Office Design and Employee Retention: What the Research Says

What The Gensler Workplace Survey Found

The Gensler Research Institute publishes one of the most useful workplace studies for leaders trying to connect office design with business outcomes. Its 2025 Global Workplace Survey drew on more than 16,800 full-time office workers across 15 countries and 10 industries.

The findings matter because they do not frame the office as decoration. They frame it as a performance environment.

Employees in great workplaces are nearly three times more likely to stay with their company. They are also more likely to feel valued and more likely to believe their workplace supports their growth. That is where the retention connection becomes hard to ignore.

The pride data is just as useful for HR and leadership teams. If 90% of employees who like their workspace feel proud to work for their company, while only 47% of employees disconnected from their environment say the same, then the office has become part of the employee brand.

Not the brand written on a careers page.

The brand people experience every day.

For companies trying to retain strong people, the question becomes practical. Does the office make employees feel supported, or does it quietly suggest the business has not kept up with its own growth?

What The Aflac WorkForces Report Adds

The Aflac WorkForces Report looks at workplace benefits, wellbeing, burnout, and retention intent from a different angle.

Its 2025-2026 edition surveyed 1,002 employers and 2,000 employees across the United States. One of the most useful numbers for retention planning is this: 37% of employees are extremely or very likely to look for a new job in the next 12 months.

That is not a small risk.

For a company of 40 people, that could mean more than a dozen employees are at least seriously open to leaving. For a company of 80, the number becomes even harder to ignore.

Aflac’s turnover calculator also assumes that replacing an employee can cost at least 50% of that worker’s salary. Other sources place the cost much higher depending on the role, seniority, and productivity loss involved. Either way, turnover is expensive.

This is where office design becomes relevant for HR teams. The workplace may not be the only reason someone leaves, but it can become one of the signals employees use to decide whether the company is investing in them.

If the office is noisy, uncomfortable, outdated, or poorly planned, people may read it as a lack of care.

If the office helps them focus, collaborate, meet clients, and feel proud of where they work, it sends a different message.

Why The Physical Environment Drives Retention

Office design does not retain people by magic.

It works through daily experience.

Every workday contains small moments that either support people or wear them down. Can someone find a quiet place for focused work. Can a team meet without interrupting everyone around them. Does the lighting feel comfortable by mid-afternoon. Is the furniture good enough for long work sessions. Are meeting rooms easy to use. Does the office feel like a place that respects the work being done there.

Those details shape how employees feel about the company.

In employee experience terms, the office acts like a signal. It tells people what the business values in practice, not just in policy. A company can say it values collaboration, but if every meeting room is overbooked and every open area is too loud to talk comfortably, the space tells a different story.

This is why workplace experience and retention belong in the same conversation.

A good office gives people the conditions to do good work. A poor office forces them to spend energy managing the environment before they can even begin.

Over time, that difference matters.

Noise, Focus, and The Cost of Daily Friction

Noise is one of the fastest ways an office can damage employee experience.

Not all noise is bad. A healthy workplace should have some movement, conversation, and energy. The issue starts when focused work, private calls, informal collaboration, and hybrid meetings all happen in the same acoustic zone.

People adapt, but those adaptations are not free.

They wear headphones all day. They book meeting rooms for solo work. They avoid the office when they need to concentrate. They take calls from stairwells, cars, or home because the workplace does not offer a better option.

That is a design problem.

Acoustic planning, focus rooms, phone rooms, enclosed meeting spaces, and better office space planning can change the experience quickly. The goal is not to make the office silent. The goal is to give people real choice.

If the office asks employees to return but gives them fewer focus options than home, retention risk rises. People may not leave because of noise alone. But noise can become one more reason they question whether the company truly understands how they work.

Flexibility and Autonomy Matter More Than Ever

The strongest offices give employees options.

That does not mean every workplace needs to become fully unassigned, casual, or open. In fact, many companies go wrong by treating flexibility as a furniture style instead of a planning principle.

Flexibility means the workplace supports different work modes.

Someone should be able to focus without hiding. Teams should be able to collaborate without disturbing the entire office. Hybrid calls should happen in rooms built for video and sound. Informal conversations should have a place to land. Client-facing areas should feel composed and ready.

The Gensler research is helpful here because it connects workplace quality with choice. Employees who have better options for where and how they work tend to rate their workplace more strongly.

For HR and operations leaders, the lesson is simple. If the office gives employees only one way to work, it will frustrate more people than it supports.

Good office interior design creates a range of useful settings. Not trendy settings. Useful ones.

That range gives employees more control over their day, and control is a major part of whether a workplace feels supportive.

Wellbeing Is A Design Issue, Not Just A Program

Many companies talk about employee wellbeing through benefits, mental health support, wellness days, and flexible work policies.

Those things matter.

But the physical workplace also affects wellbeing every day. Lighting, acoustics, air quality, ergonomics, access to nature, thermal comfort, layout, and furniture all shape how people feel in the office.

This is why healthier-building research matters. WELL and related workplace-health studies point to a clear pattern: when companies improve the conditions of the workplace, employees tend to report better satisfaction with the environment. That does not mean a certification or design standard automatically fixes retention. It means the physical environment belongs in the wellbeing conversation.

For a growing company, this is practical.

If employees complain about fatigue, noise, lack of privacy, or discomfort, do not treat those comments as minor facilities issues. They may be early signs that the office is working against retention.

A well-designed workplace should not feel like a wellness perk. It should feel like the normal baseline for doing good work.

Pride, Belonging, and The Office Employees Talk About

People talk about their workplace.

They talk about it during interviews. They talk about it with peers. They talk about it when deciding whether the commute feels worth it. They talk about it when comparing one employer with another.

That makes the office part of the talent story.

A well-designed office does not need to be flashy. In fact, the best ones often feel calm, practical, and confident. They give employees a sense that the company has thought carefully about how work happens.

That creates pride.

When employees feel proud of their workplace, they carry that pride into how they speak about the company. It supports belonging, especially after periods of growth when teams may feel stretched, disconnected, or unsure what the next version of the business looks like.

This matters for mid-sized businesses in Newmarket and the GTA. These companies often compete with larger employers for talent, but they can offer something more personal: a workplace that feels intentional, human, and built around the way the team actually works.

That kind of office can become a retention advantage.

The Return-To-Office Connection

Return-to-office policies have made the quality of the office harder to ignore.

If leadership wants people in the office more often, the workplace needs to justify the commute. Employees will compare it with home, and they will be honest in their behaviour even if they stay polite in meetings.

They come in for collaboration but cannot find rooms.

They come in for focus but end up surrounded by noise.

They come in for connection but spend the day on video calls from a desk.

That is where return-to-office friction starts.

Office design can support retention by making in-office days more useful. Better meeting rooms, stronger acoustics, improved technology, focus spaces, project zones, and more comfortable furniture all help the office earn its role.

This does not mean the office has to be perfect.

It does mean the office has to be purposeful.

Employees are more likely to accept office time when the space gives them something they cannot easily get at home.

What This Means For Businesses In Newmarket And The GTA

The retention conversation looks different for mid-sized businesses.

A large corporation can absorb turnover more easily. A company of 25, 40, or 60 people feels each departure more sharply. One strong project manager leaving can disrupt timelines. One senior designer leaving can slow delivery. One experienced administrator leaving can affect clients, systems, and team rhythm.

For growing companies in Newmarket, York Region, and the broader GTA, office design deserves a place in the retention conversation because the talent market is competitive. Hybrid work has widened the job search radius. Employees compare local roles with Toronto-based opportunities, remote-first companies, and employers offering stronger workplace experiences.

A well-designed office becomes part of that comparison.

It signals that the company has matured. It shows candidates and employees that the business invests in the environment where people work. It supports return-to-office expectations with a better reason than policy alone.

For HR leaders building a retention case, that matters.

The office is not the whole employee experience. But it is one of the most visible parts of it.

What The Research Does Not Say

The research does not say office design can overcome poor leadership.

It cannot.

It also does not say a renovated office can compensate for unfair pay, weak culture, limited growth opportunities, or lack of trust. Any article claiming that design alone fixes retention is overselling the point.

The stronger argument is more useful.

Office design improves retention when the company already takes people seriously and wants the workplace to support that promise. It strengthens the conditions around good leadership, fair compensation, clear expectations, and meaningful work.

For companies that are already doing the other things right, office design is often the highest-leverage investment left on the table.

For companies that still struggle with retention despite strong leadership and fair compensation, the space deserves a closer look. If your team is also reviewing how the workplace affects recruitment and offer acceptance rates, that is a closely related conversation worth having at the same time.

How HR Teams Should Use Office Design Data

HR teams should not present office design as a taste issue.

They should present it as employee experience evidence.

Start with internal signals. Exit interview themes. Engagement survey comments. Noise complaints. Meeting room shortages. Desk utilisation. Return-to-office attendance. Candidate feedback. Productivity friction. Then compare those patterns with external workplace research from sources such as Gensler, Aflac, WELL, World Green Building Council, and Leesman.

The strongest business case combines both.

External research gives the argument credibility. Internal data makes it specific to the company. If employees complain about focus, and the office has no proper quiet zones, the case becomes clear. If meeting rooms are constantly booked, and return-to-office participation stays low, the workplace may not support the behaviours leadership wants.

A board-level retention case should connect design to business risk.

Not “we need a nicer office.”

Try this instead: “Our workplace is affecting focus, attendance, candidate perception, and employee pride. Here is the research, here is our internal evidence, and here are the design changes most likely to improve the experience.”

That is a much harder argument to dismiss.