How to Create an Office Your Team Will Actually Want to Visit

Theory is one thing, but what really works when you have to implement it tomorrow? Five strategies that make a real difference in practice.

1. Formats that are only available on-site

What truly draws people to the office? Things they can't get elsewhere. Formats that simply work better live:

• Creative workshops and joint problem-solving sessions

• Brown-bag lunches with internal or external speakers

• Demo days where teams showcase their current work

• Monthly community moments: giving new team members a real stage, celebrating milestones together, making successes visible — not just on the intranet

These formats don’t need a big production. A 60-minute community moment once a month, that's honest and lively, beats any elaborate event that feels like a mandatory program.

2. Anchor days as an entry point – not a permanent solution

Anchor days are set days when a team intentionally comes to the office together. It’s not mandatory, but it’s a clear invitation. The underlying idea is simple: If I know my colleagues are here today, I’m more likely to come myself. The barrier lowers, and the likelihood of real interactions increases.

In practice, it often looks like this: The "Team Wednesday" in marketing, the "Product Thursday" in development. Days when joint formats take place – a brief review, a lunch & learn, a retrospective. Activities that give the day substance beyond the normal work routine.

But beware of a thinking error: Seeing anchor days as a permanent steering tool creates a new form of structure – not a real culture. The goal should not be for someone to come because today is Team Thursday. The goal is for people to come because they value the energy there – even with people from other teams that they never meet in the calendar.

Anchor days can help spark this dynamic. But those who want to change something in the long term work on the feeling – not the calendar.

3. Spaces that enable encounters

Spontaneous encounters need space – literally. Many offices are designed in a way that you walk directly from the entrance to the desk and back without meeting anyone.

This can be changed with small interventions: Coffee points as real meeting places instead of hallway storage areas, a lounge area with whiteboards that invites you to linger, open spaces between departments instead of departmental silos.

Important: These spaces only work if they are maintained and enlivened. An "Idea Wall" that gathers dust after two weeks is worse than nothing. Better to do one small area really well than many half-hearted concepts simultaneously.

4. Team leads as the real lever

Leaders as role models – that's true. But the decisive influence usually doesn’t come from the executive management, but from the direct team lead.

When your own team lead says "I'm in the office on Wednesdays and Thursdays – feel free to stop by," it has more impact than any community day. It's not a presence expectation – it's an invitation. The difference lies in the tone and voluntariness.

What helps: Team leads actively and visibly communicate their office days – for instance, in the calendar or team channel. No pressure, but guidance. Knowing that your leader is here today, you're more likely to come yourself.

5. Listen – and act visibly

You only learn what your team really needs by asking questions. Short, regular pulse surveys with three to five targeted questions provide more insight than a complex annual employee survey:

• "On which days do you prefer coming to the office – and why?"

• "What would bring you to the office more often?"

• "What currently annoys you the most?"

The decisive step comes afterward: Feedback must be visibly addressed. If noise is frequently mentioned, focus zones are created in the next quarter. If there is a desire for more joint formats, a monthly community lunch starts. Nothing builds more trust than the feeling: We have been heard – and things have changed.