In 2025, GETTING YOUR EMPLOYEES EXCITED ABOUT BEING IN THE OFFICE
Last year, we talked about navigating talent acquisition trends being a trend. In 2025, companies have embraced a hybrid business model, but the trend is to return to a more traditional all-in-office model. In 2025, one of HR’s fights may be getting your employees excited about being in the office. It’s a debate no one wants to get into. According to LinkedIn, the truth is that recruiting for full-time, in-office positions has become one of the most pressing—and, let’s be honest—controversial hiring challenges for senior leaders. Employees don’t want a conversation about the value of productivity over employee satisfaction.
Introducing fear of missing out, or FOMO, can drive your team to want to be in the office. Creating an environment where no one wants to miss out rather than a sense of compliance is important. RTBT (required to be there) meetings or workdays can bring a sense of resentment from your team and kill your corporate culture and productivity.
When the goal of getting your employees excited about being in the office is a priority, here are things to think about:
Companies have embraced a hybrid business model, but the trend is to return to a more traditional all-in-office model. In 2025, one of HR’s fights may be getting your employees excited about being in the office. It’s a debate no one wants to get into. According to LinkedIn, the truth is that recruiting for full-time, in-office positions has become one of the most pressing—and, let’s be honest—controversial hiring challenges for senior leaders. Employees don’t want a conversation about the value of productivity over employee satisfaction.
Introducing fear of missing out, or FOMO, can drive your team to want to be in the office. Creating an environment where no one wants to miss out rather than a sense of compliance is important. RTBT (required to be there) meetings or workdays can bring a sense of resentment from your team and kill your corporate culture and productivity.
When the goal of getting your employees excited about being in the office is a priority, here are things to think about:
TalentSource Pro Tip: Work-life balance is a top-level priority for the team at TalentSource. We do this by listening to our employees’ wants and needs and balancing those against individual goal setting.
FLEXIBLE SCHEDULING
Find your team’s hot buttons about being in the office. Whether it’s picking up kids from school, going to the gym in the morning, or avoiding rush hour, restructuring individual workdays to accommodate these kinds of things demonstrates to your employees what they feel is important is a concern to you too. According to a Forbes article, 2025 will demand more intentional leadership, more human-centered cultures, and more profound trust between employees and employers. The scheduling needs of your team and implementing them are a great step toward getting your employees excited about being in the office.
Allowing employees to set their work schedule can be a frightening step for managers. This notion is more about focusing on employee goals, and less about punching in on time every day. In an article from SHRM about managing smart, requiring workers to complete specific hours weekly may not give you the productivity you need; rather try giving them targets and goals. Flexible work hours are an incentive for employees to meet predetermined goals.
TalentSource Pro-Tip: No one on our team wants to miss our group dinners that follow our corporate-wide meetings. We make sure to go somewhere new and exciting, take photos, and include goodie bags for attendees.
FOMO OPPORTUNITIES
As much as employees want to be home, they also want to build team bonds and socialize with coworkers. In a study by Harvard Business Review, 85% of employees would be motivated to go into the office to rebuild team bonds, and 84% would go into the office if they could socialize with coworkers. Balancing employee connections while understanding your team’s time and keeping outcomes in mind is valuable to getting employees excited about being in the office.
Ideas for intentional team connection are:
- Catered lunch that is around sales meetings
- Brainstorming sessions that have an incentive for attendance
- Quarterly workshops that are career growth-focused
- Attending an Escape Room together
- Offer a day, maybe once a year, for employees to attend a baseball game, play golf, or go to a spa together
Bringing marketing practices to your in-office environment can also be helpful. FOMO Marketing is a real thing, and it works. When creating team connection opportunities, keep these things in mind:
- Make a big deal about Unique Experiences: talk about how great the lunch will be, and how you need everyone’s input – things that will only be attainable if YOU ARE THERE.
- Emphasizing Limited Availability: Say things like “We are only having a handful of these luncheons this year, don’t miss this one!”
- Building Anticipation: Creating in-office videos (for example) to generate excitement. Send emails with teasers, previews, and sneak peeks.
- Leveraging Social Proof: Post pics on your company’s social media pages.
RESPECTING CORPORATE CULTURE
Remote and hybrid work comes with benefits but also has unique problems. The Wharton School at UPenn noted that management, collaboration, and innovation are more difficult with remote and hybrid work environments. One of the biggest downsides of a hybrid workforce is that corporate culture can diminish. “You learn culture by observation, and by seeing what’s rewarded and, particularly, what’s punished. You don’t even have gossip anymore to figure out who got fired for what,” Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli said.
Getting employees excited about being in the office has as much to do with your corporate culture as anything else does. If you are having challenges in motivating your team to be in the office, look at your corporate culture. That is a good place to start.
CHECK IN WITH YOUR TEAM
Once you have implemented a plan to get your employees excited about being back in the office, get feedback from your team to be sure what you are creating in the office is in fact what motivates them to be there.
Contact us at 574.968.8676 or contact@TalentSourceStaffing.com to schedule a discovery call and find out how we can help you bolster your corporate culture and find the perfect addition to your team.
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