Workplace loneliness remains a widespread issue despite increased awareness and efforts from employers. Factors like remote work are often blamed, but research shows that work location is less of a factor than social opportunities, team dynamics, and organizational culture.
Top fix is shared lunches, happy hours, or chit chat in meetings. Cultural boosters include building slack into the day, managers having people's backs, and intentional outreach to lonely employees to significantly improve connection. Companies should measure loneliness, create time for relationship-building, and foster a culture of pulling together to reduce loneliness and build employee well-being and productivity.
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On the other hand, as with most such studies, one suggestion is pushing introverts to be more extoverted: “In other words, our data shows that lonely employees might hold back when social opportunities are presented... The good news is that initial resistance can often be overcome with targeted and sincere recruitment efforts.”
Less conventional research suggests letting people self-select into activities that add to their energy levels rather than require energy to participate.
(Based on that research, for example, rather than mandated group outings, we provide every employee a monthly "3+ shared lunch" budget to use or combine, which can be used 3 people at a time or pooled for larger teams without asking manager approval, allowing social interaction to develop organically instead of being a "company" or "HR" event. We do work out and offer company sponsored events such as karting, bar or arcade takeovers, or private dinners, and sponsor entire company gatherings a couple times a year, but do not require attending them. Finally, we fully stock a self-prep kitchen — think microwave, not stovetop, and dishwashers to clean up after yourself — with an oversized shared table. This area offers the proverbial watercooler all day, but meaningful shared lunches or brainstorming syncs as well.)
TL;DR:
Workplace loneliness remains a widespread issue despite increased awareness and efforts from employers. Factors like remote work are often blamed, but research shows that work location is less of a factor than social opportunities, team dynamics, and organizational culture.
Top fix is shared lunches, happy hours, or chit chat in meetings. Cultural boosters include building slack into the day, managers having people's backs, and intentional outreach to lonely employees to significantly improve connection. Companies should measure loneliness, create time for relationship-building, and foster a culture of pulling together to reduce loneliness and build employee well-being and productivity.
---
On the other hand, as with most such studies, one suggestion is pushing introverts to be more extoverted: “In other words, our data shows that lonely employees might hold back when social opportunities are presented... The good news is that initial resistance can often be overcome with targeted and sincere recruitment efforts.”
Less conventional research suggests letting people self-select into activities that add to their energy levels rather than require energy to participate.
(Based on that research, for example, rather than mandated group outings, we provide every employee a monthly "3+ shared lunch" budget to use or combine, which can be used 3 people at a time or pooled for larger teams without asking manager approval, allowing social interaction to develop organically instead of being a "company" or "HR" event. We do work out and offer company sponsored events such as karting, bar or arcade takeovers, or private dinners, and sponsor entire company gatherings a couple times a year, but do not require attending them. Finally, we fully stock a self-prep kitchen — think microwave, not stovetop, and dishwashers to clean up after yourself — with an oversized shared table. This area offers the proverbial watercooler all day, but meaningful shared lunches or brainstorming syncs as well.)