“Over a 2.5 billion pound cost of loneliness to UK employers, due to increased sick days and time off to care for others, to lower productivity and staff retention levels.” - found The Co-Op and New Economics Foundation

Loneliness can effect every area of life’s and we wrote in our May blog for Mental Health Awareness Week that, no surprise, covid has had a massive impact, certainly in the workplace. We are working at home more than ever and for some people, they never leave the house, even to go to the shops with the delivery of shopping facilities.

The Co-Op and New Economics Foundation found there is over a 2.5 billion pound cost of loneliness to UK employers, due to increased sick days and time off to care for others, to lower productivity and staff retention levels.

So what can you do as an employer to improve connectivity among your workforce?

• Talk to new employees and agree the level of communication touch points that will take place. Working remotely, say good morning via teams, have a midday check in how the day is progressing and have a quick 5 minute video call before home time. In the office, walk to the kitchen and make the morning brew together, have a quick 5 minute face to face huddle on how the day has gone before home time. Whatever you do, do it regularly and often and build a healthy routine, that way if it doesn’t happen, you are more likely to notice it quicker. Please don’t manage by email - the art of conversation really does go a long way!

• Find the time for social interaction in work. Ask staff what they would like to do and if at first, staff are not interested, build up from the small things, such as at the end of team meetings, spend 5 minutes on what everyone is doing at the weekend and make a point of following up on that the week after. Show that interest and the trust will come and in time, maybe more. Don’t be that workplace where its head down all of the time and you don’t know your staff are and worst still, they don’t know who their colleagues are. Research shows that socially connected people, have higher levels of engagement and productivity, so it really does make good business sense!

• Talk to staff regularly about what works for them in your regular 121’s. They might feel that a particular process would be better shared with any colleague, halfing the time it takes to complete thereby increasing productivity and at the same time interaction with others. If a staff member does raise a concern as part of a 121, listen and agree positive steps in which to provide support. Know who you can signpost them to if you agree more help is needed - the NHS have a great page full of useful suggestions. The most important thing is not to pass judgement, that can be part of the issue, fear of judgement and embarrassment. This shows in a survey Total Jobs performed of 2,000 employees in which the results showed 1 in 4 women and 1 in 5 men would tell someone at work they were feeling lonely, most would tell friends or family, while 10% would tell their line manager and just 4% would tell their HR department. 34% would tell no one at all!

• Encourage staff to be proactive about building relationships,- set that example as a Manager and make it part of the ethos in the business and they will feel more comfortable doing the same

Working in a standalone consultancy role, I make it a mission every week to connect with people I know, people I don’t know and to go to fitness classes, have lunch with someone once a week and walk the dog everyday. Some days, its raining, there is too much to do on the to do list, but there is only me that can make it happen and if I don’t, I will pay the price long term.

What will you be doing this week, and beyond, to limit any feelings you have around loneliness and also looking out for others?