Understanding what motivates employees to choose the office over their home is the first step to creating the conditions for a lasting return. Mandates alone don’t work. Companies that have forced a return to the office have often seen a deterioration in engagement, or even departures. The solution lies in a better experience of the space, smarter management of presence, and digital tools capable of transforming the office into a place where employees genuinely want to be.
Since the widespread adoption of remote work, companies have faced a major challenge: their offices are under-occupied, even though these spaces represent one of their largest cost centers. The average office occupancy rate in France stood at 35%, meaning 65% of available space goes unused. The average peak occupancy rate in France only reaches 56%, which means that around 44% of desks remain empty even at the busiest times. Outside of peaks, the rate drops to 35%. This reality reflects a profound shift in the relationship with the office, and represents a significant optimization lever: fixed rents, energy costs, maintenance fees, all costs that can be rationalized. (Source : Republik Workplace)
Understanding Employees’ New Expectations of the Office
Remote Work Has Redefined Expectations
The health crisis confirmed what many had long suspected: most office tasks can be accomplished remotely. According to INSEE, more than one in five private-sector employees practiced remote work in the first half of 2024, at a normalized rhythm of around two days per week. 60% of remote workers report being more productive at home than in the office, and 64% save an average of 4 hours per week thanks to eliminated commutes. (Source : INSEE / HelloWorkplace)
Spaces That Need to Be Reinvented for Today’s Hybrid Workstyles
Many companies still have spaces designed for a full-time presence model: long rows of assigned desks, few collaborative spaces, meeting rooms that are outdated for video calls, access management designed for a time when everyone was in every day. Yet the more an employee finds their office beautiful and pleasant, the higher their wellbeing and engagement levels are. There is a direct correlation between the quality of spaces and the desire to come to work. (Source : Ifop)
Adapting spaces to real usage patterns is therefore a direct lever on attendance: an employee who easily finds an available room, whose team is present that day, and whose desk is reserved in advance, has every reason to come back. The positive experience reinforces the desire to make the trip.
The Presence of Colleagues: The Primary Driver for Coming to the Office
One of the most powerful motivations for coming to the office is reconnecting with colleagues. Social life is the number one reason for coming to the office, cited by 48% of Parisians. In hybrid mode, coordinating presence becomes a strategic issue: when employees know in advance who will be at the office on a given day, they plan their visits accordingly and attendance naturally increases. (Source : Ifop)
Visibility around presence creates a virtuous dynamic: the more employees plan their visits together, the more the office fills with good moments, and each trip is justified by high-value interactions.
La qualité de l’environnement de travail, un facteur décisif
Beyond organization, the quality of daily life at the office weighs heavily in the balance. A repaired printer, enough power outlets, a meeting room at the right temperature, an access badge that works, these details shape the overall experience of the workspace. Taken individually, each seems trivial. Collectively, they form the foundation of trust that makes you want to come back.
An employee whose requests are handled quickly and who finds their equipment in good condition has a very different perception of the office, and of the company that welcomes them. Operational responsiveness is a form of consideration.
The Stakes for the Company: Real Estate, Engagement and Performance
The under-occupation of offices has very concrete and measurable consequences across multiple dimensions of organizational performance. Identifying them clearly also means measuring the value creation potential that better space management offers.
A Considerable Real Estate Optimization Potential
The average cost of a workstation in France stood at 11,051 euros per workstation in 2023. Real estate alone accounts for 61% of this budget, or 7,708 euros per workstation. With a real occupancy rate of 35%, the savings potential is considerable. At the scale of a company with several hundred employees, optimizing surfaces can represent several million euros per year. (Source : IDET).
To capture this potential, real estate decisions must be grounded in reliable data. 30 to 50 square meters of space per workstation could be freed without any loss of performance if the spaces were well redesigned, on the condition that real usage is measured on an ongoing basis. (Source : ADP Group)
The Engine of Social Connection and Company Culture
The office is much more than a workspace. It is a place of socialization, transmission of values, informal encounters that nurture innovation and team cohesion. Investing in an attractive office is investing in high-value interactions.
Studies on employee engagement regularly show that the quality of workplace relationships is one of the primary retention factors. When an employee maintains positive relationships with their colleagues, they are seven times more likely to feel engaged at work. A lively, well-run office is a powerful loyalty lever. (Source : Sparkbay)
Structuring Hybrid Team Coordination
In hybrid mode, collective performance relies on active coordination of presence. A model stabilized around a rhythm of 3 days in the office / 2 days remote produces all its effects only with the right tools in place. Coordinated presence schedules, spaces reserved in advance, hybrid meetings well equipped — each improvement on these points translates directly into better collaboration quality and a greater desire to come to the office. (Source : Ifop)
How to Incentivize Employees to Return: Concrete Levers
Remedying office desertion is not achieved through constraint, but through attractiveness. The goal is to make the office a desirable, functional and well-organized place. Here are the most effective levers.
Reimagining Spaces for Hybrid Work
The office of 2026 is no longer a stack of individual workstations. It must offer a palette of spaces adapted to different types of activities:
- Concentration zones, quiet and equipped, for individual work requiring deep focus.
- Open collaboration spaces, easily reconfigurable, for creative sessions and team work.
- Hybrid meeting rooms equipped with quality audio-video systems, so that mixed in-person/remote meetings happen without friction.
- Informal and relaxation spaces, where employees can meet informally.
A well-thought-out layout sends a strong signal: the office was designed for today’s uses, not yesterday’s.
Establishing a Clear Hybrid Work Policy
Ambiguity is the enemy of successful hybrid work. Employees need to know what is expected of them: how many days in the office, which days, for which types of activities. Finding this balance is only possible with a hybrid policy built with the teams, not imposed from the top down.
Caring for the Employee Experience at the Office
The in-office experience must be impeccable. In 2025, spending on employee services jumped 32%, reaching 957 euros per person. This increase reflects a deep trend: companies are investing in spaces that embody their culture — concierge services, catering, sports, soft mobility. As Séverine Pilverdier, President of IDET, summarizes it: « The return to the office is not decreed, it is desired. » (Source : Culture RH)
Digitalizing Space Management with SaaSOffice
This is the most structuring lever. SaaSOffice is a SaaS building and workplace experience management platform that allows you to simultaneously solve several of the problems identified above, from a single cloud application:
- Desk and room booking in advance, which eliminates usage conflicts and guarantees every employee finds a space adapted to their needs.
- Visibility on colleague presence, which allows planning office visits based on the people they wish to work with.
- Incident reporting and real-time tracking via SaaSOffice’s dedicated module, with SLA compliance indicators, so that maintenance and service quality in the building are improved.
- Collection of real occupancy rate data, which allows optimizing surfaces and making informed real estate decisions.
- Simplified access to all building services: catering, visitor reception, parking, access control, from SaaSOffice’s single interface.
SaaSOffice today manages more than one million square meters and has 28,000 daily users.
SaaSOffice: The Platform That Reconciles Employees with Their Office
SaaSOffice is a SaaS building management and workplace experience application designed to address precisely these challenges. Developed for companies that manage workspaces at scale, whether a single headquarters or a multi-site network, it unifies on a single cloud platform all the services necessary for a smooth and pleasant employee experience.
An All-in-One Platform for the Workplace Experience
Where most companies juggle multiple disparate tools : one for room reservations, another for incidents, a third for access… SaaSOffice offers a centralized solution. Employees access all services from a single interface, which significantly simplifies their daily life and promotes adoption.
The platform is built around three major functionalities:
- Incident management : employees can report any problem from the application, and facility management teams follow resolutions in real time with SLA compliance indicators. No more lost emails and unresolved breakdowns.
- Access management : SaaSOffice secures and simplifies access for occupants and visitors across the real estate portfolio, integrating with the main access control systems on the market (sTid, Welcomr, Sezaam, etc.).
- AI personal assistant : an intelligent assistant, accessible by voice or text, that radically simplifies the user experience by allowing each employee to interact with their building’s services in a natural and intuitive way.
Native Integrations for a Complete Ecosystem
SaaSOffice doesn’t operate in silos. The platform integrates natively with a wide catalog of third-party solutions: Microsoft 365 for agenda synchronization and room reservations, catering solutions, electric vehicle charging, printing, payment, mobility, and building technical management (GTB). This openness allows each company to compose the digital environment that corresponds exactly to its needs.
Data to Pilot Occupancy and Reduce Costs
Beyond the user experience, SaaSOffice is a management tool for real estate directors and facility management managers. Real-time data collected on space usage allows identifying under-occupied areas, adjusting services to actual flows, and making real estate decisions based on objective data.
A Solution Adapted to All Real Estate Contexts
Whether you manage a single headquarters, a multi-building campus, rental real estate assets, or hospitality spaces, SaaSOffice adapts to your configuration. The platform is designed on a modular model: you activate the functionalities you need and can evolve your subscription as you grow. With more than one million square meters managed and 28,000 daily users, SaaSOffice has demonstrated its ability to scale in complex and demanding environments.
Best Practices for a Successful Return to the Office
Technology is a facilitator, not a solution in itself. Here are the best practices to implement to support a lasting and effective return to the office.
- Measure to act better: analyze real occupancy rates, identify the busiest days and spaces, and gather employee expectations through regular surveys. Data is the starting point for any lasting improvement.
- Mobilize proximity managers: a manager who regularly comes to the office and who creates presence rituals is the primary vector of dynamism. 50% of employees who left a job cite the managerial relationship as a decisive factor. The manager sets the tone.
- Create collective moments around the office: team seminars, lunches, creative workshops, events. These things that can only be experienced in person are the most powerful arguments for filling offices.
- Highlight improvements made: every renovated space, every service added, every incident resolved quickly deserves to be communicated. Employees choose to come when they know their experience will be better than before.
- Measure and iterate continuously: hybrid work is in constant evolution. Practices that work today may need to be adjusted in six months. Put in place a continuous feedback loop with your employees.
Conclusion
The return to the office is above all a question of attractiveness. Employees choose to come when the space offers them what they can’t find elsewhere: colleagues, collaboration, quality services, and an impeccable work environment. Creating these conditions requires reflection on space layout, a clear hybrid policy, and digital tools capable of smoothing the daily experience.
The companies that succeed in their return to the office are those that have made the office a more desirable, more lively, more useful place. This happens through a smooth experience, services up to expectations, visibility on colleague presence, and a well-maintained and well-managed work environment.
This is precisely what SaaSOffice enables: transforming the office into a positive, measurable and optimizable experience, so that employees come because they find real value there, and because they genuinely want to come back.