Black employees, Employee Well-being, ERGs, Remote & Hybrid Culture
New research shows that culture plays a crucial role in whether employees feel lonely at work, and how those feelings impact bottom line business results.
One in five employees worldwide is lonely at work, , co-authored with Sarah Wright at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, suggests that not only is loneliness a common issue in the workplace 鈥� it鈥檚 something that companies can address through changes to jobs and work environments.
It鈥檚 clear that companies should be invested in tackling this problem. 鈥淭here鈥檚 lots of shows high rates of illness and early mortality associated with loneliness, everything from cancer to dementia,鈥� she says. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e an employer paying healthcare costs, then you鈥檙e going to be spending more to cover all the medical bills.鈥�
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Loneliness also poses risks to productivity, performance, and employee turnover. 逸遊娛樂城庐 research shows the importance of meaningful connections with colleagues for employee well-being, and highlights the impact of these experiences with employee retention, agility, and more.
What is loneliness in the workplace?
The scholarly study of loneliness in the workplace is only a few decades old.
Most of the previous research has been into general loneliness, such as among older people, and not people鈥檚 experience in the workplace. In their latest study, Hadley and Wright examined 1,000 knowledge workers who were either low, moderate, or high in loneliness to understand the personal and job features that set apart the highly lonely employees.
Which employees are most likely to be lonely?
鈥淪ome have said this is a young person鈥檚 problem, they grew up on social media or they鈥檙e just new in their career and they鈥檙e working remotely, so of course they don鈥檛 feel connected. That鈥檚 not what we鈥檙e seeing in our data.鈥�
While personality traits like introversion increased the likelihood that employees were lonely, there are high numbers of lonely employees for every personality type.
Hadley and Wright鈥檚 research found that role level and work style both had an impact on loneliness. More junior employees were more likely to say they were lonely and fully remote workers were also more likely to be lonely.
Age was not a factor, Hadley says. 鈥淪ome have said this is a young person鈥檚 problem, they grew up on social media or they鈥檙e just new in their career and they鈥檙e working remotely, so of course they don鈥檛 feel connected. That鈥檚 not what we鈥檙e seeing in our data.鈥�
Gender also didn鈥檛 make a difference, but there was evidence than non-white employees were a bit lonelier than white employees.
Even though full-time remote workers were at higher risk for loneliness, a return to the office won鈥檛 solve the problem. 鈥淚t shouldn鈥檛 be assumed that if you鈥檙e in the office you鈥檙e not lonely, and if you鈥檙e working remotely, you are lonely,鈥� Hadley says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 much more complex than that.鈥�
There are large numbers of employees from all work styles and demographics who report being lonely.
For companies, this requires a similarly universal approach to the issue with remedial programs that connect with every employee.
What companies can do to fight loneliness
"If there鈥檚 no slack in the system, you are really asking a lot for people to figure out how to bond when every second of their day is supposed to be productive."
As part of their research, Hadley and Wright have six suggestions for companies to reduce loneliness in their workforce:
1. Start with a baseline of measurement. Before taking action, make an effort to measure how your workforce is doing. Employee surveys with a validated tool or model are crucial.
鈥淵ou have to take care to make sure you use good practices, such as making sure confidentiality is assured, clarifying what you鈥檙e going to do with the data, etc.,鈥� Hadley says. Hadley and Wright created the , Hadley warns that companies should not rely on only one group to provide belonging for employees.
ERGs can have immense value for underrepresented groups and provide quick integration for employees joining an organization, but the goal over time is to achieve a broad base of relationships in the organization. 鈥淚 don't think you can drive up belonging-based productivity and job satisfaction if your social group is very delimited by one particular factor,鈥� she says.
6. Define leadership participation. How leaders participate in programs to build community in your organization makes a big difference, Hadley says.
鈥淟eaders have responsibility not only to show up at these events and help host them, but also to actually be humble enough to say, 鈥楳aybe I need more networks, too,鈥欌�� she says. The best leaders won鈥檛 expect to show up and dispense wisdom but will see value in building new relationships, even for themselves.
