32 01732 759725 WORKPLACE ‘Employees ordered back three days a week.’ ‘New return-to-office (RTO) mandate rolled out.’ The headlines are becoming increasingly familiar, with 42% of businesses hoping to have made a full return to the office by the end of June, according to Facilitate Magazine1, joining the likes of Amazon, Barclays, Boots, Dell and Disney2. Amid the push to bring people back, a more pressing question often goes unasked: are these mandates working? Mandates set expectations, outlining how often employees should be in the office, but without clear visibility, there’s no way of knowing whether those expectations are being met. In many cases, they aren’t. Quite simply, the world has moved on and too many businesses are trying to dust off an old playbook and apply it in a new era only to meet resistance and non-compliance. As reported by People Management, only 42% of UK workers would now comply with a full-time RTO mandate, down from 54% in 20223. In many cases, it’s not the mandate employees are pushing back on, it’s the office itself. If the environment no longer supports how people work best, even well-intentioned policies will fall flat. That’s why to be successful RTO policies require a clear, honest view of what’s working, what’s not and how today’s workplace must evolve to support meaningful in-person work. And all that starts with understanding what’s really happening inside the office. Change is afoot Most RTO mandates are rooted in good intentions, being seen as a way to reignite collaboration, boost innovation, strengthen culture and improve productivity. On that basis they often rely on a carrot and stick approach to ensure compliance, combining incentives, such as commuter subsidies, on-site wellness amenities, enhanced workspaces and tailored face-to-face training, with penalties for non-compliance, even restricting bonuses for employees who don’t follow the mandate4. Either approach risks failure if not supported by real-world data and visibility into two crucial areas: attendance (who’s coming in, when and how consistently) and productivity (evaluating how well the space supports work, including factors like noise levels, collaboration and meeting room usage). When combined, these two data points can reveal how the office is really being used and whether RTO policies are working. For instance, a company may see strong team attendance on paper but find that most employees are booking solo rooms to escape noisy open-plan environments. If the goal of the mandate is to drive collaboration, this points to a clear disconnect between expectation and reality. JP Morgan5 and Amazon6 found this out the hard way when inaccurate data left them facing a desk shortage during the rollout of their RTO mandate – a costly mistake that shows the risks of making assumptions. Without the right data, even the best-intentioned policies can backfire, impacting employees, operations and customers. The right tools Collecting these insights requires the right tools, which is where many organisations run into problems. Today’s workplace solutions are often inflexible, difficult to integrate with existing systems that manage things like on-site access or bookings and hard to scale across multiple locations, making them a poor fit for the evolving demands of hybrid and in-person work. When the workplace needs to shift, whether to new hybrid policies or new usage patterns, these tools often can’t keep up, creating friction, not resolution. Instead, organisations need flexible, integrated platforms that follow the tailored rules they’ve created, sourcing data from existing systems like desk booking software and occupancy sensors to track attendance and measure productivity. Data showing the days of the week when most employees are in the office will allow businesses to shape future policies in line with employee preferences, while live occupancy data can help people find quieter zones, reducing the need for solo meeting room use. Data-enabled workspace tools don’t just support RTO compliance, they make being in the office more worthwhile. By creating responsive, resource-rich environments in which employees feel supported, not coerced, collaboration becomes easier and frustration with factors such as resources availability and noise are eliminated. In time, this could reduce the need for strict mandates, because people simply want to come in. Not a one-and-done fix Today’s workforce operates in a completely different world in which traditional ways and means no longer cut it. Businesses must move beyond thinking as they have done and start to adapt to new expectations. Returning to the office isn’t just a logistical shift, it’s an opportunity to redesign the workspace with people and purpose at its core. Significantly, this is not a one-anddone process. It’s continuous, and RTO policies must be continually reassessed based on evolving usage and feedback. With the right technology in place, this can become a low-friction, high-impact process: Capture, Analyse, Adjust. Matrix Booking specialises in workplace management solutions that simplify the management of office resources. With a focus on corporate social responsibility and sustainability, Matrix Booking strives to create a positive impact on its customers, employees and the environment. As an employeeowned company, it is committed to a sustainable future. www.matrixbooking.com Matt Bailey, Workplace Specialist at Matrix Booking, questions the effectiveness of return-to-office strategies A welcome return? Matt Bailey References: 1. Return to the office is rising | Facilitate Magazine; 2. Which companies are enforcing office returns? - Raconteur; 3. Most workers would resist back to office mandates, study finds 4. Vodafone: Be in the office 8 days a month or lose bonuses • The Register; 5. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/02/13/jp-morgan-runs-out-of-desk-space-after-work-from-home-ban/; 6. https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/amazons-rto-mandate-complicated-by-lack-of-desks-space/487079
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