Social Animals
Introduction
As humans are social animals, they like to be with other humans for the social interaction, ie people care about other people.
The trend of 'not being in the office all day every day' started prior to COVID-19 and accelerated during the global pandemic (starting in 2020).
With the onset of the pandemic, remote working, ie from home, became the norm in many organisations.
This has minimised social, face-to-face interaction.More recently, organisations have been considering ways to encourage staff to return to the office. The traditional ways of doing this include establishing office cafes, fancy coffee machines, lots of small meeting rooms, fast Internet connections, natural light and plants, shower facilities, gyms, yoga/meditation rooms, etc plus re-purposed of space to encourage collaboration, learning, well-being, etc is being investigated.
Research is showing that people are motivated to return to the office as it would increase social time with co-workers, ie reconnecting with staff.
"...- 85% of employees would be motivated to go into the office to rebuild team bonds
- 84% of employees would be motivated to go into the office if they could socialise with co-workers
- 74% of employees would go to the office more frequently if they knew their 'work friends' were there
- 73% of employees would go to the office more frequently if they knew their direct team members would be there..."
Chris Capossela, 2022
Furthermore, with remote working around half of employees claim their relationship outside their immediate work group has weakened and, consequently they feel disconnected from their organisation as a whole. Additionally, over 2/3 state that maintaining social connections and cohesion within teams has been a challenge while remote working
People get energised by social interaction and it builds social capital, ie
"...The value workers get from their networks, like getting new ideas and inspiration, being able to ask for help or advice, finding new career growth opportunities..."
Chris Capossela, 2022
Maximising social capital is a critical element in an organisation's success.
There are
"...three ways......to prioritise building and rebuilding connections between people to fuel creativity, teamwork, and strong support systems that empower them to tackle challenges..."
Chris Capossela, 2022
Three ways to minimise social connection.
i) strip away busywork (make face-to-face connections a top priority; allow time and space for people to reconnect; this will fuel innovation, psychological safety, retention, etc; institute meeting-free days and encourage organised socialising, etc)
ii) create in-person rituals (develop new ways of bringing people together, ie creating potential opportunities for connection like group lunches, series of workshops, etc; encourage informal meetings with senior management; develop networking opportunities)
iii) do it authentically (both employees and decision-makers stressed the important of authenticity so that all staff feel safe to connect at deeper levels than just transactional relationships:
"...85% of employees rank authenticity as the number one quality a manager can have to support them to do their best work......83% of business decision-makers saying it's important for their senior leadership to show authenticity..."
Chris Capossela, 2022
Summary
"...It is clear that putting people at the centre by fostering connection between employees is key to the new role of the office..."
Chris Capossela, 2022
"... People who get value out of being in the office for being around other people are still travelling into city centres while people who don't need to be there are going in less..."
Gabriel Metcalfe as quoted by Jenny Wiggins, 2022
One of the dominant reasons people prefer remote working is the time lost commuting, to and from home/work, on a daily basis.