Article | personalSWITZERLAND

How do you bring employees back to the office? Not at all. They don't come back — they choose.

For places that offer them something they can't get elsewhere. It's time to rethink the office.

Two questions that are currently on the minds of many companies. How do we get employees back to the office? And do we even need offices anymore? The answer to the first question is uncomfortable: not at all. The answer to the second could make us more optimistic: yes, more than ever. But let's start from the beginning.

Offices are not a law of nature. They are an invention. And yet it seemed like it for a long time. Until a few years ago, "I'm going to work" unmistakably meant the office. We built the world around offices, and the workplace determined where we lived, how far we commuted, and how much time we spent with family and friends. This was once described by Dror Poleg, a renowned author and thought leader. We accepted this condition for many years.

At the latest with the Corona pandemic, it became clear that the office lost its monopoly on work overnight.

The original idea of the office dates back a long way, to the writing rooms of medieval monasteries. The term itself was derived from the French word bureau, which means "the fabric-covered work desk." The idea of the office as we know it really only became established in the 20th century, with industrialization and the introduction of assembly line work. The goal was efficiency and control. Employees sat table to table in large halls doing their clerical work. The birth of the open-plan office.

Large contiguous areas, more openness, more space. At some point, a few coffee zones and other amenities were added. The hope was that more proximity would automatically lead to more exchange. Studies showed the opposite. Personal conversations decreased, digital communication increased. Either because people felt they were being watched or didn't want to disturb their colleagues.

The culprit was quickly found. The open-plan office. Too loud, too open, not enough concentration. Why am I telling you this? Because this is precisely where one of the biggest misunderstandings of our world of work lies. It is the lack of understanding of the role the office must play today. Because in many places, a conceptual idea is still pursued that was developed for a working world that no longer exists in this way.

Competitors joined in, which the office hadn't considered. The home office, co-working spaces, the café around the corner. Places that simply work better for many tasks. Concentration is higher, the environment more pleasant, and the coffee tastes better too.

Since that moment, the office is no longer the only place for work. It's just one of many.

Many companies talk about culture. About values, meaning and identity. But culture must be tangible and palpable to be truly genuine. That's exactly why it needs a place.

It doesn't emerge in a Zoom call. And it doesn't survive a strategy paper that's pulled out of the drawer once a year. The office is the only physical place where corporate culture becomes truly visible and palpable. From the experienced employee to the new colleague.

It's about more than efficiency. Rituals provide stability. Shared experiences create a sense of belonging. Especially in these fast-paced times, when traditional values are losing significance, people long to belong. No other place can achieve that. Companies that understand this don't build open-plan offices. They create communities and the glue for a corporate culture that empowers employees. And that's one of the most valuable things a company can do today.

There is no "one size fits all" solution for this. When new software is implemented, everyone is aware that it needs to be tailored to organizational needs and characteristics. In office concepts, this necessity is still underestimated.

A future-proof office is not created by focusing first on interior design and colors. But with oneself as an organization. What is the purpose of the office? Why do we come together? What should take place here? It is crucial that employees and leaders are involved and accompanied in this change. Only then do places emerge that have a positive impact on the organization. The spatial translation is as individual as the company and its needs themselves.

Those who ask these questions create places that influence performance, culture, and belonging. And it also solves the presence days debate in the process. Because the question "how often?" becomes unimportant once "for what?" is clear.

Then there are no table-and-chair forts, but office worlds with areas for spontaneous encounters, rooms for teamwork, and retreats for focused work. Because as much as exchange is at the center: There are activities that require calm. It is often here that it is decided whether the office is perceived as added value.

An example: An employee stays at home for an online call because she can concentrate better there and it is too loud in the open-plan office. Surely everyone can understand that. However, she then usually stays in the home office for the rest of the day. And it is precisely in those hours that those moments are lost when chance conversations arise or decisions are made faster. By now, it should be clear how important it is for different zones to be available that cater to individual needs.

People are not "returning" to the office. They are choosing. For places that offer them something they can't get elsewhere. For places where culture is not described, but lived.

Yes, we need offices. But not as a natural law and not as a relic of a past working world.

The office must reapply. And it has better chances than ever before.