Why Encouraging Workplace Friendships Benefits Your Business
Why Encouraging Workplace Friendships Benefits Your Business
A new survey finds a vast majority of employees view connections to colleagues as essential to their happiness and productivity.
Illustration: Inc. Art. Photos: iStock; Getty Images
Recent high-profile cases of company CEOs being ousted after their romances with employees were discovered have spawned countless headlines and plenty of criticism. Yet the fallout from those inappropriate intimate workplace relationships obscures the increasing recognition of the importance of people forming and strengthening friendships on the job — so long as they remain platonic. Indeed, new data shows workers believe having friends among their co-workers is more critical to their wellbeing and productivity than ever before.
Those findings came in an recent update of a 2024 Friends at Work study by consultancy KPMG. The 1,091 full-time employee participants to that follow-up survey made it clear how important many people think having personal pals among their colleagues has become. In fact, 57 percent of respondents said they’d accept being paid 10 percent less than market salary averages for a job that allowed them to work with one or several friends on staff. Conversely, the same portion of participants said they’d turn down a position with 10 percent higher wages than average if it wouldn’t permit them to establish workplace friendships.
That combined 20 percent premium that survey participants placed on having co-workers as friends coincides with the increasing number of people who say they feel lonely in their workplaces.
Past polls have recorded anywhere from 20 to over 70 percent of respondents saying they experience occasional to constant loneliness on the job. KPMG’s survey found that 45 percent of respondents said they feel “isolated and alone” at work, nearly double the 24 percent rate in 2024. That solitude may cost businesses up to $154 billion annually from worker disengagement, reduced productivity, and higher turnover, according to some estimates.
In the face of growing workplace loneliness, 87 percent of respondents to the updated KPMG survey said they consider having friendships with colleagues very to extremely important — up from 81 percent in 2024. That sentiment got successively stronger among younger participant, with 77 percent of Boomers believing that having friends among co-workers is vital, versus 90 percent of Gen-Zers who felt that way.
Most survey participants said they’ve made efforts to form and nurture personal relationships with other staffers. Fully 98 percent of respondents said they count at least one colleague as a close friend, with the number of those office chums averaging 4.5 per respondent. Those figures were up from the 79 percent of participants in the 2024 survey reporting workplace friendships, and 2.3 colleague pals per respondent.
The payoff of those amicable relationships is clear for both workers and their employers.
Nearly 30 percent of respondents said working with friends boosted their productivity and motivation. Around a quarter also said workplace friendships offer improved perspective and guidance with work; wider networking opportunities; extra burnout-thwarting stamina; increased job satisfaction; better innovation and idea sharing; a stronger sense of belonging; and more effective teamwork.
Meanwhile, with the increasing use of artificial intelligence apps now decreasing direct interactions with co-workers on some work tasks, 86 percent of respondents said their need for contact and collaborate with colleagues that they consider friends will only get stronger as time goes on.
For that reason, 90 percent of participants said they view company cultures that encourage workplace friendships as very important when considering a new job — up from 81 percent last year. Another 87 percent of respondents said the friend factor was critical in their decision to stay with a current employer or not.
“This finding shows that as talent leaders navigate disruption from AI and economic uncertainty and create competitive compensation and benefits packages, we cannot miss the importance of fostering workplace friendships, which are critical for a healthy, engaged and productive workforce,” KPMG U.S. vice chair of talent and culture Sandy Torchia told HR Grapevine.
So how can business owners increase their rates of internal company chumminess?
In addition to actively encouraging employees to get to know and appreciate one another better, holding frequent staff gatherings is an effective method toward that objective. Over a third of respondents said they’d formed friendships with colleagues during formal meetings, free flowing exchanges, or social get-togethers organized by employers. Those different business-anchored events ranged from brainstorming sessions that doubled as coffee break chats to more structured team bonding activities.
Other suggestions survey participants offered to facilitate staff friendships included companies establishing central venues for formal meetings, which staff could also use to come together on their own. Underwriting team lunches or off-site socializing opportunities was another recommendation, as well as setting up company shared-interest groups and mentoring programs that bring people into closer and more personal contact.
Central to all those suggestions is that businesses should encourage employees to learn more about and come to appreciate the personal qualities of people they already respect as colleagues.
A word to the wise
While encouraging work friendships it's important, particularly in the retail industry, to remind your employees to be cautious about friendly conversation when customers are around. Customers don't mind friendly conversation, especially if they are included, but they do mind being ignored while employees are chit chatting.
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BY BRUCE CRUMLEY AND CARL PHILLIPS
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