10 Ways to Encourage Your Employees to Commute to the Office

The workplace landscape continues to shift dramatically, with Iposes Karian and Box reporting that 45% of office workers commuted to their workspace between one and four days a week last year. There’s no denying that home working has its benefits, enabling workers to achieve life admin tasks while saving time and money on commuting. However, remote workers do miss out on learning opportunities and mentorship from their managers, not to mention the impact of loneliness (causing mental and physical health risks over a prolonged period). So, how can you encourage your employees to commute to the office? Here are 10 ideas to consider.

1. Introduce regular office team days

Let’s face it – no one wants to come to their workspace only to find it empty. The office experience must be curated around people, so encourage your teams to commute into the workspaces on the same weekdays, giving everyone that all-important face time. Why not do a little more for your teams – organise a fun activity to incentivise them, like sweet treats on a Friday or a delicious team lunch on Wednesdays?

2. Curate a calendar of events

Organising meaningful activities is a surefire way to incentivise your workforce to come into the office, boosting their work-life balance. In fact, a study conducted by BetterUp Labs found that 53% of workers would “trade some compensation for more meaningful relationships with colleagues.” Meanwhile, 43% of workers felt their company could do more to bring people together. Curating a calendar of events can do just that – from networking events to panel discussions (for professional development), and events celebrating your diverse workforce (like events around International Women’s Day or Pride month), a people-first occasion will not only bring workers into the office for the day, it may even extend their stay into the evening.

3. Create a productive work environment

Sometimes, workers simply won’t come into the office because they believe they need to achieve work tasks at home that the office can’t accommodate, like taking video calls or collaborating with coworkers. Recently, an Allwork.Space article confirmed that “workspaces built for a pre-pandemic world no longer align with how we work,” which begs the question – what does a post-pandemic workspace look like? Employees anticipate their work environments to include plentiful phone booths (for taking private calls), collaboration booths (for team projects), and a shared kitchen (to cook healthy meals). Empower your employees to move around workstations throughout the day for improved workplace productivity.

4. Make your workspace accessible

Providing multiple workstations can open the doors, quite literally, to a more inclusive workspace. There are many reasons that workers aren’t able to come into your office, for instance, as 15% of neurodiverse individuals make up the UK population, they may feel overwhelmed in open-plan spaces. Neurodiverse individuals prefer quieter workstations (for example, Nook wellness pods are designed specifically for the neurodiverse community). Equally, 8% of the UK population that use a wheelchair require wider doorways and step-free access. An accessible workspace is an inclusive space, strengthening employees’ sense of belonging, and loyalty to your company while benefitting everyone’s work-life balance.

5. Provide top-of-the-range office equipment

Empower workers to become their most productive selves in your workspace. Fill it with high-quality standing desks and large screens (that workers can’t access at home), or provide equipment for more creative tasks, like a podcast recording studio. The industry is expected to be worth £75.5 billion by 2028, so your company might be jumping onto this trend, or maybe your team members record one on the side. So, why not give them something worth commuting for? When they’re not using the studio or other additional spaces, consider renting them out via your workspace management software, and marketing it on third-party apps.

6. Offer on-site amenities

An inspiring workspace needs to be more than just a room full of desks. The ‘hotelification’ of the workspace (this year’s industry buzzword), is about providing deskless workspaces. But we’re not referring to having more phone booths and meeting rooms – more like stunning rooftop gardens for workers to enjoy their lunch break in the summer, or a top-quality gym for morning workouts for better work-life balance. On-site nursery services bring working parents to the office. Food and beverage services in and around the workspace offer places to break up the work day, contributing to a stronger work ethic. Partnering with top-quality service providers gives employees perks they may not have closer to home.

7. Organise a wellness programme

“A holistically well team brings their best selves to work, positively influencing company culture”, Gympass recently reported on the occupational wellness concept. With that in mind, offering employees a gym membership alongside your workspace may not be enough to encourage their in-office attendance – but having a wellness programme might. From hosting a running club to having free healthy snacks available in your kitchen, wellness in the workplace benefits all with a healthy work-life balance. Your wellness programme could even be offered through your workspace operator, for example, Huckletree (a Nexudus customer), provides workers relief and pause from a busy schedule in the form of yoga and meditation sessions, and express massages available in its hubs.

8. Make your workspace dog-friendly

A company prioritising work-life balance (like Huckletree) is one that’s dog-friendly. With all the uncertainty during the pandemic, it’s no wonder that the number of remote workers getting pets increased during that period – with a staggering 11.38 million US households bringing in a new pet. Spending time with animals reduces stress, and improves overall wellbeing after all. But returning to the office poses problems for pet owners when they can’t leave them home alone all day, or afford daycare. A dog-friendly office is the simple answer. Not only does this policy encourage pet owners to commute to the office, but everyone else will come to, because – who doesn’t love having a furry friend at work?

9. Move the office closer to home

If your workers can’t come into your central office (possibly for personal reasons) – why not bring the office to your workers? Working near home is a big trend, and commuter towns are becoming many UK employees’ primary workplace. Set up a new satellite office in neighbourhoods where a concentrated number of workers live close to, or lease a few hot desks in their local workspace. Encouraging local coworking is a great way for workers to leave their homes during the week, and get to know their neighbours a little better, revitalising residential towns and boosting workplace productivity too.

10. Encourage active commuting

Active commuting goes hand in hand with working closer to home. Employees walk or cycle into a local coworking space (rather than drive, or take public transport), making a huge difference in their overall work-life balance, and virtually cutting out the average 90-minute expensive and time-consuming commute. Not only does it save time, and energy, but active commuting improves mental and physical health, making everyone happier, and contributing to pleasant places to live.