5th Nov 2025

5 Reasons Your Workplace Needs A Work Café

People come into the office for the things home can’t offer: connection, collaboration and energy.

When it comes to designing spaces that support those things, a work café is one of the smartest choices a business can make. And it’s not just because people love coffee (though that certainly helps, with the UK consuming around 98 million cups every day).

A work café is a strategic space: one designed around connection, comfort and wellbeing. It gives people a reason to come in, helps build culture and supports the behaviours that drive business performance.

That impact becomes even stronger when the space is designed with principles from the WELL Building Standard. WELL provides a science-backed framework for creating environments that actively improve health and wellbeing, covering everything from light and air quality to nourishment, movement, comfort and community.

Incorporating these ideas doesn’t just make a café look good. It makes it work better for people. Here’s how.

1. Bring the energy of a coffee shop into your office

The buzz of a good coffee shop is hard to beat – relaxed, social and full of life.

A work café captures that same energy, but with none of the downsides. No noisy background chatter when you’re on a call or balancing laptops on tiny tables. Just a warm, purposeful space where people can focus, collaborate or recharge.

By creating your own café space, you can design it around your people’s needs – choosing lighting that reduces eye strain, materials that absorb noise and furniture that supports posture and variety.

These choices all align with the WELL Building Standard’s Comfort concept, which focuses on reducing physical stressors and promoting environments that feel calm and inviting. The result is an energising hub that looks great, feels good and helps people do their best work, all without leaving the office.

2. Make flexibility look and feel natural

Flexibility is now a key part of any successful workplace. A work café brings it to life.

It’s a space that shifts easily between tasks, from quiet individual work in the morning, to a quick team chat or casual client meeting later in the day.

Designing for flexibility means providing a variety of seating and work settings: café tables for quick discussions, soft seating for one-to-ones and bar-height benches for drop-in collaboration.

Flexible spaces support physical variety and choice, ticking off another box from the WELL Standard. It’s about making it easy for people to move naturally through their day – sitting, standing, stretching and socialising without it feeling forced.

A space that supports that kind of freedom makes people feel more comfortable and more in control of their working environment. And when people feel good where they work, they’re more likely to come in and use it.

3. Bring a slice of home to the workplace

Comfort and familiarity have a powerful effect on how people feel.

A work café gives employees that sense of ease – the warmth and informality of a home environment, combined with the focus and functionality of a professional one.

It’s not just about comfy chairs and good coffee (though both help). Instead, it means creating a sensory experience that supports wellbeing, with natural light, good air quality, gentle acoustics and comfortable materials.

The WELL Building Standard’s Light, Air, and Mind concepts all feed into this. They focus on the physical and psychological factors that make people feel good indoors, like fresh air circulation, balanced lighting that mirrors natural rhythms and visual variety to reduce stress and fatigue.

A café that follows these principles can become a restorative space in the workplace – somewhere people go not just to refuel, but to reset.

4. Communicate your values

If you’re a business who cares about your staff and looks after your customers, what better way is there to show it than to practice what you preach?

Investing in staff facilities shows you’re willing to go the extra mile to look after the health and happiness of your employees, and also gives your clients a treat when they come to visit you.

With branded finishes, natural materials, and inclusive layouts, you can create a space that feels authentic to your business and brings your community to life. This aligns with the WELL Community concept, which focuses on fostering social connection and a sense of belonging.

5. Create more light bulb moments

Some of the most valuable interactions happen away from formal meeting rooms.

A work café encourages those spontaneous moments – the chat between departments that sparks a new idea, or the casual conversation that builds a stronger relationship.

The WELL Mind and Community concepts highlight the importance of environments that nurture social interaction and mental wellbeing. Informal, comfortable settings like cafés help reduce stress and foster the kind of open communication that fuels innovation.

When people feel relaxed and connected, they share ideas more freely. And when that becomes part of your everyday culture, it drives creativity and collaboration across your business.

Over time, your café becomes much more than a refreshment area. It becomes the heart of your workplace – a natural gathering point for people and ideas.

Ready to make your office a destination?

A well-designed work café can change how people feel about coming to the office. It adds flexibility, encourages connection and turns everyday interactions into moments of community.

We’ve helped many clients create spaces like these – workplaces that people genuinely want to spend time in.

If you’re exploring how to make your office work better for your team, we’d love to start that conversation.