Why Companies Are Reimagining Workplaces to Bring Employees Back
Across the country, companies are confronting the same challenge: how do you convince employees, comfortable in flexible, remote routines, to return to the office? The answer, according to a recent Barron’s article, isn’t mandates or strict policies. It’s rethinking workplaces entirely, transforming them into healthier, more inspiring, more sustainable environments where people want to be.
From improved indoor air quality to biophilic elements, ergonomic upgrades, and amenities that genuinely support well-being, workplace design has entered a new era. This shift aligns closely with return-to-office trends that prioritize comfort, sustainability, and employee-centric decision making, something Excel Dryer has already embraced in its own corporate office renovation.
The Barron’s article highlights Excel Dryer’s role in representing this movement. As Excel’s COO Bill Gagnon emphasizes, “There’s nothing more important than your employees and making sure they’re happy because that goes into the product”. That focus on employee experience now defines the modern, post-pandemic workplace.
Read the article titled How to Get Workers Back to the Office? Fresh Air, Bees, and Farmers Markets from Barron’s (Please note this is a gated article)
Why Excel Dryer Stands Out in the Return-to-Work Movement
As employers nationwide adapt their spaces to encourage office attendance, Excel Dryer emerges as a standout example of a company embracing meaningful, people-first design. Excel recognized early that its post-pandemic workplace needed to become more than functional, it needed to be restorative, energizing, and sustainable.
The article notes that the Excel Dryer workplace upgrades, including fresh-air systems, plant-covered walls, improved lighting, and thoughtful amenities, were all designed to create a corporate office renovation where employees could feel comfortable, safe, and valued. These are no longer “nice-to-haves”; they are strategic tools for improving employee satisfaction and productivity.
This mirrors a broader trend highlighted in the article: companies can’t rely on mandates alone. Rachel Hodgdon, President and CEO of the International WELL Building Institute, emphasizes the new reality: “If you have a return-to-office mandate…you also have to woo people back”. Otherwise, she warns, organizations risk losing employees for whom an uninspiring office is a “deal breaker”.
Excel’s response to this shift has been intentional. Rather than forcing employees back into outdated environments, the company’s office renovation has invested in improvements that demonstrate its long-standing commitment to well-being and sustainability, both of which play directly into today’s return-to-office trends.
Learn more about the benefits that employees received as part of Excel Dryer’s corporate office renovation.
Inside Excel’s Wellness-Focused Office Redesign
To better support its workforce, Excel Dryer implemented a comprehensive office renovation that reflects many of the design principles highlighted in the Barron’s article, ones that experts say matter more than ever in today’s workplace.
Among the improvements in the Excel Dryer office redesign:
1. Advanced Air Filtration and Indoor Air Quality Upgrades
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated awareness around indoor environmental quality, a shift noted in Barron’s. Architect Rick Cook explains that elements like clean air, biophilia, and access to nature “became much more prominent…The things the design community was focused on prepandemic became much more popular.”
The enhanced filtration systems in the Excel Dryer workplace upgrades support healthier, more comfortable workplaces, an essential factor in motivating employees to leave home offices.
2. Biophilic Additions and Natural Elements
Excel introduced living plant walls into its headquarters as part of its corporate office renovation to “pump oxygen” into the space and create a calming, nature-connected environment. This aligns with sustainable office design principles that reduce stress and support overall well-being.
3. Lighting That Adapts to the Human Workday
Lighting that shifts throughout the day supports energy levels, focus, and circadian rhythm. The Excel Dryer workplace upgrades implemented daylight-mimicking lighting to make offices feel more natural and comfortable.
4. A One-of-a-Kind Beekeeping Program
The Excel Dryer office redesign’s on-site beekeeping initiative with The Best Bees Company allows employees to take home fresh honey. This sustainable office design effort reinforces a sense of community and pride in the workplace.
Together, these upgrades illustrate how Excel Dryer workplace upgrades go beyond aesthetics. They reflect a belief that employee wellness directly impacts product quality, innovation, and organizational success.
How Excel Integrates Nature and Sustainability Into Everyday Operations
Excel Dryer’s focus on sustainable office design is part of a broader organizational philosophy: sustainability should be built into every level of the workplace. This philosophy aligns with growing expectations from employees who want to work for environmentally responsible companies.
Employees increasingly want to work in spaces that support not just productivity, but health, comfort, and environmental responsibility. Features in Excel’s corporate office renovation like improved air filtration, outdoor access, and green construction are no longer luxuries, they’re differentiators.
Excel Dryer takes this a step further by extending sustainable thinking beyond the office environment and into its products. Its high-efficiency EPD and HPD certified office hand dryers help organizations reduce energy use, eliminate paper waste, and modernize restrooms as part of broader office renovation projects.
Sustainable Office Design as a Strategy for Employee Engagement
Across industries, the companies achieving the highest return-to-office participation are post-pandemic workplaces investing in healthy, sustainable, experience-driven environments. The Barron’s article highlights examples such as Sanofi’s new U.S. headquarters, which includes quiet zones, outdoor spaces, and on-site services, features that helped increase attendance.
The Excel Dryer corporate office renovation demonstrates how even mid-size manufacturers can lead this movement. By improving fundamental systems, air, lighting, circulation, and wellness, Excel created an environment aligned with what today’s workforce wants: comfort, health, and purpose.
Creating People-First, Sustainable Workplaces for the Future
In this new era of workplace strategy, organizations are discovering that sustainable office design, wellness-driven upgrades, and thoughtful office renovations are not simply return-to-office trends, they’re competitive advantages. Companies like Excel Dryer are proving that when you invest in your people, they invest back.
Whether through improved air quality, biophilic office features, or innovations like high-efficiency office hand dryers that support hygiene and sustainability, the message is clear: the workplace of the future is employee-centered, environmentally responsible, and intentionally designed to inspire.