With distributed workforces and companies moving away from sitting in the office as a default, workplace experts find themselves wondering how to maximize both real estate use and employee connections.  

Our answer? Meaningful in-person encounters and moments in time that make commuting worthwhile.

Here are some ways to get your teams together with purpose and those offices (or flex spaces) buzzing again, tested by workplace professionals.

Hosting company events

“Our spaces are being used more and more for events,” says Nathan Manuel, Global Director, People - Workplace & Employee Experience at PagerDuty.

Their team is increasingly getting together for large events, whether it’s an all-hands day, a QBR, or an ERG meeting. They see events as a great tool for getting people together, boosting cohesion, and building team synergies.

But it comes with a shift in focus for workplace teams, as their job leans more towards hospitality and providing great on-site experiences.

At PagerDuty, only about 40% of their employees live within a commutable distance of all of their offices globally - which means for most of them, when they come into an office, everything is a first.

  “They’re doing their security process for the first time that day, they’re getting their picture taken, they’re getting their badge. So when we think about what the job of our workplace experience people is – it is hospitality.”- Nathan Manuel, Global Director, People - Workplace & Employee Experience at PagerDuty.  

Pro-tip: If you host company events regularly, ensure employees have a smooth experience, especially if it’s their first time coming in. Have designated staff members on standby to help out, put up signage, and send instructions to employees before the event.

  See how you can host great company events with Gable >>>    

Scheduling anchor days

With a distributed workforce and a hybrid work model, you often need to plan and coordinate the in-office days for each team. It helps maximize the use of real estate while also considering the physical constraints of the space vs. the number of people who need to come in.

Setting up anchor days helps employees manage expectations and get the most out of their in-person days, while workplace teams get to predict and manage occupancy more efficiently. If you think about it, nobody wants to come into an office if nobody on their team is there, and they will sit in Zoom meetings all day long.

  “The reason people want to come in is to see other people. If everyone shows up to the office on a different day, people are going to complain that they come in and nobody's there, and what's the point? I think it’s important to coordinate, and I'm increasingly seeing a movement towards coordination around anchor days that are not heavily enforced.” - Nick Bloom, Stanford Professor & Future of Work Expert  

Pro-tip: If you have leased office spaces, evaluate which teams or clusters of employees should or want to come into the office on the same days, and make a plan they can stick to. If you’re using flex spaces, let employees book coworking days on a regular basis, but offer support and guidance on how to do it.

  See our guide on organizing coworking days with Gable >>>  

Gathering for cross-functional work

At Zapier, they’re a fully remote company with 800+ employees in 40 countries around the world and no leased office spaces. They are famous for designing transparent processes and policies around working effectively together as a remote team, but gathering in person is still critical for building rapport among their employees.

Instead of focusing on functional, department-driven meet-ups, their CPO, Brandon Sammut, told us that they’ve pivoted their in-person strategy and shifted their focus towards cross-functional gatherings.

  “One thing we’re working on when it comes to our in-person connectivity strategy is what are the times and places we meet. We used to do more functional gatherings but have evolved to more of a “how work gets done” model because the most important work that is happening in the company is highly cross-functional. Now, a lot of our in-person budget goes to these very targeted, cross-functional type of gatherings.” - Brandon Sammut, Chief People Officer, Zapier  

Pro-tip: Consider how work gets done in our company and which teams intersect with one another to deliver the most impact for your customers. Tailor your in-person strategy toward these encounters and set up a regular cadence of project kick-offs, launches, and meet-ups with different stakeholders.

Facilitating functional meet-ups

Functional meet-ups can still make a lot of sense and impact how your team gets work done, especially for teams like sales or marketing. If you have a cluster of employees from the same team living in the same city, it might make sense not just to bring them together but to plan your office needs based on their in-person meetings.

Britney Pierini Alter, Global Director of Workplace Experience and Design at Harness, shared the approach they take for their sales team in Dallas, which is a unique use case in their distributed company.  

  “Every office is unique based on the utilization and the needs of that department or set of employees. For example, our Dallas office is a hub for sales, and they're bringing everybody together monthly for sales enablement and boot camps. We searched for locations that could fully support the training aspect for that department and location. And we're bringing meetups back in now. So we're taking what each department needs and building that into the design and real estate acquisitions.” - Britney Pierini Alter, Global Director of Workplace Experience and Design at Harness  

Pro-tip: If you have clusters of employees in the same team living near each other, give them a dedicated space and cadence to meet together, whether in your own office or a flex space. It will benefit team cohesion, improve collaboration, and increase their sense of belonging.  

Setting up leadership AMA sessions

An interesting way to get people into the office is to give them a good reason to be there – and access to leadership is one of the best reasons there is. For distributed teams, it can be hard to communicate and reach out to executives, and employees often feel like they don’t get the same access to them as those people who happen to live in the same city.

Katie Strain, Head of Workplace at Modern Treasury, says that for them, getting access to leadership is a strong equalizer between people who work hybrid or remotely and those who see senior leaders in the office.

  “I think what makes a difference in someone's career and engagement with a company is having their founder fly out to their location and join them for a work session. That's a totally different experience that speaks highly of our Executive Team and their support of this program.” - Katie Strain, Head of Workplace, Modern Treasury  

Pro-tip: If you have leased offices, plan leadership visits to each of them at least once a quarter (or more often, if possible). If your employees work from flex spaces, host AMA sessions or meetups with senior leaders in training centers, large conference rooms, or event spaces to make sure distributed employees get the same access as those folks who are office-based.  

Keep a pulse on insights and data

From offsites and events to anchor days, workplace leaders have a lot on their plate these days, and it’s sometimes hard to measure, track, and connect all the dots into a single workplace strategy – and know whether it’s working.

With Gable, your employees can book flex spaces or our own offices, set up events, and collaborate in person – and you can track attendance, satisfaction, budget spending, and permissions all through a single dashboard.

Connect with a Gable expert, and let us walk you through the reporting and data for your entire workplace strategy.

Schedule a demo >>>