During the pandemic, people felt threatened and worried about their safety and health. Over time, people began to wonder why they should go back to the office to make it really worth the commute. Concerns have shifted from safety and health to the question of how best to balance private and work life.  

The workplace should be the best place for work. While white-collar work can be done anywhere and any time these days, to make people come back to the office we need to look for real benefits that intrinsically motivate us to return, because we can experience something completely different (wonderful) there than when working from home.

In the office, you can meet in person with colleagues, business partners and customers, you can build relationships and friendships, you can choose a workspace at your discretion and change and adapt the spaces during the working day to match the work scenarios, you can use modern technology, you can absorb the natural office atmosphere, you can take advantage of available services that are in the office or nearby, you can have healthy food, quality air and a view of the outdoors, you can take a walk or sit quietly on the terrace, you can be part of a community and a team, you can actively join the corporate culture, you can learn and educate yourself from your colleagues and mentors, but you can be a mentor yourself and help others and much more… These are examples of how to improve or mediate the office experience.

Here are some observations from interviews with company employees, what they actually expect from the office:

• They want to focus. They are interested in the possibilities of working without surrounding distractions. This is underlined by the fact that they really appreciated working from home and being able to focus during the pandemic. But this was not true for everyone, and it is not true today, as some employees do not have a dedicated work space at home and have to share the work space with other family members. How do you deal with it? Create enclosed spaces for individual focused work, create informal zones that will be appropriately complemented with acoustic panels to help people be as productive as possible and meet their needs.

• They want to work together in person. People like to see their colleagues in person, socialize and create meaningful human interactions. How do you deal with it? How do you facilitate group meetings that attract and engage all team members? Spaces for collaboration and co-creation of new ideas are gaining importance. Not only are these spaces increasing in size and number, but above all they are diverse. Design premises that allow flexible choices, from formal to informal meeting spaces. Before the pandemic, there were only about 30% of such spaces, now there are 50–70% of them.

• They want to collaborate in a hybrid way. When designing rooms, think like a film director rather than a facility manager. In the past, people sat down in a meeting room and addressed tasks, strategies and innovations. In today’s world of hybrid work, you need to distinguish many aspects of the work environment that affect the user experience. The experience must be engaging, usable, simple, and address people’s needs and wants. How do you deal with it? Some will say we will acquire modern communication technologies, platforms and tools. Everything else will come by itself. Unfortunately, the reality is a little different. First of all, you need to know what people expect from hybrid work in the office space, then you need to choose spaces that will be designed to meet the work scenarios of your employees and, lastly, choose the right technologies for hybrid work.

• They want to be part of a team. People want a sense of belonging to the organization and the workplace, they want an attractive place where they can gather, where they can express their emotions, demands and wishes. Where they will feel that their opinion really matters. Such spaces bring people back because people like these spaces and like to return to them. It is not necessary to compel them to return by force. People simply miss a nice, appropriately designed and safe work environment.

• They want different things depending on age. People under the age of 30 want to work more in the office because they need to form social bonds with their colleagues, but at the same time they need to acquire new knowledge and skills that can be conveyed best through personal interaction. People aged over 50 are in the office because they are used to it. People between the ages of 30 and 50 expect a higher degree of flexibility and autonomy.

• They want a great corporate culture, an inspiring, fair and decent boss. A great corporate culture is not just one where people feel comfortable sharing their diverse opinions, it is one where those opinions are heard and then acted upon. You can have a beautifully designed workspace with state-of-the-art technology, but if the corporate culture does not work and is not great, it will reflect on the people. After the pandemic, many people say: I would like to work from home. What they actually say is: ‘I do not like my boss or my company and I want to spend as much time as possible away from the office and my supervisor.

How do you deal with a successful return to the office? We can advise you not only on the design of workspaces, but together we can also choose the best communication technology designed for communication, collaboration and co-creation in a team, made to meet people’s needs and wants.