Looking ahead at building employee community and belonging

Employers today face many challenges, including the need to hire and retain staff amid a strong job market that is creating new rules and employer propositions with hybrid work, burnout, and other factors driving change. At the same time, they need to manage rising benefit costs - including healthcare costs, which can often call for unpopular actions like increasing annual premium contributions for employees and their families and increasing co-pays on doctor visits and other key healthcare actions.

It may seem hard to find the balance, but there is a way to create a workplace culture to engender loyalty and healthier employees with lower cost trends. The secret is building community to engage employees in meaningful, personally rewarding activities.

The U.S. Surgeon General identified Workplace Wellbeing as one of its priority areas, and community is an essential element of overall wellbeing. It’s a special component that contributes to individual wellbeing and extends to others –a virtuous cycle. Our communities help us feel safe, accepted, and part of something. In return, being part of a healthy community supports our healthier choices.

The relationship between employee engagement and wellbeing is vital because how people experience work influences their lives outside of work, and overall wellbeing influences life at work. Orchestrating employee experiences that positively impact work/life integration helps employees feel a sense of belonging and connection in a highly connected yet disconnected world. Building community at work is an important element that positively contributes to employee engagement, wellbeing, health and related costs. When employees are engaged and thriving, they experience significantly less stress, anger, and health problems; and feel like they belong by contributing to their organization’s mission.

Employers that prioritize community creation will experience:

• Healthier, lower-cost employees
• Higher retention & productivity rates
• Authentic, resilient culture that can handle the next wave of change

Today, forward-looking organizations have started leveraging their wellbeing program to foster community. Over the next several years, employers of all sizes will increasingly embrace this need and establish programs and cultures that support a healthier, more vibrant community inside and outside of the workplace.

Expert takeaway: Here are the top three actions employers should do to help create connection among employees:

1. Think beyond work: Give employees a place to connect beyond the workplace or workday – and make it personal – to support their work/life integration needs and expectations. This can be in-office happy hours, but it can also be peer-to-peer recognition or an organizational movement challenge.
2. Make it personal: Not everyone enjoys the same things. Tailoring your outreach and ongoing messaging helps employees know you see what’s unique about them. It also supports a more inclusive environment.
3. Provide easy access: House social connections and related information in an easy-to-access place. For some, that maybe be a breakroom; for others, a company intranet or a partner app that can fit into employees’ daily routines and interests.