The way we work today looks dramatically different from what it did just a few years ago.

Work is faster. More digital. More screen-intensive. AI has quickly become a daily collaborator for millions of people. Information moves continuously, expectations are rising and many workers are navigating an almost constant stream of communication, notifications and strain on their brains.

As work continues to accelerate, a new challenge is emerging for organizations: how to create environments that support focus, wellbeing, connection and performance in an increasingly demanding workday.

For years, Steelcase WorkSpace Futures has tracked how employees experience work, measuring key outcomes such as engagement, productivity, community, wellbeing and workplace satisfaction. The research began before the pandemic and has continued through one of the most significant periods of change in modern work. The latest findings suggest progress in positive outcomes is happening, but not nearly as quickly as the nature of work is changing.

Many workplace outcomes are moving in the right direction. Engagement is at its highest level since Steelcase began tracking it. Office satisfaction continues to improve. Productivity remains strong. Yet measures tied more closely to the human experience – wellbeing and community – have remained largely flat. At the same time, satisfaction with working from home continues to rise, despite more stringent return-to-work policies.

The main challenge facing organizations today is no longer simply where people work. It’s whether workplaces are helping people thrive in a world of increasing cognitive load and constant change.

Progress is real, but it’s been gradual

The data offers encouraging signs.

Employee engagement has reached its highest level since Steelcase began tracking it. Productivity remains strong, with 71% of employees reporting high productivity. Office satisfaction, on average, is improving – climbing from 72% in 2021 to 76% in 2025. Yet only 27% of employees report high satisfaction with their workplace experience.

Those gains suggest organizations are making meaningful investments in workplace design, technology and employee experience.

But the pace of improvement raises an important question: are workplace experiences evolving quickly enough to support the realities of modern work?

The trend is positive, but the opportunity here is even larger.

Home continues to raise the bar

There was a time around the pandemic when the gap between office and home satisfaction wasn’t as large. But employees have spent years refining their home environments to support how they work best.

What began as makeshift setups has evolved into spaces equipped with tailored technology, improved ergonomics and personalized routines that support focus and productivity. People can easily influence the layout of their space, the privacy (both acoustical and visual), the lighting; and then change it when that doesn’t make sense for the work they’re doing the next day.

As a result, satisfaction with working from home has continued to climb every year since 2021, reaching its highest level yet at 88%. More than half of employees now report “high” satisfaction working from home.

For many employees, home has become the key benchmark by which they gauge their overall work experience.

That’s one of the clearest findings from years of post-pandemic workplace tracking: Organizations have made meaningful progress, and employees recognize it. But expectations are evolving alongside workplace improvements, and home continues to set a high bar for comfort, autonomy and control.

Home maintains a 12-point advantage.

This means organizations must ensure workplace experiences meet the expectations people can find at home – but also provide additional benefits they can’t easily access there (like proximity to colleagues, leaders, technology, work tools, collaboration and other corporate resources.)

Productivity isn’t the problem

For years, workplace conversations focused heavily on productivity. Today, that may be the wrong metric to center.

Steelcase research shows people are getting work done. Productivity remains one of the strongest outcomes measured in the survey, with an average score of 82% and 71% of employees reporting high productivity.

The bigger challenge is protecting the human side of work as demands continue to grow.

As screen time expands and AI becomes embedded in everyday workflows, the ability to sustain focus, manage cognitive load, build relationships and support wellbeing becomes increasingly important.

In other words, people are productive – both in the office and at home. But where are they thriving? That’s where they want to be most – and it’s where they can get the best (and most) work done.

The outcomes that matter most remain stubbornly flat

Despite years of workplace investments, some outcomes most closely tied to long-term employee health and organizational performance have shown little improvement.

Community scores have slid slightly, moving from 76% in early 2020 to 74% today. Wellbeing has followed a similar pattern, sitting at 73% today compared with 75% in 2021.

At the same time, one in five employees reports moderate or high burnout. The data also shows burnout is closely connected to lower wellbeing, lower satisfaction and a greater likelihood of leaving an organization.

These findings suggest that creating healthy work experiences requires more than simply bringing people together or providing access to a workplace.

As work becomes more complex, organizations need to think more intentionally about how environments support focus, restoration, social connection and brain health throughout the day.

The next opportunity is designing for human performance

The workplace conversation is entering a new chapter.

As work becomes increasingly digital, AI-enabled and cognitively demanding, organizations have an opportunity to think beyond attendance metrics and occupancy targets. People are productive wherever they work – the data backs that up.

But whether workplaces are helping people sustain that performance while supporting wellbeing, connection, engagement and resilience over time is the question mark. Organizations that stand out will be the ones that design experiences that support the full spectrum of work: deep focus, collaboration, learning, social connection and restoration. It makes it easier to recruit and retain and provides dividends in productivity and engagement.

Because in a world where work is changing rapidly, the most valuable workplaces won’t simply be places where people work. There’ll be places that help people do their best work while staying healthy enough to keep doing it at a high level for longer.