RESEARCH SERIES: EVIDENCE BEFORE DESIGN
Looking Beyond Generational Assumptions
There has been a lot written about what younger employees supposedly want from work. Depending on what you read, they are either digital natives who are perfectly happy working from anywhere and have little attachment to the office, or they are the group that needs the workplace most because they want social interaction, mentoring, learning and a stronger sense of belonging.
I have always been a little uncomfortable with either conclusion because both feel too neat.
Over the past six years, we have accumulated a significant amount of employee workplace data through our work at CRUX, so rather than starting with an assumption about Gen Z, we decided to go back to the data and ask a much simpler question: what do people in the early stages of their careers actually want from the workplace?
We reviewed almost 5,000 completed employee responses from U.S.-based organizations across several sectors, with the research stretching from the early days of the pandemic through to 2026. Where the data allowed, we focused on employees aged 24 and under.
What emerged was not a single, clean trend, and I actually think that is one of the more interesting aspects of the research.
What the Research Reveals About Office Attendance
In one large global technology study from 2021, employees aged 24 and under preferred to spend around 35% of their working time in their primary office, compared with approximately 24% for older employees. In a technology and entertainment study undertaken in 2024, we saw a similar, although smaller, difference, with the younger cohort preferring around 29% office time compared with 22% among other employees.
But that pattern did not repeat everywhere. In a corporate headquarters study from 2022 there was virtually no difference between the youngest employees and everybody else, and the more recent semiconductor technology and nonprofit studies also showed much smaller gaps.
So while there are clearly workplaces where younger employees show more appetite for office attendance, age on its own does not seem to tell us very much about how often someone wants to come in. The environment they are working in, the role they perform, the expectations around attendance and the value they get from the workplace all seem to matter.
The part of the research that I found more interesting was what younger employees were actually doing during the working day.
How Early-Career Employees Spend Their Working Day
Across several of the studies, early-career employees were spending proportionately more time on individual focus and process work and less time in formal meetings and some forms of collaborative activity than their more established colleagues. In one study, the younger group spent around 41.5% of its core activity time collaborating, compared with just over 50% for everybody else. In another, the figures were approximately 33% and 40%.
When you think about it, that probably should not surprise us. People entering the workforce are more likely to be individual contributors, with roles involving defined tasks, analysis, production or process work. As careers develop, jobs tend to become more managerial, client-facing and coordination-heavy, which naturally brings more meetings, decisions and collaborative activity.
Why Social Connection Matters Beyond Collaboration
For me, that is where the research starts to get more interesting, because although younger employees are often doing more individual work, many of them still appear to place considerable value on being around other people while they do it.
In the technology and entertainment sector study, approximately 86% of younger respondents identified social interaction with colleagues as a reason for coming into the office, compared with around 74% of the wider workforce. We saw the same directional pattern in the nonprofit study, albeit with a smaller sample.
That starts to suggest that collaboration and connection are not quite the same thing.
You can spend several hours working independently and still value being in a workplace where other people are around you. You might have a conversation while making coffee, ask somebody a quick question, hear what another team is working on, or simply feel more connected to the organization because you are physically part of it for some of the week.
For people early in their careers, that may be particularly important. More experienced employees often already have established networks, relationships and organizational knowledge. Younger employees are still building those things, and some of that happens informally rather than through structured meetings or scheduled mentoring.
That has a direct implication for workplace design.
Designing Workplaces for Focus and Connection
If younger employees are spending a significant amount of time on focused individual work, then simply adding more collaboration space is unlikely to be the answer. They still need good places to work individually, with quiet settings, acoustic privacy, comfortable workstations, monitors and reliable technology.
At the same time, the workplace needs to create opportunities for social interaction to happen naturally during the day. Informal breakout areas, lounge settings, café-style environments, touchdown spaces and other alternative work settings can all help create that kind of environment.
Social interaction does not only happen because it is lunchtime, somebody has organized a team event or a meeting has appeared in the calendar.
A good workplace gives people reasons and opportunities to connect as part of the normal rhythm of the day.
Workplace Experience: More Than Just Amenities
The wider workplace experience matters too. Across the more recent studies, younger employees showed interest in greenery, outdoor space, wellness, fresh air, food and informal settings. But I would be careful not to read that as evidence that younger employees simply want more amenities.
Their responses consistently brought us back to the basics as well: somewhere comfortable to work, the right technology, quiet when they need it and access to other people when they want it.
How Workplace Preferences Have Evolved Since 2020
There is also an interesting historical angle to all of this.
Our data stretches back to 2020 and 2021, when large-scale remote work was still new. Even then, the youngest employees were not overwhelmingly asking to work remotely five days a week. In the 2020 research, three remote days was the most common preference, and by 2021 the youngest employees in the global technology study were actually asking for more office time than their older colleagues.
What seems to have changed since then is less about a dramatic swing from remote work back to the office and more about our understanding of what makes each location valuable.
After several years of hybrid working, asking “How many days should people come in?” increasingly feels like the wrong place to start. A better question is what people are coming in to do, who they need to be around, and what the workplace needs to provide when they get there.
Evidence Before Assumptions
That brings me back to the original question.
What do early-career employees want from the workplace?
There is no single answer, and perhaps that is the most useful finding of all. They appear to value flexibility. Some want more office time than their older colleagues and some do not. Many spend a significant amount of time working independently while still valuing social connection. They want workplaces that allow them to concentrate, but they also value environments where relationships and informal interaction can develop naturally.
Age and career stage clearly matter, but so do role, activity, team structure, organizational culture and the quality of the workplace itself.
Which is why the best place to start is still with evidence rather than assumptions.
The key to success therefore is collecting and analyzing the right evidence - data, ask us how.
We have pulled the fuller findings, methodology and workplace implications together into a new CRUX Workplace research paper, What Do Early-Career Employees Want From the Workplace? Available on our website.
There’s been a shift in the way leading organisations approach the workplace. It's no longer about mandating presence — it's about earning attention. In a hybrid world, the office is not the default. So companies are getting smarter, more human-centred, and more creative in how they bring people together.
At the heart of this? Events.
But not just the usual pizza-and-beer Thursdays or obligatory Town Halls. We're talking about thoughtfully curated, professionally delivered, culturally rich experiences that foster connection, trust, and collaboration across silos.
From Office Attendance to Workplace Belonging
In a world of Teams calls and solo work-from-home routines, the biggest risk isn’t disengagement, it’s disconnection.
That’s why the smartest companies are using events not just to boost badge swipes, but to rebuild the social fabric of work. When done well, events give people a reason to be together: to reconnect with colleagues, meet new ones, and rediscover what it feels like to be part of something bigger.
They help teams break out of their bubbles. They build cross-functional awareness. And they spark the kind of serendipitous conversations that can’t happen on a scheduled call.
In other words, events are a modern strategy for building culture.
Why Variety Matters in Workplace Events
Let’s be honest: people see through recycled social events. The novelty of pizza Thursdays wears off by the third slice.
Today’s workforce, especially in hybrid or distributed environments, craves authenticity, variety, and experiences that feel intentional. From design-thinking workshops to wellness mornings, from leadership breakfasts to purpose-driven offsites, the goal is to create moments that matter.
The best events don’t just fill a calendar. They leave people saying, “I’m glad I came in for that.”
Designing Workplace Events That Create Meaningful Experiences
Many companies still rely on well-meaning internal champions to “throw something together.” And while enthusiasm counts, it often shows in the output: missed details, generic formats, and a sense that the company is going through the motions.
In contrast, professional workplace event organisers bring structure, storytelling, and skill. They know how to craft an experience that aligns with your culture, engages diverse teams, and runs friction-free.
From venue selection to flow, from communications to follow-through, professionals turn events into signals. Signals that say: We care. We’ve thought about this. You matter.
And it’s not just logistics, it’s atmosphere. Hosting something in a distinctive space - even a transformed on-site setting - makes it clear the company is investing in people, not just process.
Done right, the venue itself becomes part of the message: this is special, and you’re worth it.
Workplace Events as a Strategy for Talent, Trust, and Culture
When you create consistent, inclusive, meaningful gatherings, people show up. They also open up. And over time, that builds trust, the foundation for innovation, resilience, and retention.
This is why events aren’t just a cultural nice-to-have. They’re a strategic tool in the era of hybrid work. They help normalise commuting again. They reconnect fragmented teams.
They make the office feel like a magnet, not a mandate
Creating Meaningful Workplace Experiences
If you’re planning your next gathering, or struggling with low in-office engagement, it may be time to raise your ambitions. Don’t just plan another internal lunch. Design an experience that brings your people together in meaningful, memorable ways.
And consider partnering with someone who knows how to deliver those moments, someone who brings fresh thinking, creative energy, and operational calm.
Because the best events don’t just happen. They’re crafted — with people, purpose, and culture in mind.
As organizations settle into more flexible ways of working, the challenge isn’t simply reducing space or adding new worksettings. It’s designing a workplace that genuinely supports how people work, and one that people trust and choose to use.
Our approach is grounded in a simple idea: workplace design should be based on real work behaviour, not outdated planning norms or generic ratios.
From Headcount to Human Behavior: Understanding How People Work
Traditional space planning starts with headcount and applies broad assumptions — desks per person, meeting rooms per floor, collaboration space as a percentage uplift. While simple, this outdated approach struggles in today's work environments where people don’t work the same way, at the same time, or in the same place.
We begin by understanding work as it actually happens.
Using our Workplace Experience Platform, employees:
describe the activities they perform during a typical working week,
indicate how much time they spend on each activity,
select the worksettings they feel best support those activities, and
identify their key collaborators and the types of collaboration that are most productive.
This is critical. Rather than consultants or designers guessing what spaces are needed, employees directly shape the demand profile, for focus, collaboration, meetings, project work, and support activities.
The result is a dataset that reflects real behaviour, real preferences, and real constraints, not abstract workplace theory.
Just as importantly, this process gives people a voice early. A co-created approach to workplace design. That involvement builds understanding, credibility, and trust before any design decisions are made.
From Employee Participation to an Evidence-Based Space Strategy
Employee inputs are then translated into a robust, activity-based space 'budget'. Activity time (normalised to a typical working week) is converted into demand for specific worksettings, aggregated by team and location, and adjusted for efficiency, attendance patterns and options to consider whether planning is based on average or peak presence.
Because utilization is driven by activity duration, not blunt desk-sharing ratios, the model works across hybrid, flexible, and traditional office environments. It provides clear, evidence-based answers to the questions leaders care about:
How many worksettings do we actually need?
What mix best supports focus, collaboration, and meetings?
How much space is required, and why?
The outcome is a transparent, auditable space budget grounded in how people say they work.
The Role of Professional Insight in Flexible Workplace Planning
Data alone doesn’t create a successful workplace, interpretation does. Every space budget is reviewed by an experienced workplace strategy consultant, alongside:
open-text employee feedback,
executive and departmental leadership interviews,
business priorities, growth plans, and operational constraints.
Using professional judgement, the worksetting mix is calibrated and moderated to ensure the workplace is not only efficient, but practical, resilient, and aligned with organizational culture.
This step turns participation and data into a solution that works in the real world.
Supporting Collaboration Through Workplace Neighborhood Planning
The moderated space budget is then translated into a concept-level design using our neighborhood planning model. Neighborhoods are configured to bring together the right balance of focus, collaboration, meeting, and support spaces, enabling teams to work effectively while allowing collaboration to happen naturally and organically through shared spaces with key collaborators in adjacent neighborhoods.
Rather than relying on isolated settings scattered across a floorplate, rigid grid layouts, or a central "furniture showroom" the neighborhood model ensures:
proximity between collaborators,
clear relationships between different work modes,
and flexibility without chaos.
Because employees helped define the inputs, the resulting workplace feels intentional, not imposed.
Why Activity-Based Workplace Design Matters
ABW isn’t just a spatial shift; it’s a behavioural one. When people recognize their own work patterns and preferences reflected in the workplace, adoption is faster, resistance is lower, and change is more sustainable.
By combining employee participation, data-led analysis, and expert calibration, our approach helps organizations create flexible workplaces that are:
right-sized,
fit for purpose,
and genuinely used by the people they’re designed to support.
That’s how we move from theory to successful reality.
Drop me an email if you feel this may be a useful approach for your company