In our latest research report — Loneliness as an Organizational Crisis: A Persona-Based Approach to Navigating Through the Silence — we found that workplace loneliness has a profound impact on employee well-being and productivity. While the impact of loneliness happens at an individual level, the burden falls on employers to take effective and systemic measures to mitigate an environment where loneliness festers. At the heart of these efforts should be a focus on leadership, community building, resource accessibility, and a dedicated approach to improving the employee experience.
When asked, employees themselves are calling for more in-person social and professional gatherings. This suggests a longing for genuine human interaction, which has been increasingly marginalized in the digital workplace. Pressed further, employees indicated that increased virtual events don’t create the same level of connection, particularly when this virtual interaction is frequent, back-to-back scheduled meetings.
For employers who have seen their workforces become increasingly distributed given the rise in remote hiring, it may be time to get creative about how to bring people together. Secondly, employees seek greater access to mental health resources, a call that underscores the psychological toll of loneliness. Employees know that loneliness is a problem and they are sourcing solutions for themselves, in the event that the workplace itself doesn’t improve to meet their needs.
Leaders in the organization also play a significant role in improving workplace camaraderie and connection. At the organizational level, employees who have a strong connection to the values of the company are twice as likely to avoid workplace loneliness. Similarly, employees with a strong sense of belonging — often driven by an organization’s commitment to inclusion and career development for each and every employee — are 1.9x more likely to say they have not experienced workplace loneliness.
Collaboration and cooperation in the workplace are impacted by everything from an understanding of company vision to HR policies to individual employee attitudes, but its importance in mitigating loneliness is clear. When employees work together towards a shared goal or to solve a customer issue, real relationships are forged. Employees who regularly cooperate with teams across the organization are 1.3x as likely to avoid loneliness.
For managers, the key is in treating employees with respect in service of true relationship building. When an employee has a great relationship with their manager, they are 1.4x as likely to be free from loneliness at work. In addition, when managers can show real appreciation for the contributions employees make, those employees are half as likely to be lonely at work. Employees themselves are not totally off the hook for efforts to avoid loneliness. Building personal friendships and connections — even when people aren’t co-located — doubles the likelihood that an employee won’t experience the ill effects of loneliness in the workplace.
As organizations grapple with the reality of a loneliness epidemic, there’s an urgent need for both strategic interventions and personal actions that address the issue comprehensively. Whether through leadership behavior, company get-togethers, purposeful management, or employee actions to build relationships, employers need to measure, act, and then measure again to ensure they are offering a workplace experience that is building connections and not building fences.
On a practical level, many avenues exist to tackle the issue head-on. Some of these are tried and tested methods of creating a culture where employees can create and maintain deep, authentic personal and professional relationships. Others build on these in new and different ways, capitalizing on the current technology and workplace situations that have emerged over the past five years.
Regardless of whether you're trying to determine which well-being resources your lonely employees need, or merely want to understand the efficacy of your existing approach to foster belonging and connection in the workplace, Perceptyx’s People Insights Platform delivers listening solutions and data-driven insights to guide your organization’s approach. To learn more, read the full report and schedule a meeting with a member of our team.