Return to the office: what the 2022 Parella barometer revealed

The 2022 Parella barometer highlighted a gap: only 8% of leaders said they found it hard to bring their employees back to the office, yet most open-plan offices stayed empty. Employees, for their part, were not rejecting the office: 75% said they were happy to come back, provided they found something better there than at home.

In early 2023, Doriane Bettinger of Parella discussed these results on the NuWork podcast: real estate, footprint in square metres, HR and transformation. She pointed out a sharp gap between some of the trends reported in the media and the facts observed on the ground. Here is what to take away.

What is the 2022 Parella barometer?

It is a study on office use and talent attraction, carried out by Parella with CSA Research. Its previous editions focused on Île-de-France. In 2022, the panel was widened to the whole of France: 300 leaders and 500 employees from more than 50 companies, asked about work after the health crisis.

This change of scope mattered a great deal. Part of the gap between the expected and actual results is explained by where the companies are located.

Why did offices stay empty?

Leaders did not see the reality on the ground. In the study, 92% of them felt they had no difficulty bringing their teams back. Yet day to day, most open-plan offices stayed empty.

“Is there a hidden France with full offices?” Doriane Bettinger

Denial or genuine unawareness? It is hard to blame them, given how many parameters, some of them subtle, shape the employee experience. Rarely faced with daily life on the floors, they mainly saw their employees' wish to come back. Because that wish was real. But if offices stayed empty, it was not because people rejected the office: it was because offices did not yet offer layouts suited to what employees came there for.

Leaders knew, but did little

The awareness was there. In the study, 75% of leaders knew that the office had to offer a better setting than home. That intuition had not yet turned into action.

To ride the hybrid wave, Doriane Bettinger encouraged companies to place themselves within a broad ecosystem (their partners, their city, their urban setting) and to open up more, to take economic and social issues into account.

Employees considered several services at the office useful: catering (65%), mental health and wellbeing (55%), sport (54%) or a nap room (51%). Yet the share of companies that already offered them, or planned to soon, remained below 30% in every case.

With basic needs covered, the difference lay elsewhere: in social spaces, which create the informal and collaborative moments you do not find at home.

Cutting square metres was no longer the priority

At the start of the health crisis, companies reacted in a hurry, and real estate projects mainly aimed to cut floor space in order to meet their deadlines. Real estate was seen as a very inert asset, even more so than the office itself. These short-term, lease-focused responses did not prove their worth.

In 2022, thinking was focused instead on layout: transforming what already existed, freeing up individual desks to increase the share of collaborative and social space. At the time, 9 out of 10 projects involved a reorganisation towards flexible working. To achieve this, Parella relied on an ecosystemic view of the building, one that connects with what is around it.

“Keep what you have in order to reinvent it, create offices that are less constrained and less rigid.” Doriane Bettinger

When looking for premises or moving, teams were also analysing floors more closely: can they technically accommodate flexibility, and do they meet the company's technical, logistical and service needs? A smooth employee journey was becoming a source of value for the building. This is the subject of our article on optimising square metres.

Location mattered more than the flagship building

“The offices we have visited are mostly empty.” Doriane Bettinger

Many companies had moved away from city centres to gain space. They were now looking towards more attractive neighbourhoods. The big tower with an imposing logo, a symbol of legitimacy, was no longer enough to bring teams in.

You could no longer choose a building at the right price and the right size, then move employees into it. The approach was reversed: the employee now came first in the project.

Start from how employees work

It is the types of space that determine how people work and whether they want to come back. To define them, Doriane Bettinger suggested asking a few questions.

• To what extent do people need the collective at the office?
• Should the sense of belonging be strengthened first?
• Are the teams' main issues about their work and performance, or about integration?
• What do their days look like, and what would make them want to come in?

The answers vary by region and by role. She gave the example of teams that are more administrative in the south of France, and more sales and marketing oriented in the Paris region. Hence her phrase: “It's an à la carte menu.”

Location, layout and furniture are all criteria that make people want to stay. For the 75% of users who see them as decisive for their loyalty, they carry real weight.

When the office is competing with home, a superficial approach is not enough. Employees behave like consumers: they come for what the place gives them.

HR was taking the lead on real estate projects

Once driven by real estate and financial concerns, workplace projects were increasingly passing to HR and transformation teams. Their role: to connect the office to the company's strategy and to talent retention.

“The depersonalisation of space is becoming the big worry for the people leading real estate projects. All the more so in a war for talent.” Doriane Bettinger

If the premises do not show who the company is, the promise of its culture is not kept. That culture comes through decoration and layout, but also through the collective.

Key figures from the 2022 Parella barometer

• 56% of leaders saw their premises as a competitive advantage (65% in Île-de-France, 67% in companies of 250 to 500 people).
• 72% saw the workplace as a lever for attraction.
• 90% recognised its role in wellbeing, 84% in performance.
• 87% of employees (90% of under-35s) felt that remote work meant spaces had to be rethought, compared with 47% of leaders.
• 77% of employees affected by flex office viewed it positively.

The final word: consistency

An office modernisation project is also a real communication challenge. It is built around how people work, and employees become all the more attached to it when company culture runs through the whole process, whether the priority is real estate, refurbishment or talent retention.

From this conversation between Maxime Cousin and Doriane Bettinger, one word stood out: consistency. Between stated values and spaces, between the real estate project and how people work. It is what allows a workplace project to be adopted by everyone over the long term.

The same applies to infrastructure. A floor you want to make flexible has to be flexible right down to power, otherwise it is still the outlets that decide where people sit. That is what power flexibility is about.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Parella barometer?
A study by Parella on office use and talent attraction. The 2022 edition, carried out with CSA Research, surveyed 300 leaders and 500 employees across France.

Why did offices stay empty after the health crisis?
It was not a rejection of the office: 75% of employees said they were happy to come back. Offices simply did not yet offer the spaces and services they came there for.

Should you cut square metres to adapt to hybrid working?
The barometer showed the opposite: cutting floor space was an emergency response. The priority was becoming to transform what already existed, with more collaborative spaces and fewer assigned desks.

Who now leads workplace projects?
Increasingly HR and transformation teams, alongside real estate and finance, to connect the office to company culture and attractiveness.