 2025. The reason is simple: they need specialized talent in a market where that talent can work for a U.S. company without leaving Buenos Aires.
Public Sector and Education Nearly complete return to in-office model. The pandemic was an exception, not the new norm. In Peru, where 80% of companies operate on five-day schedules, the public sector accounts for much of that figure.
Negotiating Power: Not Everyone Can Negotiate the Same Terms
This is the variable that most impacts workers' real experience and gets discussed least in reports.
Your ability to negotiate flexible work arrangements depends on three factors: the sector you work in, how specialized your role is, and how much demand your profile has in the market.
High Negotiating Power Specialized tech profiles—senior developers, software architects, cybersecurity specialists, data scientists—have the strongest negotiating power in the region. They're scarce, demand is global, and they can choose between local and international employers. Remote work for U.S. and European companies remains a real option for these profiles, giving them leverage to negotiate with local employers. According to Interfell, in LATAM's tier-1 markets (Argentina, Brazil, Chile), English proficiency can increase salaries by up to 50%, which also amplifies the ability to demand conditions. Senior consultants, product managers, and roles with hard-to-replace expertise also have room to negotiate.
Medium Negotiating Power Digital marketing, finance, HR, operations, and sales profiles at mid-sized companies have some margin, but it depends more on each company's context. Page Group's report shows that in this segment hybrid work is still possible, but the trend is toward losing remote days. Negotiation here is less about the abstract model and more about specific terms: Can I work from home Fridays? Can I avoid the 45-minute commute on Mondays?
Low Negotiating Power The bulk of LATAM's workforce. Operational roles, customer service, general administration, manufacturing. For this segment, the company decides the model. WeWork measured it: 40% of workers say the company decides the arrangement, and another 24% say their direct managers do. Only 2 in 10 people were consulted on designing their work model.
The Ipsos data seals it: 57% of workers in LATAM attend the office more days than they'd like, and the incentives companies offer to motivate attendance aren't working. People don't want pizza on Fridays. They want time and money back.
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What Talent in LATAM Is Saying: The Data Companies Can't Ignore
Desky surveyed over 1,000 professionals across Latin America to understand what they're looking for today when choosing a job. The number one answer, above salary, health benefits, and career development, was flexibility.
Not schedule flexibility. Location flexibility.
This isn't a generational whim or a pandemic hangover. It's a market signal. The region's most qualified talent—those who can choose between multiple offers, including international employers hiring remote—use flexibility as a filter before accepting any proposal.
Companies that don't understand this don't just lose candidates during recruitment. They lose them quietly, months after they've started, when a better offer comes along.
The question every company should ask today isn't "how many office days do we mandate?" It's why are we bringing them in, and is it worth what we're risking if we don't answer that question well?
Want to know what talent is looking for in LATAM today? Download the Desky report →
The Company-Employee Gap: The Number That Matters Most
The distance between what leaders want and what employees want is the variable that will define how this evolves.
Globally, 83% of executives want their employees back in the office full-time. Only 10% of workers want to return on those terms. That 73-point gap is the largest recorded in remote work literature, and in LATAM the tension is just as real.
Page Group quantifies it for the region: 58% of people who've already returned to in-office schedules are dissatisfied with the arrangement. And 55% are actively job hunting.
90% of those working 100% in-office say they'd switch to a company offering even one work-from-home day, according to Cobee.
This isn't resistance to work. It's resistance to losing time in commutes, money on transportation, and control over your own routine.
Success Story: Candor Investment Group × Desky
A Global, Flexible, Easy-to-Manage Benefit for a 100% Remote Team
The Challenge
Candor Investment Group has a 100% remote team spread across different countries. HR needed to offer a benefit that actually added value—without adding operational complexity, local negotiations, or unnecessary fixed costs. Giving freedom to choose where to work was key. Managing it from HR without losing control or budget was equally important.
The Solution
With Desky, Candor gave its team optional access to workspaces worldwide, with no fixed contracts or country-by-country management. Everything centralized in one place: one provider, one system, one dashboard for HR.
The Impact
Today Candor offers a benefit its team chooses to use, not one imposed on them.
- Real, flexible benefit: each person decides if, when, and where to work.
- Zero complex management for HR: no negotiating or paying for spaces in each country.
- Full visibility: dashboard with usage, permissions, and consumption across the global team.
- Cost optimization: only pay for what the team actually uses.
The result: a better experience for the team and a clear competitive advantage for attracting and retaining remote talent.
"I can give my entire team a benefit they actually use: budget, freedom to choose where to work, and a simple experience for HR. It's a competitive advantage for any remote team." Milagros Diez — Sr HR | Candor Investment Group
What's Coming: Toward Four-Day Weeks and Distributed Workspaces
JLL anticipates the model that will solidify in LATAM by 2030: four days in-office, supported by networks of spaces closer to where people live. Less central office, more distributed work points.
62% of companies already expect to offer networks of additional spaces near employees' homes before the decade ends. And 47% plan to offer additional salaries or benefits to those who attend the office—something almost no one does today, despite existing demand.
This isn't the future. It's the direction the market has already taken.
What This Means for People Managers Today
If you manage HR at a company with operations in multiple LATAM cities, you're under pressure from both sides at once: the business demands more in-office presence and talent—especially your best talent—demands more flexibility.
The way to solve that equation isn't to pick a side. It's to build a workspace offering that works for each person, without having to manage five different providers across five cities.
One contract with access to thousands of spaces across Latin America and Europe. One monthly invoice. One dashboard where you see who works where and how much it costs. No fixed costs. No bureaucracy. You pay for what your team actually uses.
That's how companies managing this moment well are solving it.
Managing a team across multiple LATAM cities? Desky gives you access to thousands of coworking spaces across Latin America and Europe from a single contract. No fixed costs. No country-by-country management. You only pay for what your team actually uses.
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Sources: JLL Global Real Estate Outlook 2025 · Cornerstone "2025 Report: Talent, Technology and Purpose" (700 HR leaders in LATAM) · Cobee Benefits Trends · Ipsos "Hybrid Work is Here to Stay" · Page Group Talent Trends 2024 · Capterra · WeWork "Challenges and Perspectives on Work" · ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook · Flex Index 2024 · Interfell Salaries and IT Trends in LATAM 2025 · Tesoro AI Sectoral Analysis October 2025 · Bloomberg Línea · Desky Professional Survey LATAM 2025
Published by the Desky Team — February 2026