How to Use Officely to Increase Office Attendance

If you’re an employee at a hybrid office, how many times have you almost made it in? 

You’ve gone to bed with the full intention to wake up and go into the office tomorrow… and then morning comes, and you realize you don’t know who’s in, or what’s on.

In short, you have no tangible reason to go into the office. So instead, you roll over, set the alarm for half an hour later, and log in at 9 AM. 

It's one of the big benefits of working from home, and this is a regular occurrence for millions of employees around the world, including yours. So, how do you make your employees want to go into their office?

Officely isn’t just a desk booking tool. It also offers a range of features to engage employees and encourage them to make the morning commute.

Here’s how we can help you increase office attendance (and why you should want us to). 

Why is Office Attendance Important? 

We are big believers in balance being the key to a successful work environment. 

As 75% of employees want a balance of home and office, understanding the benefits of going in can help inspire ways to motivate attendance. 

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‍Improves Work Culture

Having a shared mission that everyone is working towards is key to the success of any business. 

When you’re in the office, your united goal becomes more than just Slack chat, there’s a sense of belonging and recognition that you’re all working together. 

Some things just don’t translate to the home office, and work culture is one of them. Your identity as a company is built within the office; it’s the quick exchanges, the twelve cups of tea being made and the birthdays celebrated. 

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Increases Productivity

When people spend time connecting with one another in person, their mental functionality improves. In other words, interactions increase performance – and we are all better placed to debate, listen and respond when chatting in person.

Similarly, seeing others working hard and performing creates a bandwagon effect for employees to get their heads down. According to MIT, people in close physical proximity to others are three times more productive than those isolated.

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Enables Employees to Switch Off

During lockdowns, 42% of employees admitted to struggling more than usual with their mental health. 

Staying in all day can become habitual, and when working from home is presented as an opportunity many people take it without considering the wider impact of not leaving the house.

When you work from home, it’s tempting to check emails around the clock. With no hard barrier defining the start and end of your work day the temptation is always there.

If you’re in the office, you get to close the door on your work at the end of the day (literally).

5 Ways Officely Helps to Increase Office Attendance

You don’t need to do all of the hard work when it comes to increasing office attendance. Here’s how Officely can help you:

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1. Give Employees a Reason to Attend with Office Extras

You can book more than desks within Officely! Office Extras allow your employees to book other work-related activities.

‍Admins can manage Office Extras so employees can see what’s happening when they book to come in. From lunches to dogs, give people a reason to come into the office outside of their work.

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2. Offer Attendance Visibility with Officely FM

Let’s face it, if your favorite work colleague is in, you’ll be more inclined to make the effort to go into the office.

Officely FM sends out a message to your chosen Slack channel to let people know who’s booked into the office for the next day. This prompts others to book in so they don’t miss out on all the fun (we mean work) in the office.

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3. Keep Employees Updated with Announcements

Whether it’s an office birthday, cake in the kitchen or something more functional like a fire drill, more specific updates can be sent out with an Announcement. ‍

Anyone can send out an Announcement, and you can hit send on any open channel at any time. For those working from home, it’s no fun finding out that today is the day Peter brought cookies into the office! 

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4. Be Strategic with Data Insights

As an Officely admin, you can view and export attendance data. This is a great way to find out when people are coming into the office and understand what variables are increasing attendance.

If you see Wednesdays have 30% more employee attendance than Thursdays, center some Office Extras and incentives on a Thursday to help increase attendance.

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5. Tap into FOMO with the Office Chat

What happens in the office stays in the office… or something like that. Office Chat is an Officely feature that enables anyone within the office to start a conversation between only those who are booked in.

It’s a great way to make sure those working from home aren’t bothered by irrelevant messages – but it also encourages people to come and find out what’s going on.

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Make it Easy for Employees to Say Yes to the Office

To increase office attendance you need to give employees more reason to go in than just ‘work’ – and most importantly, ensure they hear about it. There’s little point in hosting work drinks, bringing dogs into the office or booking out desks if employees don’t know about it ahead of time. 

Officely is designed for visibility. If you’re a hybrid office struggling to increase attendance, you can get started all within Slack right now, or simply schedule a demo with a member of our team.