A Year of RTO, Episode 2: From the Healthcare World

For a major regional health system, its corporate office campus brings together people who work in healthcare, but whose daily roles look a lot like any other corporate workplace: call centers, administrative teams, executive leadership. Some work remotely part of the time, some are on-site every day. What has remained consistent, and what has only grown stronger over the past year, is our client's belief that being together matters.

Leadership has driven return-to-office efforts as a community initiative, not just an operational one. The thinking is simple: face-to-face interaction does something that working from home cannot replicate. It boosts morale, builds motivation and provides the energy of people doing meaningful work alongside one another. In healthcare especially, where the mission is deeply human, that kind of connection is foundational.

Hospitality as a Healthcare Value

When people think of healthcare, they typically first think of hospitals. And the word “hospital” shares its root with “hospitality” for a reason — in difficult moments, people need warmth and to feel seen and cared for by other people. That approach carries into every space where our employees spend their time, including ours.

Food is crucial in every culture and every environment. For our client’s employees, the café is their time away from the desk. It is where they step away from the screen, connect with colleagues and re-charge. But food is also deeply personal in a way that other workplace amenities are not. We all carry food memories with us, a beloved family recipe or a meal that briefly takes us to another time. When we can tap into that, even in a small way, we offer people more than a meal.

Listening to the People Closest to the Customer

A marketing calendar and a strong menu will only take you so far. The feedback that shapes our best decisions comes from the people on our team who are in front of our employees every single day.

I have always maintained an open-door relationship with my frontline staff because they hear things I don’t. Customers may mention a craving or a request in passing at the counter that would never make it to a formal suggestion box. I listen to what my team brings back to me and I act on it.

Earlier this year, one of our front-of-house attendants came to me with a consistent piece of feedback: employees were asking for oxtail. She was certain there was real demand and I trusted her read on the room. We ran it as a one-day special, and we sold out within the first hour. New people came into the cafe that day and the energy was remarkable, and that dish is now a regular part of our rotation.

That story matters to me beyond the menu itself because it is a reminder that the best ideas often come from the front line, and that a culture of openness is both good management practice and how you build something people actually want to participate in.

Building a Space Worth Showing Up For

Getting people into the office requires more than just an obligation. They need something they can’t get at home and that something has to feel genuine rather than performative. For us, that means building a culture that people look forward to.

Every month, we post a marketing calendar outside the cafe entrance. It lists the specials, the events, the themed weeks and any hands-on experiences we have planned, including occasional cooking classes where employees can get into the kitchen with us. I always enjoy watching people stop and read that calendar at the beginning of the month because you can see them already looking forward to something.

We also keep things lively in ways that go beyond food. During March, we run a pop-a-shot contest tied to March Madness. We do giveaways and we work to create moments of surprise throughout the week. The goal is always to make the time our employees spend in this building feel like time well spent, not time they are simply obligated to give.

An Extension of the Client’s Mission

Our client operates with a clear mission, and our cafe is a part of bringing that mission to life. We regularly cater for meetings that bring together colleagues from across the organization; food is how we welcome people and how we mark the significance of coming together. That is as true in a conference room as it is in a patient waiting area.

We also take our community commitments seriously. When we have surplus food at the end of the day, it does not go to waste. We donate it to a local food bank through our partnership with the client, whose own mission extends into the broader community. During employee appreciation events and at Thanksgiving, we provide a free meal to the entire building.

Food carries meaning and communicates care. Our mission is to make sure that every person who walks through our doors feels that.

What Brings People Back

When I think about what I want employees to feel when they walk into our space, the answer is straightforward: excitement and comfort. This is their time, whether they have thirty minutes or an hour. I want them to step away from whatever is weighing on them and feel, for that stretch of the day, that someone took care of the details so they did not have to.

Getting back to in-person work has been good for people. Not just for productivity or business outcomes, but for personal and social health. We are wired for human connection. We crave the warmth of being around other people, the energy of a shared space, the small interactions that accumulate into something that feels like community.