I'm do understand the reasoning behind it...forgive me though but you sound quite young and idealistic. I've worked at many organizations, in the US and abroad. The only company culture I know where people are focused on making friends are companies with very young employees. They do not attract people at the top of their game. Highly valued people don't stick around for the camaraderie. They stick around for good management.

These types of initiatives were popular in the 2000s, but at this point good business owners understand that if they want to attract and retain competitive people, it comes down to salary, vacation, flexible workspaces and work hours, good benefits, great management, and feeling like they are appreciated and respected as people. If you have a problem with turnover and people are staying for their friends, then it's not a good place to work. Full Stop. By trying to put the emphasis on initiatives like this, you are allowing bad managers to stop focusing on investing in employees and instead put the focus on ski weekends and painting class. Also - and I'm surprised since you worked with HR - when you focus on friendship, people will inevitably be left out and that type of workplace is ripe for discrimination lawsuits. You start hiring for people who 'fit in socially' rather than who can do the job, often leading to employees who look and act the same, and the employees who don't 'fit in' or who have other concerns such as children, health concerns, and family issues aren't promoted at the same rate and often phased out.

I understand you want to make work a more appealing place for people, but you are going about it the wrong way. This way is incredibly infantilizing. Look, people who don't enjoy going to the office don't enjoy it because for them, it sucks. They want to sit at home where they can work without office distraction and drama. They want more time with their family without sitting in a car commuting for an hour. They want to save money on gas. They want to sleep in a little longer. You are never going to convince these people that it will be worth it because they can be friends with coworkers. Everyone knows they can be friends with coworkers - and they can and do set that up on their own. These are adults, not children. They want to finish their work uninterrupted, not go paint in a room with acquaintances. However, what you CAN do is make it so these workers can see the value in being in the office - maybe they can do their job better with more facetime? Most of the time though...it's just not that important to actually be in office, and it's management that's forcing the change. That's just bad management, and you can't fix that with a happy hour social.