Businesswoman in boardroom
Feeling a sense of belonging at work is a lot like falling in love – in the real world, it usually doesn’t happen overnight. To make matters worse, many offices fail to provide the elements that make in-person work feel worthwhile – mentoring, collaboration, and a strong social fabric – a problem that long predates the pandemic.
Working together in person, at least on some days, can be helpful for one’s mental and physical health as well as women’s career advancement and the ability to generate creative ideas. But, we can’t simply flip a switch to achieve the type of office culture that will make employees happy and comfortable working alongside their peers for eight hours a day.
Achieving a strong sense of belonging doesn't come automatically from being in the office or seeing people – organizations have to work at it. And this lack of attention to the benefits of belonging is likely one reason why the return-to-the-office movement has stalled.
When businesses bring their employees back to their desks without taking steps to ensure they feel welcomed and supported by management and colleagues who are eager to collaborate with them to achieve common goals, it’s not surprising there’s pushback. For example, only 49% of employees asked to return to the office are coming in all five days of the workweek.
Recent surveys of working-age adults reveal a deep need for connection, which is critical for employee retention. A new report suggests that not having “a strong sense of belonging" in the workplace is a major factor in women leaving the labor force entirely, and McKinsey’s latest Women in the Workplace report made creating a workplace where women "feel like they belong'' a call to action. So what should industry leaders be doing?
To start with, we need to check in with employees to see how they are – to actually ask them if the current workplace culture supports their well-being and whether they’re getting what they need from their time in the office to do their jobs effectively.
Though recent data indicate that more than 90% of those in the C-suite say they show they're concerned about their employees' well-being, just 56% of workers think their company’s executives actually care about it. Clearly more needs to be done to address this disconnect.
This is especially true given that feeling like one belongs and is welcome in the office is important for retaining diverse talent and getting the best out of everyone. One study found that a high sense of belonging was associated with a “56% increase in job performance, a 50% drop in turnover risk, and a 75% reduction in sick days.”
Second, we need to make engaging with colleagues and upper management face-to-face as easy as possible. Employees who make the effort to show up for collaborative, in-person work shouldn’t be forced to sit through back-to-back Zoom meetings in a mostly empty office. That’s a waste of time, and definitely not worth the hassle of a morning commute.
Changing things up to ensure this doesn’t happen might require a bit of creativity. Some of our department heads at Barnard College, where I am President, have, for example, incentivized their team members to come back to the office on the same day of the week, switched up the desk locations, and even swapped out the furniture itself to facilitate certain types of interactions (e.g. conference tables instead of cubicles for easier brainstorming).
The idea is to get those who would most benefit from seeing each other in the same room at the same time since research shows it’s easier for us to generate ideas and engage in creative problem solving when we’re face-to-face compared to when we’re in virtual meetings.
Finally, showing appreciation for a job well done can make all the difference. One survey found that employees were 73% less likely to feel burned out when recognition was offered, but 81% of leaders said recognition wasn’t a major strategic priority for their companies.
Studies clearly demonstrate that building and maintaining a strong sense of belonging is imperative for success. Now is the time for organizations to work at it.
