Why is Your Office Half-Empty? 7 Key Reasons Employees Aren’t Returning and How to Fix Them

Despite a post-pandemic rise in office space utilisation, the numbers tell a stark story; current office occupancy is hovering around 32%. This means that more than two-thirds of your expensive commercial real estate is sitting empty, raising questions about sustainability and robbing your office of the vibrant energy needed to foster collaboration, creativity, and culture.

So why are employees avoiding the office? Recent research by Nigel Oseland and Dr Gary Raw reveals critical insights into what’s keeping people at home and, more importantly, how you can entice them back.

Here are seven key reasons why your office is half-empty and what you can do about it.

1. Why Leave Home?

The Reason: Employees have invested in creating a better workspace at home, optimised for their specific needs.

Impact: Reduced employee willingness to return to the office can lead to lower in-person collaboration, weakening team cohesion and innovation.

Solution: Office spaces should mirror the best aspects of home offices, comfort, flexibility, and personalisation. To encourage employees back, offer adjustable workstations, quiet zones, and tech upgrades.

2.?The Office Kills My Productivity

The Reason: Open-plan offices, noisy environments, and frequent interruptions hinder employees from focusing, making them less productive than at home.

Impact: Declining output and disengaged employees can lead to missed deadlines, poor work quality and organisational decline.

Solution: reconfigure the office to create focus areas and quiet zones for privacy. Clear guidelines on office etiquette can also minimise distractions.

3.?Out of Touch

The Reason: Employees feel the office environment doesn’t align with the company's leadership or values, creating a disconnect.

Impact: This mismatch erodes trust in leadership and reduces engagement, as employees feel the company’s physical space is out of sync with its culture

Solution: Align the office environment and its management with company values Involving employees in redesigning spaces to reflect a culture they believe in.

4.?One-Size-Fits-None

The Reason: A poor workplace experience fails everyone by failing to accommodate diverse work styles, needs, and preferences.

Impact: Employees who feel unsupported by their work environment may suffer from decreased motivation, creativity, and job satisfaction, leading to higher turnover rates.

Potential Solution: Offer flexible workspaces, ergonomic furniture, and tools that cater to a range of workstyles. Regular feedback loops can help continuously improve the workplace experience.

5.?The Commute Just Isn’t Worth It

The Reason: Long and inconvenient commutes waste time, money, and energy, making the prospect of returning to the office unattractive.?

Impact: Long commutes contribute to employee burnout and absenteeism, leading to reduced productivity and morale.

Solution: Make the commute worth it for the individual and create a 'purposeful presence' by offering hybrid work options or staggered schedules to minimise commuting. encourage neighbourhoods in the office where friends can meet. Provide remote office hubs closer to employees’ homes.

?6.?No Flexibility, No Thanks!

The Reason: Employees crave flexibility in when, where, and how they work, preferring hybrid models that balance work and personal needs.

Impact: A rigid approach to work leads to disengagement and higher attrition, as employees seek out more flexible employers.

Solution: Adopt hybrid work policies and empower employees to choose where, when, and how they work. Flexibility drives retention and fosters greater trust between employees and management.

7.?Where’s My Space?

Reason: Office layouts don’t always match modern work needs, offering too few collaborative areas or task-specific spaces that support the diversity of today’s work styles.

Impact: Frustration, inefficiency, and lack of creativity, all of which undermine productivity and collaboration.

Solution: Reconfigure the workspace with activity-based zones collaborative spaces, quiet areas, and social hubs that support different types of work. Involving employees in the process ensures the space meets their real needs.?

Why Coming Back Makes Sense

Your office still holds significant advantages. Despite the challenges of managing an office, the research highlights that the office outperforms the home in several key areas:

• Fostering connection,
• Combating loneliness,
• Enhancing teamwork and collaboration,
• Sparking creativity,
• Maintaining work-life boundaries,
• Providing opportunities for mentoring,
• Facilitating knowledge sharing,
• Advancing careers,
• Offering recognition,
• Reinforcing organisational culture, and
• Creating a sense of belonging.

By emphasising these strengths and the role the office plays in them, you can encourage employees to return with enthusiasm.

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