Forget office mandates — what really motivates people to go to the office – and what does that mean for our workspaces?

Are we considering what really motivates people to come to the office? 
Organizations need a more nuanced approach to office mandates than simply saying “return to the office 3 or more days a week for collaboration”.  This can cause resistance – especially in a workforce with diverse needs, personal situations and requirements.  

Organisations need to consider why people want to come into the office, what the distinct and different user groups are – and how to provide the environments that support the reasons people from different teams will get value from in office time.  

That holds the key to unlocking better workplace strategies, not just saying “come in for collaboration” and doing nothing to ensure that valuable interactions happen. 

The data is increasingly clear: most employees are not heading to the office just to sit at a desk to do the same work they could do remotely. They're motivated by deeper needs — social, professional, and collaborative — that remote work doesn't always fulfill.  There is too often a gap though between talking about collaboration, and enabling it. 

And as always, employers have to consider a broad variety of people, needs and demands. 

🔍 Six Core Reasons People Come to the Office 

There are a number of core motivators for people coming to the office.

It's important we consider these when  deciding on an office "mandate".  To avoid resistance, we need to make sure the office and the experience of it address these user requirements.

1. 🤝 In-Person Collaboration 
   Brainstorming, spontaneous feedback, and problem-solving flourish when people are physically together.  You can concentrate much longer in person than on a video call! 

2. 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Social Connection & Belonging 
   The office offers meaningful human interaction, from casual coffee chats to team lunches - things that strengthen culture, reduce isolation and can make subsequently engaging remotely easier. 

3. 🛠️ Access to Tools & Resources 
   Whether it’s dual monitors, secure infrastructure, or ergonomic setups, the office often provides better tech and support than home environments. 

4. ⏰ Routine & Focus 
   For many, the office offers a structured environment away from home distractions - - and not everyone has a home environment suited to serious work. 

5. 🚀 Career Visibility & Growth 
   Being seen by leadership and peers creates opportunities for mentoring, promotions, and informal learning by osmosis. 

6. 🧠 In-Person Meetings & Workshops 
   Strategy sessions, onboarding, and team alignment meetings often work best face-to-face. 

Sitting at a desk and writing an individual report that could be easily written somewhere with no distractions – not on the list! 

📊 What Recent Data and Surveys Tell us 

There are some common themes in attitudes to the office around the world, and a lot of nuance to consider. 

It’s important to understand management desires/beliefs, employee needs and how to craft an experience that delivers for everyone. 

• 86% of U.S. business leaders believe in-office work accelerates employee development, particularly for younger talent.  

• 56% of American workers say being in the office helps with career advancement.  

• 75% of people feel more positive about workplace experiences when flexibility, expectation, reasoning and communication are clear.   

• 52% of UK workers come to the office primarily for face-to-face meetings.  

• 95% (!) of people cite relationship building and collaboration as key reasons why they go to an office  

• 69% of people say being in-office supports career development.  

🎯 What Do We Do With This Information? 

There is no doubt, there is value to being in the same physical office as colleagues. 

This can be especially true of more inexperienced team members who are more likely to be younger, have home environments less well suited to long-term remote working and who have not yet fully developed the skills they need to thrive independently in their career.   

They need to learn these from other colleagues - and this can be harder to do remotely. 

However, even so -  it’s clear: people are not motivated by mandates or being told to go to an office with no planning and work at a desk. 

They're motivated by experience and value. A huge amount of the perceived value with time in the office is about people. If we want offices to be used and appreciated, we have to design experiences to connect people to people, not people to a particular desk. 

Just saying “book a desk” and come in, or “we are going to track how many days per week you are in the office” is not likely to generate the results leaders want. 

✳️ Don’t just demand people come in – provide valuable experience that make them want to come in 

Future workplace strategy should focus on enabling these six motivators, not resisting them.  

• Focus On Experience Applications – not Booking & Attendance Policy Systems 
   Don’t just digitize space reservations and say “job done” - people will resent it. Provide systems, automated if possible, that make the office experience valuable - align days, book zones not desks – help to organize meaningful person to person engagement.    After all, that’s what people are saying they want.  

• Redesign for Collaboration & Culture 
   Provide space matched to the diverse needs of your workforce – and match them to it seamlessly and without huge administrative effort. Remember, we aren’t all the same – and not just individual neurodiversity, which is important, – but commonalities in how teams like to work.  Don't just offer spaces for booking, get an experience app that links people to the spaces they should be in at the right time to maximize their engagement with the right people in the office.  

• Stop talking mandates – start talking outcomes 
   Make the office a magnet, not a mandate. When the workplace not only meets the real drivers of why people want to be there, but seamlessly helps them connect, grow and be visible at the right times - people will come by choice, and “booking space” will be an afterthought. 

🧭 Final Thoughts 

The office isn’t about compromise. Getting the office to be a place people want to be is about making sure the experience of the office is giving people what we know they want – and matching their working location – be it onsite or remote – to the right activity, at the right time, with the right people...and making that i 

Recognizing that different people need different things from the office helps us design both the technology and physical office space that will mean our realized value from both people and buildings is as high as possible. 

Let’s stop telling people to come in and start asking: 

How do we make the office a place you want to be? 

Contact askAiB today to see if we can help you make sure your office is offering the experience your people want, to make sure your office is the hub of productivty, learning and experience that you need.