In brief
Return-to-office strategies often focus on increasing attendance without defining the purpose of the office. This article explores how unclear expectations about what the office is for lead to disengagement and ineffective use of time, and outlines how HR can help organisations design office use around specific activities and outcomes.
Part 4 of 5 in The People Space return-to-office series. Back to full series
Many return-to-office strategies are built around a number.
Two days. Three days. A minimum expectation.
The assumption is that more time in the office will lead to better outcomes.
In practice, the experience is often mixed.
Employees return to the office and spend much of their time on tasks they could complete anywhere:
- individual work
- virtual meetings
- administrative tasks
This raises a more fundamental question.
What is the office actually for?
Attendance does not create value. What people do together when they are there does.
The problem
The purpose of the office is often implied rather than defined.
Organisations talk about:
- collaboration
- culture
- connection
These are valid goals, but they are rarely translated into specific activities.
Without that clarity:
- employees make their own decisions about how to use office time
- teams default to familiar ways of working
- the office becomes another location for the same work
As a result, time in the office can feel performative rather than productive.
Why this happens
Return-to-office decisions are often driven by a desire to reintroduce ways of working that previously felt natural.
Before widespread hybrid work, the office provided:
- a shared environment
- informal interaction
- visible activity
Those conditions supported collaboration, but they were not the cause of it.
Simply bringing people back into the same space does not recreate those dynamics.
Without intentional design, proximity alone does not change how work happens.
What the evidence suggests
Studies of hybrid work have highlighted that different types of work benefit from different environments.
Tasks that involve:
- deep focus
- individual contribution
- structured execution
can often be completed effectively outside the office.
Activities that involve:
- problem-solving
- relationship building
- creative collaboration
tend to benefit more from shared physical space.
When organisations do not distinguish between these activities, office time is used inefficiently.
This can reduce both productivity and engagement.
What HR should do next
HR can help organisations move from attendance expectations to purposeful use of space.
1. Define the purpose of the office
Be explicit about what the office is for.
Which activities are better done together and why?
2. Link presence to specific activities
Encourage teams to align office time with work that benefits from being co-located.
3. Support team-level planning
Teams should have the flexibility to decide when being together adds value, within clear organisational principles.
4. Align space with use
If collaboration is a priority, the physical environment needs to support it. Layout, technology and design all play a role.
Key takeaways
- attendance expectations do not in themselves improve outcomes
- unclear purpose leads to inefficient use of office time
- different types of work require different environments
- HR can improve impact by defining and designing for purposeful use of space
The effectiveness of the office is not defined by how often it is used, but by how well it supports the work that matters.
Continue the series
Next: Why return-to-office strategy needs to evolve, not harden. Read Part 5
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