Are Workplace Friendships the Secret to Employee Engagement?

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In our recent LinkedIn poll, we asked our followers how they were staying connected with their “workplace besties” when working from home. Out of 179 votes, 58% of employees were using daily instant messaging, 28% were using virtual group chats, and 11% were using ‘anything-but-work’ calls to check in with colleagues about the ‘life’ side of ‘work-life balance’.

With studies suggesting loneliness can lead to burnout, workplace friendships might be the secret to employee engagement and happiness. Here’s how managers can help, especially if employees are working remotely.

Cast your mind back to a time when you were the new person. Perhaps it was a new job, a new team or a meeting where new, unfamiliar faces stared blankly at you. Did you feel like you had a limited amount of time to prove yourself? To understand the pecking order? To find an ally?

As we move through our careers, we continue to carry with us the fear of being an outsider. In fact, it’s one of our oldest, most innate psychological traits. We dread being on the periphery. We have nightmares about social situations in which no-one ‘gets us’; where we’re unable to elbow our way into inclusion.

Why?

The answer sits on the other side of the coin. How much confidence do you get from being part of a team that has your back? How relieved do you feel when your frustrated vent is followed by an empathetic ‘I completely get it’? And how nice is it to know that your 9-5 can be punctuated by light-hearted chats?

Social connection is our fuel.

According to a study by Officevibe, a striking 70% percent of employees say “friends at work is the most crucial element to a happy working life.”

Can loneliness lead to burnout?

One of the biggest issues business leaders face today is managing burnout within their organisations. And it’s getting harder to do.

Research published by the HSE found that the prevalence of work-related stress, depression and anxiety has increased in recent years. Between 2019 to 2020, it accounted for 51% of all work-related ill health cases.

Time and time again, we attribute burnout to exhaustion, unrealistic deadlines and ‘having too much on’. The prevention tactics range from taking a break, handing over half of your to do list and de-stressing.

While these are completely valid causes and cures, we’re missing an important piece of the puzzle: Exhaustion isn’t the only cause of burnout. Loneliness has a part to play, too.

Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Emma Seppälä and Marissa King explain: “As anyone who has experienced it can attest to, loneliness is an emotionally painful feeling; it even registers as physical pain in the brain. The social repercussions of this discomfort directly impact work productivity because people disengage.

“Research has demonstrated the link between social support at work, lower rates of burnout, and greater work satisfaction and productivity. After all, the most important factor in work happiness, a UK study showed, is positive social relationships with coworkers.”

The value of workplace friendships

According to a study by Officevibe, a striking 70% percent of employees say “friends at work is the most crucial element to a happy working life.” And a happy workforce is a productive workforce. In fact, “strong social connections at the office can make you more productive, and can even make you feel more passionate about your work and less likely to quit.”

With staff turnover said to cost £30,614 per employee, and with employee happiness providing a genuine ROI, workplace friendships might be more important than you think.

In February 2021, LinkedIn News Editor Monika Fike wrote that workplace friendships can provide a sense of purpose and motivation, with a recent study showing that people who had close work friends were “96% more likely to say they felt extremely satisfied with life”.

When working remotely, it’s only natural that we’re missing our workplace friends – and the office laughs and tea-making chats that come hand-in-hand with those relationships.

Workplace friendships during Covid-19

Before the pandemic, many of us spent more time with our colleagues than we did our own families. When working remotely, it’s only natural that we’re missing our workplace friends – and the office laughs and tea-making chats that come hand-in-hand with those relationships.

With employees more likely to need mental health support during Covid-19, workplace friendships play a crucial role in combatting our feelings of loneliness, isolation and anxiety during lockdown.

In our recent LinkedIn poll, we asked our followers how they were staying connected with their “workplace besties” when working from home. Out of 179 votes, 58% of employees were using daily instant messaging, 28% were using virtual group chats, and 11% were using ‘anything-but-work’ calls to check in with colleagues about the ‘life’ side of ‘work-life balance’.

As the world of work evolves, how can you stay competitive?

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Consider encouraging your employees to find new connections across the business, especially if they work in silos. For employees, this isn’t always easy to do alone – but you can help with a targeted introduction or a casual loop in.

How managers can help facilitate workplace friendships

For managers, understanding that empathy and inclusion matter is the first step. In remote environments especially, employees might feel as if they’re in long-distance relationships with their colleagues, and we need to put in more effort to maintain them.

Part of that involves championing small talk. Don’t race towards a meeting’s agenda if a natural, non-work conversation is flowing. We establish sincere, holistic relationships by getting to know our colleagues beyond their day to day responsibilities, not by discussing their deadlines.

It’s also crucial to remember that minorities may find it much harder to garner this sense of inclusion, too. We gravitate towards to people we feel similar to, but what happens when we don’t see other versions of ourselves on the office floor – or on the virtual conference call? In that sense, some of your employees are more at risk of experiencing loneliness than others, and we need to take conscious steps towards tackling that.

In the longer-term, hiring plays a pivotal part. Firstly, from a diversity and inclusion perspective, and secondly, from a company culture perspective. For example, incentivised referral schemes work for a reason – when existing employees recommend talent from their own networks, there’s an opportunity to bring in pre-established friendships and support networks to your business.

And finally, consider encouraging your employees to find new connections across the business, especially if they work in silos. For employees, this isn’t always easy to do alone – but you can help with a targeted introduction or a casual loop in. If, somewhere down the line, a success comes from that newly formed network, celebrate it openly, so it’s clear that when we forge new relationships, everyone wins.