Recent shifts in technology, norms, and employee expectations have highlighted the vital role that connection plays in team performance.
Unfortunately, a recent survey revealed that only 34% of employees feel connected to their colleagues. This lack of connection is felt regardless of work modality, underscoring the fact that work location isn’t the most important aspect of connection.
Our research highlights that connection in the workplace is comprised of the following factors:
- Belonging: Team members feel valued and included.
- Conflict management: Differing opinions are respected and appreciated.
- Psychological safety: Team members feel safe speaking up.
- Recognition: Team members feel seen and appreciated.
- Trust: Team members trust one another.
- Energy & well-being: Team members are engaged and don’t feel burnt out.
So how can leaders improve connection, and why is it important to do so?
Below is an overview of the importance of team connection, as well as five practical ways to enhance it at your organization.
Why is Connection So Important?
Organizational success requires teams to collaborate and communicate effectively.
When employees don’t feel connected to one another, however, the drivers of high-performance teaming suffer.
There’s an abundance of research that demonstrates the importance of connection, particularly in the following areas:
- Retention: In a McKinsey survey of employees who recently quit their jobs, 46% cited a lack of trust and care among team members as a key reason, and 51% didn’t feel a strong sense of belonging.
- Engagement: Gallup reports that having a “best friend” at work increases a team member’s engagement by 7x and increases their job satisfaction by 17%.
- Performance: Research from McKinsey shows that higher levels of social capital improve both team and individual performance.
- Well-being: According to Harvard Business Review (HBR), employees with better relationships tend to be happier and less burnt out.
These factors are incredibly important—not just to your organization’s culture but to its bottom line as well.
Why Connection Doesn’t Require In-Person Interactions
Connection isn’t as simple as facilitating in-person interactions, which is why in-office days and return-to-office policies don’t inherently cultivate meaningful relationships.
In fact, according to research published in HBR, virtual interactions between coworkers working from home can actually provide a unique opportunity for team members to bond.
The article suggests that during video calls, personal details:
- Emerge more often: Remote work settings give team members a chance to discover more personal, non-work-related details about each other since they’re seeing into one another’s lives through the screen.
- Don’t require as much intentional prompting: These insights often come up naturally through casual or incidental moments—such as a toddler unexpectedly walking into the room.
- Are experienced visually: Video meetings add a unique layer to this—coworkers pick up on these personal details more visually and memorably through sights, sounds, and surroundings.
For example, a team member might inquire about a colleague’s decor, a musical instrument in the background, or even a cat walking across the screen.
However, if team members lack the opportunity or don’t feel comfortable engaging in non-work conversations, these types of interactions won’t have the same connective impact.
How To Improve Connection: 5 Tips
Whether your team is fully in-office, remote, distributed, or hybrid, purposeful and intentional facilitation of meaningful interactions is necessary for team members to connect.
Here are five ways to accomplish this:
1. Host Purposeful Non-Work Conversations
One of the core drivers of connection is belonging. Team members need to feel like they’re part of the team and that their contributions are valued.
It’s important to note that belonging isn’t the same as “fitting in.” Gallup research reveals that in cultures with high levels of belonging, employees feel that the following is true:
- Their opinions matter and are appreciated
- Team members care for them
- Differences are respected
According to research from Sloan MIT Management Review, one of the most effective ways to build belonging is through informal meetings without an agenda.
Interpersonal conversations in which the objective is to connect with colleagues can enhance their sense of belonging.
For example, consider our virtual team experience, Meaningful Connections. Led live by a Stanford instructor, this experience leverages the power of simple questions to encourage team members to explore shared interests and learn more about one another.
2. Make It Safe for Employees To Speak Up
To feel connected, team members must feel like their opinions matter.
Psychological safety is a key contributor to team performance—as well as connection and belonging.
In a psychologically safe culture, team members feel safe taking interpersonal risks such as speaking up or disagreeing with a superior.
However, simply instructing employees to “speak up” isn’t an effective way to facilitate open discussion.
According to HBR, one of the best ways to get employees to voice their thoughts is by embedding standard questions into meetings and actively encouraging team members to answer them. These questions should be asked routinely, becoming a shared norm at your workplace.
While the specific questions may vary depending on the specific input you need and your current workplace culture, some ideas include:
- What are the potential drawbacks of this idea?
- Is there any element of this idea that isn’t likely to work?
- If this project doesn’t succeed, what would be your best guess as to why?
It’s a good idea to encourage each member of the team to write down their best answer to these questions individually and then share them as a team, giving equal consideration to each.
This approach ensures that everyone has a chance to voice their reservations without the implicit anxiety associated with being the sole dissenter.
3. Reframe Conflict and Encourage Divergent Perspectives
Conflict is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to be divisive.
As a leader, it’s important to facilitate a shared understanding of conflict as an opportunity to explore divergent perspectives rather than something to be avoided. By intentionally reframing dissenting opinions as valuable contributions, you help create a culture where they’re valued and respected.
When conflict does arise, it’s important for leaders to do the following to help manage it:
- Emphasize empathy: One of the most important factors in conflict resolution is achieving an understanding and respect of one another’s perspectives. When managing conflict, ask questions to identify both parties’ underlying interests and start from there.
- Respect all perspectives: When someone voices a disagreement, be intentional about hearing and understanding their perspective, even if it’s not shared by the rest of the team.
- Encourage learning: Encourage everyone to approach conflict with the goal of learning from one another rather than proving a point. According to HBR, this simple approach increases willingness to engage in a conflict and improves its outcome.
When team members respect one another’s opinions, seek to learn from each other, and practice empathy, conflict is more likely to result in increased connection rather than division.
4. Be Intentional about Recognizing and Appreciating Employees
Employees need both recognition and appreciation.
HBR makes the following distinctions between these two concepts:
- Recognition: Positive feedback about an employee’s accomplishments or performance.
- Appreciation: Acknowledging employees’ inherent value as people and colleagues.
While recognition is about something that an employee did, appreciation is about who they are.
Research from HBR shows that employees in high-performing teams receive appreciation 79% more often from managers and 72% more often from colleagues—and they express appreciation 44% more often than those in lower-performing teams.
A Gallup survey revealed that the most impactful recognition is personalized and authentic. This requires intentional effort, especially in remote settings where casual moments of gratitude—like thanking someone in passing—aren’t as natural.
To facilitate this, lead purposeful conversations that encourage team members to express genuine gratitude and appreciation for one another.
Read more: 10 Ways to Show Appreciation to Employees
5. Practice Empathy as a Team
Empathy is one of the core pillars of team trust. When team members don’t feel like their colleagues care about them, they’re not going to feel connected.
This is why practicing active listening as a team is vitally important.
HBR recommends the following practices for active listening:
- Listen until the end: Instead of thinking about what you’ll say next, intentionally listen until the other person has completely finished their thought without interrupting.
- Listen to summarize: Focus on understanding the “big picture” of what the other person is saying and summarize it to ensure you understand their meaning. Then ask, “Did I get that right?”
- Listen for relationship and content: After mastering the previous two steps, prioritize balancing addressing the core issue with expressing empathy and care for your colleague.
- Listen for values: During conversations, seek to identify and understand your team members’ underlying motivations.
It’s important to practice these techniques as a team, not just individually. For instance, if one team member routinely practices listening until the end, but others don’t do the same, that person may never get a chance to speak.
Situations such as these are why there’s increasing emphasis on team learning in the workplace. To maximize collaboration, connection, and team effectiveness, teams need to optimize how they work together.
Need Help Planning Connective Moments?
It’s one thing to understand the need to practice these techniques as a team—it’s another to find time to do so.
If planning social interactions or team learning sessions feels unnatural or difficult, consider using Teamraderie’s live, virtual team experiences to facilitate connection.
Our expert hosts—consisting of professors, Olympians, authors, and more—will join your team live for a short virtual session intended to enhance one of the drivers of team performance.
These sessions are easy to fit into a busy schedule and deliver a meaningful impact, regardless of where your team is located.
Click here to explore our experience finder to find the right experience for your team.