Over the past two years, a growing number of large enterprises, from Amazon to JPMorgan Chase, have rolled out stringent RTO mandates, often requiring three to five days a week in the office. Many leaders argue this is essential for reinforcing culture, collaboration and innovation. But these policies often collide with employee expectations forged during the pandemic: flexibility, autonomy, and a reworked sense of what work can be.
Data suggests the tension is real. A Robin Powered survey of nearly 600 full-time employees in companies with flexible work policies found that while 45 percent of employees with a mandate report being expected in the office four days a week, only 24 percent actually are. Owl Labs’ 2024 State of Hybrid Work Report found that 47 percent of employees polled would leave a business if it mandated a full-time RTO. Meanwhile, in studies across the US, people cite commuting time, lack of office resources, and inflexible arrangements as top barriers.
The stick approach, rigid mandates with little scope for discretion, often breeds resentment, even attrition. A MIT Sloan Review article from last November argues that mandates hurt rather than help, damaging engagement and increasing turnover, especially among high performers or those with caregiving responsibilities.
There is another way. A progressive, incentive-led model, the “carrot” approach, recognises that presence must be earned and enabled, not forced. It places trust at the centre and treats the workplace as a destination people want to visit. As survival in enterprise tech, HR, facilities, and collaboration increasingly depends on how well companies manage RTO, understanding what makes the carrot model work is vital.
Designing the Physical Office as the Carrot
If employees are to be drawn back, not dragged, the physical workspace must matter. Jane Sartin of the Flexible Space Association emphasises that office design and amenities are not just niceties but central to how people feel about returning.
“There’s now a huge variety in what workspaces look like,” she told UC Today. “Some feel almost like five-star hotels, others are more basic, but the range means businesses can find something that suits their needs and their people.”
Amenities like roof terraces and outdoor space are surprisingly impactful draws. Private spaces such as phone booths or single-person pods are increasingly essential when much work still involves calls and online meetings. As Sartin outlined:
If people don’t have that privacy, they may think, ‘Well, I can just do this better at home.’ So these facilities matter, not just the nice areas to sit in, but the practical design that makes the office a comfortable and functional place to work.”
Flexible workspace offerings are also being used strategically: companies with headquarters in major cities are adopting satellite or flexible offices closer to where staff live, reducing long commutes. Weekday communal breakfasts or informal gatherings help too. As the Robin Powered survey suggested, over half of respondents said the availability of amenities (coffee, food, kitchen facilities) and proximity help increase their desire to come into the office.
For those managing business technology, contact centre managers, AV planners, and real estate/facilities teams, this means thinking beyond layout plans and square footage to inclusivity of spaces: quiet zones, breakout/collaboration zones, on-site perks, and critical support like booking systems and equipment readiness. The goal is to reduce friction, making office attendance less of a chore and more of a gain.
Culture, Trust and Human-Centred HR Policies
Physical design alone is not enough. The way HR, leadership and culture treat people matters even more. Doug Betts, of Sure Betts HR Solutions, argues that rigid policies risk eroding trust—and once trust is lost, loyalty and productivity tend to follow.
The main risk is that after five years of flexibility, people have adapted. If you suddenly mandate days in the office, it feels like treating adults like children, and that erodes trust. Without trust, you lose loyalty and productivity.”
Betts adamantly rejects the language of top-down policy. “I don’t even like the word ‘policy,’ because it sounds top-down. Telling people they must be in from Tuesday to Thursday feels outdated. We’re no longer in the industrial era.”
Instead, he recommends co-creation, asking staff what they want, designing experiences that make commuting worthwhile, such as team days, client engagements, and mentoring that feel genuinely valuable.
He emphasises the critical role of communication style: “HR policies need to be written in a human way, not legalistic. Wording, tone, and comms should align with company values, not just slogans on the wall and embedded into everyday work.”
Measuring what matters is part of this approach. For Doug, metrics around turnover, sickness, engagement, psychological safety, and the ability to suggest improvements need to be core indicators. If collaboration and team building are better now than in full remote working, then you have success. If people are only “smiling through gritted teeth,” then the model is failing.
This alignment, between purpose, autonomy, and experience, is at the heart of carrot-based models.
What Best Practice Looks Like
The companies that are managing return-to-office with the least friction and the most engagement share a few common traits.
The first is that they start by listening. Instead of dictating blanket rules, they take the time to consult employees through surveys, focus groups, and frontline conversations to understand what people actually value. That feedback then informs policy, which tends to be tailored by team or function rather than issued as a one-size-fits-all edict. One team may need more face-to-face collaboration, while a software engineering team can thrive with largely remote arrangements.
Physical space is also re-engineered to accommodate different modes of work: quiet areas for focused concentration, collaborative hubs for brainstorming, and breakout areas for informal exchange.
Amenities are seen not as perks but as practical tools that reduce friction, whether that’s on-site food, good tech equipment, or private phone booths that make hybrid calls easier. These design choices help the office feel less like a chore and more like a destination.
Equally important is the way expectations are communicated. Progressive organisations avoid the legalistic tone of “policy” and instead publish human, transparent guidelines that reflect genuine co-agreement.
The reasoning behind in-office days is made explicit, such as mentoring, client collaboration, or team innovation, so that employees understand the why. And once employees feel their time is respected, attendance becomes a shared project rather than an imposed rule.
Success is measured not by headcount or seat-occupancy, but by outcomes such as engagement, retention, turnover, and whether people feel psychologically safe enough to contribute ideas. Above all, the organisations that get RTO right treat the process as iterative: they test, review, adjust, and aren’t afraid to make changes when the data or feedback points to a better way forward.
Are There Any Real-World Examples?
Some companies have already begun to demonstrate the benefits of this carrot-driven approach. Research by Robin Powered found that offsetting commuting costs, a tangible way of respecting employees’ time and money, led to a 40 percent increase in office attendance in a single quarter. Rather than acting as a mandate, this incentive addressed the real pain point of expensive and time-consuming travel.
At the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, an experiment with a hybrid schedule, where employees came in Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, resulted in no drop in productivity. More importantly, it reduced quit rates by a third among non-managers and staff with long commutes. In this case, predictability combined with flexibility created a balance that suited both employer and employee.
Together, these examples illustrate that the carrot model is already being practised by organisations that recognise that loyalty, innovation and collaboration cannot be compelled by decree. They must be earned by making the office worth the commute.
Why The Carrot Wins, and What’s At Stake
Businesses that have adopted carrot-led RTO strategies report improved morale, lower turnover, and stronger innovation outcomes. Mandate-driven policies, by contrast, risk disengagement and talent losses. As McKinsey writes, “the policy mandate itself is far less important than the work environment organisations create and the practices that accompany a policy’s implementation.”
Employees want meaning in their office time, not merely presence. They need to feel trusted and seen, and that their time away from home is rewarded with environment, interaction, and purpose. When these elements align, offices cease being burdens and become magnets.
Executives and departmental leaders, whether IT, HR or facilities, must ask whether their offices are built for meaningful encounters, or just full desks? Do their HR policies trust staff, or simply monitor them? Are they choosing rigid attendance or enabling choice?
Building A Positive, Progressive RTO Model
A positive RTO model redefines in-office presence instead of simply rejecting it. It pivots from mandates to incentives, from rigid schedules to negotiated expectations, and from chairs behind desks to spaces that energise. By combining physical workplace design, culture rooted in trust and dignity, and metrics that capture what matters, businesses can create RTO policies that boost, not erode, what matters most: people, purpose, and performance.
As Betts said, “The office should offer something valuable, not just be a place you’re forced to sit because it’s a Wednesday.”
