How Friends at Work Build Engaged and Inclusive Workplaces

Although workplace engagement is vital to all organizations, it’s an issue that many struggle with. According to a survey that research firm Gallup conducted in June 2021, only 36 percent of employees in the US are engaged with their work and workplace. Disengaged employees cost organizations in productivity and turnover costs, while being most likely to be actively searching for new jobs.

The Science for Workplace Friendships

Workplace friendships are one potential antidote to employee disengagement. In a separate study, Gallup found a strong connection between having a best friend at work and work performance, particularly for female employees. The research found women who answered “strongly agree” to having a best friend at work were 63 percent likely to be engaged. That’s more than twice as much as those without a work pal.

Gallup has called this question its “most controversial,” but the findings show that it’s an essential piece of employee engagement—so much so that more companies have started including it on their own surveys. In an article for National Business Research Institute, Casey Mulqueen, the director of research for a Colorado-based workplace performance company, said that the single question of whether or not an employee has a good friend at work is “an important indicator of employee engagement.”

How Friendships Enhance Employee Engagement

Plenty of research backs up Mulqueen’s claim. Friendships at work help reduce employee turnover—which costs US companies an average of $26,511 a year according to a survey by Express Employment Professionals.

An SHRM article reported that those who have six or more friends at work felt connected to the company, but that feeling wanes the fewer friends employees have. When people have friends in the office, they can be honest about their feelings, which allows them to work through conflicts and issues more quickly. This means that they have fewer stressors to deal with, resulting in more time and energy to focus on their work.

Workers are also more likely to be invested in a company’s outcomes and outputs when they feel connected to the work. This environment breeds innovation and creativity. Ho Kwan Cheung, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Albany in New York, told BBC Work Life, “When you’re satisfied with your work and you enjoy being with your coworkers, it makes you a more creative and better collaborator.” Over time, this can improve customer satisfaction and, in turn, the company’s financial health and profitability.

Perhaps the most crucial benefit of having friends in the workplace is that they provide the foundation to create a sense of belonging and an inclusive culture. When workers have friends in the office, it creates a relationship-based culture rather than a transaction-based one. With this atmosphere, empathy and honest conversations are much easier to have because of an underlying sense of trust.

How to Foster Workplace Friendships

Many workplace friendships occur organically, but there are things you can do as an
organization to facilitate it. Structured buddy programs, for example, can lend themselves to friendships. When new employees have a point person to go to as they learn the company’s ropes, it encourages interaction.

Leadership development and mentorship programs are another way to build workplace friendships. While workplace friendships are more common among employees at a similar level, there is a clear value in friendships between junior and senior employees. In connecting your company leaders with early-career employees, you’re also training potential future leaders.

Lastly, consider establishing employee resource groups (ERGs) if your company doesn’t have them already. Deep friendships thrive in settings of shared interest, and ERGs allow employees to foster connection, expand networks, or come up with solutions to common workplace issues.

In a labor market rife with a talent shortage, employees are not afraid to leave a job that they don’t connect with. It’s up to you as an organization to give them a reason to stay.