America has a loneliness crisis, and the most lonely are the young adults. This crisis is negatively impacting businesses because lonely employees are not fully engaged at work or aren’t coming in regularly to work. This lack of engagement and absenteeism impacts customer service, productivity, and innovation.
What You Can Do
Add “be a friend” to your job description and then watch those you connect with transform from being reserved, hesitant and passive to being energetic, assertive and active.
This will not only benefit those you are helping, but it will be good for you and good for business!
1. Identify two or three colleagues that you think are holding back (who has not been bringing their best to work?).
2. Have a 30-minute in-person catch-up conversation with them.
- Personally connect. Ask them what they do for fun. Find out what their joys are.
- Personal goals. Ask them what they are working on both personally and professionally.
- Actively listen .Make eye contact. Smile. Paraphrase back what you are hearing.
3. Push them to grow.
- After you meet, think about how you can push them to grow their key soft skills.
- Pick meetings you can include them in, or a project you can engage them in that will push them to develop the skills they need to improve.
- Schedule follow-up in-person check-ins with each person.
4. Challenge your leadership team to also connect with two or three colleagues they would like to see grow.
Warm Demanders of IRL Connection
Inject your workplace culture with warm demanders of In Real Life Connection.
- A Michigan State University study has linked the loneliness problem to technology taking the place of human interaction, which helps explain why young people report the highest rates.
- Many who are lonely suffer from low grade depression, and are unaware that their lack of in-person interaction is a contributing factor.
Encourage others to build social connections.
Due to the boom in virtual meetings and delivery services, people leave their homes less.
As a result, people are not ‘bumping” into others and having the impromptu conversations with familiar faces that result in comradery because of shared experiences.
Let’s face it, in many workplaces in-person engagement is not happening naturally. Given the choice, too often people will join a meeting virtually from their cubical rather that join a colleague in the conference room.
In many workplaces, that means in-person engagement opportunities need to be scheduled and required.
When you make in-person events a regular and predictable part of your culture, relationships will be built and strengthened.
Start by making part of your job to be a friend to others at work. Plus intentionally model how to be a friend at work, and encourage friendships in your organization.
Then watch the transformation in your culture and bottom line!
If you are ready to tackle this issue read Get Gen Z into the Game. It's your playbook for winning with young talent.
It will also give you ideas for how to encourage other young adults in your personal life.
Key Points
Friendship isn’t an accident — it’s a practice of noticing, showing up, and caring without keeping score.
The strongest communities form when we choose connection over convenience and make time to really see one another.