25th October 2022
4 Ways to Foster a Sense of Belonging in Your Workplace
We humans are social beings. When we feel included within our communities, we thrive. When we feel disconnected, we suffer.
And a recent study revealed that many of us are suffering, with over 80% reporting a sense of loneliness in the workplace.
In the workplace, a lack of connection is detrimental to employee performance, productivity, creative output and overall wellbeing. And when individual performance is compromised, organizational performance suffers too.
So, to avoid organizational attrition and get the best out of your teams, here are 4 ways that you can foster a sense of belonging in your workplace:
From Meighan Newhouse’s article in Forbes: Why Leaders Need To Increase Organizational Belonging During Workplace Disruption.
1. Give your employees space in their schedules.
As counterintuitive as it sounds, it’s not always optimal to have people working at 100% capacity where they have no white space in their calendars. This scenario can actually feel alienating. I advise managers to take a hard look at employee workloads to think about things that can be offloaded or automated to take some of the pressure off.
In our consulting work, my team and I find great value in scheduling a breather and opportunity for reflection and thought in between projects as well. This can include a walk outside, a coffee break or just some traditional downtime. In addition, a post-mortem team meeting that brings everyone on a project together to review what worked and what could be improved is a good bonding mechanism.
2. Encourage mentoring.
I’ve also seen mentoring as a great way to uplift team members and bring light to their skills and talent. This includes both traditional mentoring as well as reverse mentoring, where “junior” team members teach their managers new skills.
Pairing people with others on the team who have complementary skill sets is another means of fostering a greater sense of belonging, especially if such individuals have mutual respect and general fondness for each other. I find that this sparks a kind of magic and results in a higher quotient of creative and innovative solutions.
3. Host team-building activities.
Getting the team together either virtually or in person can work wonders at building team connections. Consider rotating the responsibility for facilitating team gatherings so that everyone at some point gets a chance to lead an icebreaker activity. This is something we do at my company. In addition, we try to carve out time for socializing and fun so people can get to know one another better, whether in a virtual breakout room or at a live event.
Any time you bring the team together in person, ensure it is carefully and intentionally planned so you maximize the use of people’s time traveling away from their home comforts and responsibilities.
4. Allow your employees to make decisions.
Finally, lifting the self-confidence of team members by empowering them to make decisions can be a game changer in terms of building a sense of organizational belonging. You are not running a day care; you should be hiring competent, talented, trustworthy individuals who will do the job you hired them to do. Trust is perhaps the greatest asset to guide your team through this disruption.
Read the full article, here.
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