Who owns the return-to-office mandate?

The return-to-office (RTO) conversation has entered a new phase. Early debates focused on safety protocols, badge systems and staggered schedules. Later, the focus shifted to hybrid models and pilot programs aimed at finding the right balance between autonomy and collaboration. Now, the conversation has matured into something more complex and more cultural. The central question is no longer simply how often people should be on-site. It is: what makes the office worth returning to and who is responsible for ensuring that experience?

Over the past two years, most organizations have landed somewhere between fully remote and fully on-site, with hybrid arrangements becoming the norm. Yet hybrid has brought challenges of its own. In 2025, office occupancy in major U.S. cities continues to hover just above 50% of pre-pandemic levels. The plateau indicates that mandates alone are not enough to shift behavior. People will come back, but only if the experience of being on-site feels intentional, valuable and aligned with how they work and live.

At the same time, more companies are formalizing expectations and moving from voluntary hybrid to structured in-office rhythms. Amazon now requires most office-based employees to be on-site at least three days per week, with performance and advancement conversations increasingly tied to attendance. Google and Meta have implemented similar badge-tracked requirements. JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have moved many teams back to full-time on-site work. Even Zoom now requires employees who live within 50 miles of an office to work on-site at least two days per week. The symbolic shift is clear: culture, connection and cohesion require physical presence at least some of the time.

Yet this alone has not created engagement. Employees increasingly evaluate not just what is required, but whether the experience of being on-site feels worth the effort. RTO cannot succeed on compliance alone. It must also deliver meaning.

RTO is no longer about location, it’s about experience

The question companies now face is not whether employees need to be on-site, but why. Mandates answer the ‘where’. Experience answers the ‘why’.

Forward-thinking organizations are asking:

• What differentiates the office from remote work in a way that feels valuable?
• How does being on-site support belonging, culture and identity?
• How do we make the office feel like a place people want to be — not a destination of obligation?

This marks a shift from logistical planning to cultural design. The office is no longer just a workspace. It is an environment where relationships, collaboration and identity take shape. And those elements must be intentionally nurtured.

The RTO ownership dilemma

The challenge lies here: no single function owns the return-to-office experience.

Facilities manages buildings, seating and layout. HR manages employee engagement, well-being and policy. IT ensures hybrid collaboration tools work seamlessly. Communications shapes messaging and expectation-setting. Line managers shape the daily behaviors that make culture real.

When these efforts operate independently, the RTO experience becomes inconsistent. Employees hear different expectations depending on who they talk to. Offices may be redesigned without programming to activate them. Collaboration tools may be available but underused. Expectations may exist but be unevenly enforced, eroding trust and reinforcing inequity.

This fragmentation is no longer just operationally inefficient. It undermines belief in the purpose of being on-site. And as recent workplace guidance highlights, inconsistency in RTO enforcement is now a legal and employee relations risk, not just a cultural one.

The issue is not that no one owns RTO, it is that everyone does — but without coordination.

A better path: RTO governance

The solution is not to centralize ownership under a single department, but to implement a governance model that aligns functions behind shared goals, shared messaging and shared accountability.

Effective RTO governance:

• Establishes a cross-functional steering group anchored in HR, Facilities, IT and business leadership
• Clarifies decision rights: who sets policy, who shapes experience, who measures success
• Ensures expectations are communicated clearly and reinforced consistently
• Connects space, people, tools and culture into one coherent workplace experience

This transforms RTO from a set of mandates to a unified cultural strategy.

Where workplace hospitality makes the difference

This is where workplace hospitality becomes essential. Hospitality is not about perks or aesthetics. It is about designing the workplace as a human-centered service environment — one that anticipates needs, reduces friction, supports well-being and strengthens belonging. Workplace hospitality management services sits at the intersection of these functions, helping them operate as one system rather than separate contributors.

Facilities teams can design and maintain the physical environment, but hospitality is what makes that environment feel welcoming, intuitive and alive. HR can define engagement goals and programs, but hospitality shapes the everyday interactions and touchpoints that help employees feel seen and supported. IT can deploy collaboration tools and platforms, but hospitality ensures people feel confident using them in ways that enhance — not hinder — their work. And while managers set expectations and guide performance, hospitality helps reinforce the cultural signals that create connection, trust and belonging on-site.

In this way, workplace hospitality becomes the thread that ties the operational, digital and human elements of the office into a coherent experience. It transforms the workplace from simply a location where work happens into a destination where people feel part of something shared.

Hospitality is the connective tissue that turns governance into lived experience.

From mandate to momentum

Returning to the office will never succeed through policy alone. It requires clarity, consistency and a workplace experience that feels supportive, energizing and meaningful.

When organizations approach RTO through governance and hospitality, the office stops being a compliance exercise. It becomes a destination — a place where people reconnect with purpose, with each other and with the identity of the company they are a part of.

That is what turns RTO from a mandate into momentum.