“Can you spare a square?!” In the latest instance of art imitating life, Seinfeld fans will surely recognize this infamous line–and identify with the plight of some unfortunate workers in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) headquarters building. The backdrop for the workers’ misery is the well-documented federal government Return to Office (RTO) mandate that continues to generate headlines nationwide.
We’ll get to the details in a minute, but first it’s worth pointing out that the RTO movement extends beyond just federal agencies, as workers in both the public and private sectors continue to collectively spend more time in the office as opposed to working from home.
The Kastle Back to Work Barometer, which measures office use in the top 10 metropolitan markets, hit 53% this week, continuing an upward trend. The peak-day occupancy average now exceeds 60%, and has climbed above 70% in Chicago and Houston.
With organizations nationwide bringing their employees back into the office for at least part of the week, ground reports are surfacing. The reports include the good and the bad, and definitely the ugly. As space planners, we are always on the lookout for lessons learned about what works and what doesn’t. From that perspective, here are some initial thoughts on the “do’s and don’ts” of RTO planning.
The Don’ts
Like some status reports, let’s start with the bad news. There are plenty of current examples of what not to do when returning employees to the office en masse. In fact, the federal government is pretty much writing the manual. Here are a few examples:
- Don’t rush the transition - Early reports from the federal government RTO are not pretty. Given a relatively short timeframe to bring a sizable number of employees back to the office full-time, numerous logistics appear to have been handled poorly or not at all. NPR reports that “Federal workers have been ordered back into offices only to face shortages of desks, computer monitors, [and] parking.”
Employees unsure if they would even have a desk fought to enter many federal workplaces on the appointed RTO date as soon as the buildings opened, at 7 AM or even before. This created long security screening lines, taxed elevator capacity, and led to employees working from conference tables, hallways, and even closets. The chaotic implementation continues to exert a substantially negative effect on employee morale and ironically, on efficiency, which was supposedly a key rationale for the RTO policy in the first place.
- Don’t skimp on paper products - Yes, Seinfeld fans, apparently some federal workers in fact cannot spare a square. One FDA employee noted "There are all the small indignities of being in a facility never equipped for this many people: toilet paper and paper towels running out immediately, very long lines at the cafeteria, loud noise, people working in hallways." Prioritizing expediency over efficiency at an organizational level clearly has consequences at a personal level.
- Don’t give away space you might need later - The federal RTO highlights an odd space planning paradox. The same federal agencies whose employees are forced to work in hallways have also been aggressively reducing their real estate footprints over the past several years. This reduction made sense when those agencies were implementing remote and hybrid workplace arrangements. Now, not so much.
- Don’t assume one size fits all - It isn’t just the federal government encountering difficulty with RTO initiatives. To implement an RTO effectively, leadership ideally should consider factors such as the type of work individual employees perform, their level of responsibility within the organization, the range of family situations, commuting patterns and distances, and individual preferences and work styles. The more rigid the policy, the less likely employees will view it positively.
The Do’s
With so many examples of flawed RTO implementation by the federal government and some large companies, is there anything positive we can offer? Fortunately the answer is yes. Here are a few thoughts about how RTO can be managed more effectively, with better outcomes for employees and organizations:
- Make sure you have enough desks - It seems obvious, but sometimes the answer really is that simple. Before embarking on an RTO initiative, leadership should quantify the size of the workforce and the available capacity of offices and workstations.
This might require more than just a simple headcount and cursory furniture inventory. For example, if the organization will be using a hybrid workplace model, the mix of private offices and open workstations may require careful analysis. Conference room capacity should be considered, as should quantities of other hybrid office features, such as personal focus rooms.
- Make sure you communicate expectations clearly - Once an organization determines it will bring previously remote employees back into the office, the quality of communication becomes a critical consideration. Employees are already likely to be anxious about potential changes. Uncertainty will only amplify this anxiety. Conversely, RTO plans that are clearly written and proactively communicated provide a common frame of reference and will help reduce stress. Soliciting employee feedback through Q&As and virtual forums and listening carefully also helps to reduce anxiety and ensure any concerns are properly addressed.
- Consider a hybrid workplace - One of the most-cited justifications for RTO policies is to increase collaboration and creativity. The importance of face-to-face interaction certainly makes sense on at least a limited basis across many disciplines and project types.
But for most workers, there remains a significant portion of time dedicated to focused production work, quiet reflection, and quick status check-ins. Organizations that allow employees to do their collaborative work in the office and their focused work at home may be able to attract the best talent over the long term.
Attracting talent, especially young talent, will become critical for organizations facing a wave of retirements. This certainly includes many federal agencies, where tens of thousands of baby boomers are set to leave their positions in the next few years. At the same time, many of these agencies are letting go of early-career workers, potentially creating a future leadership vacuum. A recent Department of Labor report shows that Gen Z workers now outnumber boomers in the workforce.
Source: Trendlines. U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (August 2024).
This generational shift is critical from an RTO perspective. One international remote work expert observes “Gen Z, who prioritize work-life balance, will undoubtedly choose organizations without a strict RTO policy. This means that top talent and more candidates in general will be attracted by those that offer the opportunity to work remotely at least part of the time.”
- Approach space planning systematically - The federal RTO mandate is part of a broader effort to increase utilization rates at federal facilities. This effort includes establishing milestones for agencies to compile inventories of occupied properties, collect occupancy data, forecast capacity needs for employees and visitors, and generate real-time occupancy reports.
As space planners, we have repeatedly seen–in both the public and private sectors–the benefits of quantifying the relationship between an organization’s workload, the size of its workforce, and its overall space occupancy. Blending analytics and architecture to proactively plan for future space needs helps an organization ensure that its space inventory is both cost-effective and supportive of the organization’s mission.
Final Thoughts
Love it or hate it, RTO is here to stay. Organizations whose real estate footprints were designed for the era before remote work might shrink their overall occupancy, but they’re unlikely to abandon prime space altogether. Corporate and civic leaders will continue advocating for workers to return to urban cores for a variety of reasons.
However, employees are not going to willingly abandon remote work. Organizations that effectively manage the transition to a “new normal” of tailored hybrid work will attract top talent at the expense of those who implement more strict RTO policies. A thoughtful approach to preserving work-life balance paired with the planning and design of hybrid workplaces will be seen as an important employment perk. Maybe even better than a donation to The Human Fund.
Please click the image below to learn how work styles influence RTO office layouts.
