Return-to-Office Incentives That Work: Why People Come Back

Quick answer: The return to office incentives that work give people a reason the day is better in person: their own team is there, the work goes better together, and they keep some say over which days they come in. In a large Microsoft survey, most employees said they would come in more often if they knew their direct team would be there, and a large randomized trial found that keeping some flexibility cut quit rates by a third without hurting performance. Amenities and nature programs help most when they give those planned team days a shared purpose.

Across most organizations, workplace, HR and wellness leads are being asked the same thing: how do we get people back into the office, and keep them coming? A badge-swipe target says where people must be. It does not say why the trip is worth making. This guide covers what surveys and field research show actually brings people back, ranks the main types of return to office incentives by the strength of that evidence, explains honestly where amenities and nature fit, and lists the pitfalls that turn an incentive into a grievance. It is part of our complete guide to nature-based workplace wellness.

On this page: What brings people back · Incentives ranked · Where amenities and nature fit · Common mistakes · Building a plan

What does the research say brings people back to the office?

The research points to three things: the people you work with, work that goes better face to face, and keeping some choice over when you come in.

Start with what employees say. In Microsoft's Work Trend Index survey of 20,006 knowledge workers in 11 countries, 73% of employees said they need a better reason to go into the office than company expectations. In the same survey, 84% said they would be motivated by the promise of socializing with coworkers, and 85% by rebuilding team bonds. Most also said they would go in more often if they knew their direct team members would be there (73%) or their work friends (74%). The fieldwork ran in July and August 2022, so read the exact figures as a snapshot. The direction is the useful part: colleagues, not rules, make the trip feel worthwhile.

Preferences have settled too. Gallup tracks U.S. employees whose jobs can be done remotely. Asked in November 2025, 61% of them preferred hybrid work, 33% fully remote and 6% fully on-site, and as of May 2026, 52% worked a hybrid arrangement. For most of these teams, the realistic goal is not five full days in the office. It is office days that people choose to use well.

The strongest evidence comes from a randomized trial. Researchers followed 1,612 employees at Trip.com, a large Chinese travel-technology company, in 2021 and 2022. Employees were randomly assigned either to five office days a week or to three, working from home on Wednesdays and Fridays. The study, published in Nature in 2024, found that hybrid working cut quit rates by a third and did not affect performance reviews or promotions over the following two years. The drop in quits was significant for non-managers, women and employees with long commutes. One company is not every company. But trial-grade evidence on this question is rare, and it points the same way as the surveys.

Taken together, the message for anyone designing incentives is clear. People will come in for each other. They stay away, and sometimes leave, when the trip feels like a cost with nothing on the other side.

Which return to office incentives work best?

The incentives that work best change what happens on an office day, such as planned team days and protected flexibility; the weakest are one-off treats that change nothing about the work.

The table ranks six common types of return to office incentives by how directly the research above ties them to people choosing to come in. The ranking is our reading of that evidence, not a measured score, and relative cost is a planning guide rather than a quote.

What each one looks like in practice:

• Planned days with your own team. Coordinate at team level, publish the days in advance and ask managers to be there. A day each team chooses beats a single company-wide day, because the people sitting near you are the people you work with.
• Keeping some flexibility. Flexibility is an incentive in its own right. The trial suggests that giving people some choice helps keep them, and people who have already left do not come back to the office.
• Work that goes better in person. Save onboarding, mentoring, planning sessions and hard problem-solving for office days, and leave focused solo work flexible.
• Less commute friction. Transit passes, parking or later start times on shared days lower the cost of the trip. They work best alongside the first three, not instead of them.
• Spaces and programs people use. Rooms for focused work, good food and outdoor space make an office day better than a day at home. On their own, they rarely bring anyone in.
• Perks and one-off treats. Free lunches, gift cards and branded giveaways are pleasant. They are also easy to copy, quickly taken for granted and awkward to withdraw.

Where do amenities and nature fit in a return to office plan?

Amenities and nature programs fit as the setting that makes a team day better, not as the reason to come in, and they work best when they give people something to do together.

It helps to be honest about what an amenity can do. A new lounge or a green terrace does not answer the first question people ask: will my team be there? It answers the second: once I am here, is this a good place to spend the day? That still matters. A disappointing office day undoes the effort it took to get people there. Green workplaces have their own research behind them, which we cover in nature in the workplace and in employee stress reduction programs.

Nature programs earn a higher place than most amenities when they are shared and scheduled. A rooftop farm with a planting morning, a lunchtime harvest or a workshop is something a team does together, on a date everyone can see in advance. That turns the amenity into a reason to line up a team day. It also gives employees who care about sustainability a practical way to take part, which is the subject of corporate sustainability employee engagement.

This is the part MicroHabitat plays. We run 250+ urban farms across North America and Europe. Our urban farmers visit each farm weekly for maintenance and harvests, and lead employee activities such as garden visits and workshops, listed on our educational activities page. A farm will not bring people back on its own. Put on a team's calendar, it gives that team a good reason to be in the same place on the same day.

What are the most common return to office incentive mistakes?

The most common mistakes are requiring days without a reason, bringing people in when their team is absent, and counting badge swipes instead of asking whether the day was worth it.

• A mandate with no reason attached. Required days tell people where to be. Without a clear purpose they can read as a lack of trust, and the trial evidence suggests that removing flexibility can cost you people.
• Empty team days. Few things undo a return faster than commuting in to join video calls with colleagues who stayed home. Coordinate by team and make sure leaders are there.
• Counting swipes, not value. Attendance is easy to count and says little on its own. Pair it with a simple question about whether the day was useful.
• Perks as the whole plan. Treats may get people in once. They rarely build a habit, and removing them later feels like a penalty.
• Amenities nobody runs. A garden, terrace or lounge with no activities and no one looking after it fades into the background within a season.
• One rule for every role. Teams that collaborate all day and roles built around focused solo work need different rhythms. A single rule rarely suits both.

How do you build a return to office incentive plan that lasts?

Build the plan around team days first, give each day a purpose and remove friction, then measure whether people keep choosing to come.

1. Ask before you design. Run a short survey by team: which days work, what makes an office day worth it and what makes it harder.
2. Set shared days by team. Let each team choose one or two days together, publish them, and ask leaders to attend.
3. Give each day a purpose. Move onboarding, mentoring, planning and team rituals onto shared days.
4. Remove friction. Review commute support, desk and room booking, and food on shared days.
5. Add shared moments. Schedule activities that need people in the same place, such as a harvest lunch or a workshop, on those days.
6. Measure what matters. Track attendance on shared days, whether the same people return, a two-question pulse survey after key days and regretted departures. Review each quarter and drop what nobody uses.

Keep the reporting honest. Several changes usually land at once, so report what you measured and what changed, and avoid crediting any single perk with the result.

Dig deeper: the complete guide to nature-based workplace wellness, corporate wellness program ideas beyond the app, team building with purpose and how an office garden program runs without your team doing the work.

Want office days your people choose to use? See how urban farming for corporations works, or contact us to plan farm activities around your team's shared days.