Imagine this scenario: a city builds extra hotels to accommodate a once in a lifetime event. During the event, the rooms are full, the city thrives and revenues soar. But once the event ends, the rooms sit empty. The demand wasn’t real, it was a response to an anomaly.
This is, in many ways, what is happening with workplace mandates today. Organisations are introducing return to office (RTO) policies and then measuring office utilisation to inform long-term planning, as though this data reflects genuine demand. Unfortunately, it often doesn’t.
Why mandated utilisation data is unreliable
When employees come into the office because they have been mandated to, their presence is driven by obligation, not preference. The resulting utilisation metrics may seem high, but they are not reflective of true, organic behaviour.
This creates a challenge: the data being used to guide decisions may not accurately represent how employees would use office spaces if they had greater autonomy. As a result, organisations risk making long term real estate decisions based on short term anomalies rather than sustainable patterns.
The core issue here is a fundamental misalignment between policy and behaviour. True demand for office spaces cannot be dictated, it has to emerge organically. For this to happen, organisations must focus on understanding what the office truly offers employees and how it can align with their needs.
Shifting the focus: what organisations should prioritise
Rather than relying on mandated utilisation data, there are three key areas that organisations should focus on to ensure their workplaces are fit for the future.
1. Purpose, not policy
Offices should provide compelling reasons for employees to return—spaces that enable collaboration, innovation and the building of organisational culture.
When offices lack this sense of purpose, they risk becoming merely real estate filled with people adhering to presenteeism. This is not only unsustainable but also counterproductive.
What to do instead:
- Involve employees in the conversation. Conduct surveys and focus groups to understand what would make the office a place they actively want to use.
- Design spaces to reflect purpose-driven activities such as team collaboration, innovation workshops or cultural engagement events.
2. Behaviour is the real metric
Rather than measuring how many people swipe their badges each day, focus on understanding how people are actually using the space. Behavioural insights provide far more actionable data than attendance figures alone.
What to do instead:
- Use methods like ethnographical space utilisation studies and employee feedback to understand which spaces are being used and why.
- Identify trends: are collaborative spaces in higher demand than individual workstations? Are employees clustering on certain days?
- This type of data can reveal opportunities for optimising space, rather than simply monitoring compliance.
3. Adapt to demand, don’t dictate it
Rethinking space planning means aligning strategies with organic usage patterns rather than imposing top-down directives. Policies should be flexible enough to evolve with employee behaviour and organisational needs.
What to do instead:
- Treat your workplace strategy as a living framework. Regularly review utilisation patterns and update policies as new insights emerge.
- Experiment with flexible layouts, address free desking and team-specific home zones to accommodate shifting needs.
Why it matters
Mandated utilisation data is similar to measuring hotel demand during a major event. While it might look impressive in the moment, it doesn’t tell the full story of how demand will look in normal circumstances.
The challenge for organisations is to create office environments that employees genuinely want to use—spaces that add value to their work and align with their needs.
This is not about abandoning the office, it’s about evolving it. By focusing on purpose, behaviour and flexibility, organisations can build workplaces that foster collaboration, innovation and engagement; not because they are mandated, but because they are meaningful.
A final thought
At Work Transformers, we call this approach Destination 2.0. We have been partnering with AI to develop the Destination 2.0 framework at the back of client projects and 100’s of research papers. The framework is about creating spaces that serve as dynamic hubs of connection and creativity i.e. places that employees want to be, not places they have to be.
If you are navigating the complexities of hybrid work and would like to discuss how to align your workplace strategy with the needs of your workforce, let’s talk.
The future of work is not about mandates; it is about trust, purpose, and adaptability. What steps are you taking to ensure your workplace reflects the needs of your employees?
Let’s start the conversation.