Workplace loneliness is on the rise — in its 2024 State of the Global Workplace, Gallup found that 20% of workers, both remote and in-person, experienced feelings of loneliness. This statistic underscores a critical challenge for organizations worldwide: How do we foster a sense of connection and belonging among our employees?
The implications of widespread loneliness are far-reaching, potentially affecting employee well-being, productivity, engagement, and retention. During a recent Bravely webinar, Jennifer Sukola, a workplace inclusion expert and coach at Bravely, and Larry Angeli, CEO of Sift, joined Bravely career coach and moderator Ericka Spradley. They unpacked what loneliness and exclusion really look like today, and how leaders can address them head-on.
Here are the top takeaways from our panel discussion on workplace loneliness and finding connection at work.
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1. Identifying If Loneliness Exists in Your Workplace
Employee loneliness can manifest in more obvious ways. While not always definitive, signs might include a lack of participation, avoidance of social interactions, or shifts in behavior and communication.
However, some signs may be more subtle. Jennifer Sukola of Bravely suggests two methods for measuring loneliness: through surveys and by fostering an environment where such topics can organically emerge, particularly during one-on-one discussions that extend beyond immediate work tasks.
2. Do People Care About Me at Work? Do I have a Best Friend at Work?
Sift CEO Larry Angeli shared two simple but telling questions from Gallup’s landmark research on employee engagement, which is mentioned in the book, “First Break All the Rules”, by Marcus Buckingham.
Does my supervisor or someone at work care about me as a person?
Do I have a best friend at work?
These weren’t just feel-good questions—they ranked among the top 12 predictors of engagement out of thousands Gallup studied. But is engagement directly related to loneliness? According to a separate U.S. study by Gallup, engaged employees were 64% less likely to be lonely than those who are not engaged.
Larry admitted that earlier in his career, he didn’t see friendship or personal connection as essential at work, but had to work and develop it over time.
“Because it didn’t come naturally to me, I really had to work at it and kinda develop that muscle…Because of that I really have built some relationships that I never would have imagined I’d have with people.”
Ericka Spradley, mentioned she also felt similarly advancing through her career.
Gallup’s findings are clear: when employees feel cared for and have strong friendships at work, they’re more engaged, more loyal, and more likely to thrive. Friendships create trust, psychological safety, and the kind of candid collaboration that drives performance. If you’re struggling at making connections at work, Indeed has some good tips on how to make friends at work.
3. Connection Starts with Interests
Feeling excluded can also come down to not knowing others at a level beyond their workself. People need to feel like they are talking to a human being, and that gets down to knowing more about what they care about outside work and what they are interested in. You never know, you may have more in common with someone than you think.
At Sift, we have found low touch and organic ways for people to display their interests. One of the ways is through our weekly all-team meetings where each person is able to share a fun thing they did over the weekend or answer a random thought-provoking question like, “If you could eliminate one thing from your daily routine, what would it be and why?” Some weeks the questions are very deep and you uncover a lot about someone in that segment that you would typically never know.
Larry shares a story about bonding over shared cooking interests that changed his professional dynamic with a colleague.
4. Fun is a Serious Business Tool
It’s no secret that joyful, non-work moments strengthen bonds. This was true before the shift to remote work and has become even more significant now where time for connection is more difficult to cultivate.
You can’t force fun, so consider surveying your own team—ask employees how interactions like virtual get togethers or games affect their sense of connection. Piloting different formats (like bi-weekly trivia sessions, lunch hangouts) and measuring changes in responses to these surveys over time. You definitely don’t want to force anything on the team, a lot of the feedback at Sift came from surveys and quarterly retrospectives to gauge the interest level.
Larry mentioned that at Sift, there is an event team that plans these events and activities have ranged from quick games like GeoGuessr on Microsoft Teams, to watching part of an Olympic Break dancing final together. Check out our blog for ideas on fun remote team activities.
Larry explains how Trivia sessions created using tools like Slido create some fun, friendly competition at Sift. One of Sift’s team members have even been known to create virtual trophies for the winners.
The bottom line: Loneliness is a universal challenge, but it’s not unsolvable. By designing connections, making people visible, and making room for fun, organizations can turn isolation into inclusion.
