Work friends make our jobs more enjoyable – and employers also benefits from the camaraderie – but a new study suggests those workplace relationships are declining.
A recent survey, conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Express Employment Professionals, shows 94 per cent of Canadian hiring decision-makers agreed work friends offer organization’s tangible benefits, while 85 per cent believe employees are more likely to stay with a company if they have friends in the workplace.
Most respondents also agreed that work friends improve employee productivity, morale and mental health.
“Having that kind of closeness can absolutely help solve problems more quickly, can help [employees] react to situations that are challenging, can help with context clarity,” says Brent Pollington, owner of Express Employment Professionals and Specialized Recruiting Group. “I think there’s a ton of positive impacts, both for them [the work friends] and for the organization. ”
Those effects may also be more pronounced among younger workers. According to the survey, Gen Z respondents – the youngest cohort in the workplace today – were more likely to stay at a job longer because of their work friends and were more likely to say they couldn’t get through the day without them.
The likelihood of an employee leaving an organization – at least in part because of a lack of workplace friendships – is closely correlated with age, the survey shows, with younger workers saying it influences their career decisions more.
Despite the benefits of workplace friendships, recent data suggests that building and maintaining those relationships has become harder in recent years, owing to both remote work and more recent economic challenges.
According to the survey, nearly a quarter of Canadian employers said their staff seem less excited about connecting with colleagues in person today compared to three years ago.
In another recent survey conducted by Glassdoor, 53 per cent of respondents said they avoid making connections at work because they want to keep their work and personal lives separate.
When asked to elaborate, the study notes that many cited high turnover rates, layoffs and company reorganizations – coupled with the rise of remote work – as obstacles to making and maintaining workplace friendships.
“With all the layoffs that have happened in the past number of years here – especially in the tech space, where we’re seeing really high numbers – it makes sense that people would kind of protect themselves,” Mr. Pollington says. “There could be more people coming and going from their teams [more frequently] now.”
Whatever the cause, workplace friendships are in decline and that could negatively affect organizational outcomes, says Jim Harter, the chief scientist for workplace management and well-being at Gallup.
“Across workplaces globally, loneliness has increased; more than one in five people report that they experience a lot of loneliness,” he says. “When people are lonelier, they’re more likely to feel disconnected from their employer and when they’re more disconnected from their employer, they’re more likely to look for another job and are less likely to really go out of their way to serve customers.”
Mr. Harter says physical distance between colleagues has inevitably resulted in more emotional distance and those connections that used to form organically now need a little more coaxing.
“You can’t force friendships, but you can create opportunities where you let human nature take its course,” he says.
He encourages employers to organize more workplace social gatherings and more casual opportunities for employees to get to know each other, such as kicking off meetings with nonwork conversation topics.
He adds that middle managers can also play a significant role in facilitating those workplace connections.
“The manager is key to all of this because the manager is the one who can create these opportunities for people to get to know one another,” Mr. Harter says. “They know each person’s situation and they can connect people with similar interests, complimentary talents and skills.”