How to nurture connection as a hybrid team manager

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Continuing a series of blogs that aim to support managers of hybrid teams in ensuring their teams are connected, engaged, cohesive and able to perform, this month we focus on connection. Rather than being nice to have, connection is an essential of the hybrid working age. Research from BetterUp explains that it is not just that people have become more isolated, but that companies need stronger connections with and among their people to have the committed, adaptable, resilient, and mentally fit workforce that they need. In their survey more than half said they want and need more connection in the workplace. Read on to understand why connection is important, and what you can do as a manager to encourage and nurture effective connection.

Why is connection at work important?

• The BetterUp research shows that how connected workers feel to their colleagues links strongly to employee experience and talent retention. A  lack of connectivity at work leads to reduced psychological safety, physical well-being, cognitive ability, and social thriving among employees.
• Individuals who experience lower connection in the workplace have 73% less engagement than those that are highly connected, and those that feel isolated/lonely have a 313% stronger intention to quit
• Research shows that relationship building directly impacts employee performance

Does this mean we need to be physically in the workplace more often?

Interestingly, work arrangement isn’t the obvious predictor of how connected workers feel as hybrid workers feel more connection and belonging than in-person and remote workers, perhaps because there is greater consciousness that connection won’t happen by accident.

What can managers do to support and build team connection?

The research explains that how connected we feel in the workplace is linked to:

1. size of our networks and
2. feelings we experience in those networks (belonging, friendship, sense of collaboration) – i.e. quality of relationships is important

As a result, managers can enable team member connection by championing and role modelling relationship building skills and helping team members to prioritise relationship building; this reinforces its value and may motivate more personal investment in social connection across the team.

Not ‘one size fits all’

Employees have different needs when it comes to the nature of the relationships that they build at work, as the BetterUp diagram below shows. As such, it can be helpful for managers to have awareness of the needs of each team member.

Source: BetterUp: The Connection Crisis: Why community matters in the new world of work (betterup.com)

Key tips for managers

In addition to the above as a manager you can:

• Set shared goals – promoting shared goals is key to cultivating solid social connections and team cohesion.
• Foster open communication – when managers play a central role in facilitating open and vulnerable communication, employees see this effort and feel empowered to build the healthy relationships that drive belonging.
• Make space for spontaneous interactions, and help create them when possible – e.g. planning overlapping in-office days and encouraging social connection during these days or randomly pairing team members together for coffee chats.
• Focus on enabling quality, not just quantity of connection – this requires being vulnerable enough to let people know the real you, having spontaneous interactions, and getting to know someone on a personal level i.e. not just focusing on the work between you
• Enable connection through work not just at work – assign work-related collaboration to help foster relationships within and across teams.
• It is helpful to make connection a priority from day 1 with onboarding by shaping onboarding programs to support more social connection (instead of just focusing on company policies and work tasks)

As you consider where you might benefit from applying any of these tips, take the time to think about your own connection needs as a manager – do you prefer purely professional, friendly, or friends, and what are you doing currently to make sure you meet your connection needs?

Finally, if you have any tips on how you are intentionally creating a team environment to foster connection, please do share.