How to Design an Office People Want to Come Into

The office world is often overcomplicated. Sometimes that is on purpose, because complexity sells. Sometimes it is just misguided enthusiasm: a design team falling in love with a feature nobody asked for.

Either way, the result is the same. Businesses make wasteful, expensive decisions that do little to bring people back through the door.

At Soul Spaces we work with over 50 tenants a year, across almost every industry you can think of. That gives us a clear view of what actually makes people want to come into the workplace, and what is just noise. The answer is simpler than most people expect.

Human connection is still number one

The single biggest reason people want to come into the office is other people. The chance to socialise, communicate, learn and collaborate is what makes a workplace worth the journey.

Working from home is a great solution, and it has its place. But none of those things are easy to recreate at your kitchen table or in the spare room.

Relationships that last a career

Socialising has always been part of office life, and it always will be. The people you sit next to today could be your future business partners, clients or advocates when you move on. Building those relationships properly takes time in the same room.

Culture is built in person

The workplace is where culture is formed and teamwork is encouraged. In our experience, the best performing teams thrive on working face to face. They build a level of trust and understanding that online tools still struggle to match.

Real collaboration needs a room

CRMs and Teams have made remote working far easier. But they are better at driving accountability and communication than true collaboration. On a large video call, it is hard for everyone to have their say. The quieter voices get lost, and the back and forth that produces good ideas rarely happens.

Learning happens by being there

Ask most successful people where they learnt the most, and they will point to the physical workplace, especially early in their careers. Workplace dynamics, the vocabulary of an industry, body language, how a good meeting runs. You absorb these things by being around people who already know them. You cannot pick them up on mute.

A desirable workplace encourages all of this. The best way to get there is a combination of intelligent design and a clear, purposeful culture.

Design for amenity and function, not for show

Workplace design matters. But when we say design, we don’t mean bespoke ceiling details or an expensive tea point finish. We mean amenity and thoughtful functionality: the things that make someone’s day genuinely easier.

Amenity drives attendance

Amenity has been in fashion since WeWork changed the game for co-working, and it has since crept into the thinking of traditional landlords. Zip taps, good coffee, bike racks, showers and gyms all play a part.

The logic is simple. If you know all your needs will be met under one roof, the commute is far easier to justify. Cycle in, shower, grab a decent coffee and get on with your day. Make any of those steps a hassle and the sofa at home starts to look more appealing.

It is worth checking what the building already offers before you spend money duplicating it. If the landlord provides a gym and end of trip facilities, your budget is better spent elsewhere.

Functionality over finishes

The other half is making sure there are enough of the right spaces for people to do their work with purpose. Booths are all the rage, and it is easy to see why. Alongside a proper provision of meeting rooms, they give people somewhere to take a call, focus or have a quick catch-up without hunting for a free room.

This matters more than it sounds. If your office setup is worse than your setup at home, particularly for client calls, the commute starts to feel counterproductive. Nobody wants to travel an hour to take a video call from a noisy open-plan desk.

A few other things we see make a real difference:

• A proper heart to the office. The tea point and breakout area is where people actually meet. We recommend keeping it fixed rather than flexible, and sizing it for around 30 to 40 percent of headcount.
• Space that adapts. Flip-top tables let one room switch between a boardroom, a training layout and a town hall. Curtains make a good soft divide. Folding walls save space but can be clunky acoustically, so use them where privacy matters less.
• Choice in how people work. Hot desking, done well, removes fixed allocations and gives people the freedom to pick the right setting for the task in front of them.

None of these are expensive gimmicks. They are practical decisions that make the office a better place to be.

Location, location, location

It sounds obvious, but where your office is matters as much as what is inside it. A space that is easy to commute to, with good lunch spots, a gym nearby and a decent local pub, will always draw people in. That is especially true on what have become the new traditional office days: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

It is a big part of why prime rents haven’t plateaued. Landlords of well-located buildings have felt confident enough to invest in their spaces and push rents up, because demand for the best space is still there.

Less space, better building

For many businesses, it is worth taking less space in a better building and a better location, rather than a larger space somewhere people will naturally resist travelling to. A smaller office that is full and buzzing beats a bigger one that sits half empty.

The cost is usually easier to justify than people think. The office is still a relatively palatable overhead in the overall cost of running a business, especially when attendance and productivity are high.

Keep it simple, focus on what pays back

A desirable office comes down to three things: the people, the location and the amenity. Pair that with a leadership team focused on culture, performance and productivity, and the investment in your workplace will feel like a good one.

The traps are overcomplication and expensive design ideas, whether that is the latest fad or something ostentatious that looks good in a brochure but changes nothing about how people work.

Keep it simple. Focus on the decisions with the highest return, and you will end up with an office that ticks all the boxes and gives people a genuine reason to come in.

If you are planning a move or a refit and want a straight answer on where your budget will make the biggest difference, get in touch with the Soul Spaces team.