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Facilitating friendships

The benefits of cultivating connection in your workplace.

Fostering a sense of belonging for your staff leads to a healthier, happier, and more productive workplace.

Now, more than ever, businesses are acutely aware of the recent rise in employees feeling disconnected, and are taking measures to address their concerns.

Feelings of social isolation, or disconnectedness, were already at concerning levels before COVID-19, so although it’s not necessarily a cause of disconnection, the impacts of the pandemic, even years after, are still widely felt.

Research has shown this disconnection leads to lower productivity and increased absenteeism.

Which means, of course, the converse is also true — a more connected employee will be more productive, and therefore more beneficial to your business.

Defining good workplace relationships

As a leader, you can assist your team in building stronger connections if you’re aware of your role in creating an environment that encourages people to come together.

To help you recognise if you’re proactively developing connections in your team, here are four simple questions to ask yourself.

Are you boosting teamwork?

Engaging in ongoing teamwork builds an environment in which co-workers can enhance their relationships.

Are you helping improve understanding?

Promoting acceptance amongst your team, where everyone feels valued, helps form successful professional relationships.

Are you increasing trust?

When co-workers trust each other, they’re more likely to communicate more authentically and honestly.

Are you opening communication?

Honest communication is important to any successful relationship, allowing people to genuinely get to know each other.

Six helpful ways to create camaraderie in your workplace

1. Onboarding – a great place to start

It might seem obvious, but taking the time to get onboarding right can make a vast difference when it comes to bringing people together.

One trend gaining traction is making the process more experiential, which is especially important when your workers are remote.

Delivering exercises that engage entire teams, with questions and responses from all participants, creates a feeling of mutual support.

2. Ongoing shared activities

Don’t limit the shared experiences to onboarding.

You can use other structured activities, like icebreakers to bring people together.

It can be as simple as asking about holiday plans, or music and movie recommendations.

3. Prioritising health

Allowing your colleagues the time and space they need to feel rested and recovered from stress or injury, is also critical to building better workplace relations.

We’re happier and more focused when we’re recharged, and it’s important to remind your staff you care about their health and wellbeing.

4. Normalise a culture of connection

You can set the expectations with your team around how they operate.

Creating guidelines on how remote workers interact, for example, and deciding when in-person collaboration is preferred.

5. Create opportunities for connection

Setting aside time for socialising with colleagues fosters a sense of community, even if it’s something as simple as instigating an informal chat 15-minutes before a meeting.

Or setting a time for end-of-week drinks and snacks.

Encouraging teams to socialise is how you build relationships.

6. Be flexible

They ways in which different teams and workers interact and bond are always going to be different.

Affording colleagues the freedom to connect in their own way gives them more ownership of the connections they form, as it feels more authentic.

Outgoing salespeople will probably connect in a different way to hyper-focused analysts, for example.

The connections we build at work can be just as important as those we have in our personal lives, even if they’re not as strong – as all human connection helps towards our feelings of satisfaction and joy.

Plus, of course, from a business perspective, it creates an increase in productivity and staff morale.