Your RTO Strategy Isn’t Failing. Your Midday Experience Is

Every return-to-office strategy faces a competitor that didn’t meaningfully exist five years ago: a comfortable home office with no commute and greater flexibility. Today, most employees aren’t comparing your office to another office; they’re comparing it to home. 

The workplace experience has become just as important as the work itself. Yet many organizations continue to approach return-to-office primarily as a policy challenge rather than an experience challenge. Conversations about attendance requirements, flexibility guidelines, and manager discretion matter, but they only go so far. Because when employees come into the office, they’re really making a value calculation: Is the experience worth the trip? 

 The Untapped Power of Midday 

What I’ve come to believe is that one of the biggest opportunities in return-to-office isn’t found in policy; instead, it’s found in the middle of the day. The stretch between late morning and early afternoon has an outsized impact on how employees feel about being onsite. It’s where relationships are built, energy is restored, and ideas are exchanged.  

Yet in many organizations, the middle of the day is left to chance. People scatter, eat alone, or leave the office altogether. The result is a workplace that functions efficiently but fails to create connections. For all the attention paid to office design and return-to-office policies, too little is devoted to the experiences that make being onsite worthwhile. 

JLL’s 2025 Workforce Preference Barometer found that nearly 40% of employees believe their workplace experience needs improvement. In other words, many employees are telling employers that the office has not yet earned the commute. Food and beverage experiences consistently rank among the most valued workplace offerings. Not because employees are looking for free lunches, but because they’re looking for reasons to believe the office offers something they can’t get at home. 

 Facilities managers and HR leaders are quickly recognizing that a thoughtfully designed midday experience can influence dwell time, collaboration, and workplace satisfaction. The goal isn’t simply feeding people, it’s creating moments of connection, convenience, routine, and belonging. 

Designing Reasons to Stay 

One downtown Chicago office tower we work with offers a good example. An underutilized café was transformed into a hospitality-driven gathering space featuring chef-created menu experiences, culinary showcases, wine programming, and community activations. The objective wasn’t foodservice; it was to create a destination inside the building that encouraged employees to stay, interact, and engage during the middle of the day. The results were telling. What began as a dining venue became a social hub. 

We’ve seen similar outcomes through recurring tenant experiences such as seasonal tasting events, Mardi Gras celebrations, summer barbecue pop-ups, trivia competitions, karaoke events, and sports-themed activations. Attendance quickly became a catalyst for interaction among employees who otherwise may never have connected. 

Importantly, these experiences create something many organizations desperately need: opportunities for human interaction that aren’t tied to another meeting invitation. 

Convenience matters as well. We’ve partnered with clients to redesign traditional grab-and-go programs to function more like curated retail experiences. The differences include better product quality, all-day availability, and more engaging merchandising. The result? Increased participation and reduced number of employees leaving the building during the workday. 

The lessons weren’t only about food; they were about friction. People are more likely to remain engaged when the workplace makes their day easier, not harder. 

 We’re also seeing organizations use hospitality programming to activate slower building occupancy days. Book clubs, local business partnerships, seasonal events, chef demonstrations, and community gatherings provide additional reasons for employees to choose the office when attendance might otherwise lag. 

The ROI of Connection 

Almost every company is already investing heavily in talent acquisition, retention, office space, technology, and culture-building initiatives. Hospitality experiences help unlock greater value from those investments by creating more opportunities for employees to connect, collaborate, and engage with the workplace. That’s why the return on investment shows up in a Café P&L, as well as increased space utilization and improved tenant and employee satisfaction. 

The most effective leaders understand that workplace culture is rarely built through policy alone. It’s built through experiences, a shared meal, a spontaneous discussion, and a celebration that breaks up the routine. The moments employees remember are often the ones that never appear on their calendar. 

That’s why return-to-office discussions need to evolve. The question is no longer how to get employees back into the office; it’s what kind of experience awaits them when they arrive. 

Home has become a legitimate competitor in the workplace. Organizations that acknowledge that reality and intentionally design experiences that foster connection, energy, and belonging will have an advantage over those that continue relying primarily on policy. 

Marc Hinson is Chief People Officer at Phoenix3 Collective and Infuse Hospitality, which provides corporate dining and hospitality management services. He has more than three decades of experience building people-first cultures across the hospitality, restaurant, and real estate industries, including some of the country’s most recognized multi-concept restaurant brands.