A large European energy company had made a bold move – consolidating multiple office sites into a select few. But as employees returned post-pandemic, office attendance remained low. Leadership faced growing internal debates: should they just mandate office attendance, or were there deeper issues at play?

To better understand the disconnect, the company conducted a Leesman survey to assess employee workplace experience. While some offices scored exceptionally well, others fell short. The offices had been designed pre-COVID, yet post-pandemic working habits had shifted.

The client was struggling to identify what the office of the future should look like to maximise employee experience as well as how to measure success, so they asked for our help.

To uncover the true role of the office and align expectations, we brought together key stakeholders through a series of targeted “Why workplace” workshops. We ran the same session with four distinct groups: C-suite executives, young leadership talent, the facilities and people team, and workers’ council representatives. By structuring the discussions this way, we ensured that diverse perspectives were heard and assumptions could be openly challenged.

With more than 50 total participants, this approach allowed for deeper discussions to explore the nuances of workplace experience and expectations. As a result, we helped define a collective purpose for the office, articulating its value in a post-pandemic world. We then presented our findings to the senior leadership team, ensuring alignment across the organisation.

Having achieved that alignment in the workplace why, we then helped the leadership team define how they would measure success. In this case, we identified which impact statements from the Leesman survey directly correlated with the newly defined purpose of the client’s workplaces. Upon analysing the survey data, we identified overall how well the organisation’s workplaces were delivering against these objectives – and ultimately business performance – and we were also able to parse the data to review performance on a site and business unit level.

To translate insights into action, we also developed an Action-Urgency Dashboard to assess site performance and prioritise improvements. This provided leadership with a clear, evidence-based roadmap for optimising their workplaces to better support employee experience and business goals.

By engaging stakeholders at all levels and taking an evidence-based approach, the organisation gained a clear understanding of what employees need from their workplaces. The Action-Urgency Dashboard provided leadership with a practical framework to assess office performance and prioritise improvements.

The client came away with a strategy that balances business goals with employee experience, ensuring their offices are not just places to work but places where people thrive.