This year’s campaign theme for the 9-15 May Mental Health Awareness week is ‘Loneliness’.  Whilst HR Optimisation have written about this topic before, we feel it important to highlight again steps employers can take to address loneliness in the workplace.  The coronavirus crisis had created a “huge shift” in how and where people work, with the wholesale move to virtual and remote working reducing opportunities for shared activities and social connections and exacerbating feelings of loneliness and strained mental health for many.

HR Optimisation supports the governments aim of urging employers to make loneliness awareness a part of their wider employee wellbeing programmes, warning that workplaces can trigger or exacerbate feelings of isolation.

Loneliness and its effects

Being alone and feeling lonely are two very separate things.  Loneliness occurs as the result of feeling disconnected from others, which can happen even when you are surrounded by people or have lots of friends, whether at work, academia, or in social situations. . Profound loneliness can occur within the context of our closest relationships too.

Loneliness could have a devastating impact on mental and physical health. Loneliness impacts on our whole lives, including our wellbeing at work.  Employers and the UK economy pay a price when a lack of social connection at work means employees show less commitment and productivity.

While introverts and extroverts seem light years apart in terms of their preference for spending time with people, the truth is, both are equally subject to feeling lonely.

How loneliness is manifested in the workplace

A report, Employers and loneliness, commissioned by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, said that while jobs and work environments created opportunities for individuals to connect, employers needed to be aware of ways that loneliness could develop or be made worse at work.

 The report said there were three main ways that loneliness manifested in the workplace:

  1. feelings of loneliness unrelated to work can be brought into the workplace;
  2. changes in the workplace such as the transition to a new role or a return from absences such as maternity leave can trigger loneliness; or
  3. excess stress from work can spilling into other areas of life creating feelings of loneliness.

Ways employers can address loneliness

Many of us know what loneliness feels like, but it is a very personal emotion and can be the result of different circumstances. We also know there is no quick fix that will make an immediate difference for everyone.

HR Optimisation’s suggested approach to tackling loneliness at work, is for companies to aim to put the individual at the heart of the solution, recognising the role that all of us can play in making a difference by reaching out to others and encouraging this as part of their workplace culture.

This includes championing the role of mentoring, buddy schemes and volunteering, which can provide people who are feeling lonely with a way to reduce their own feelings of loneliness whilst supporting others and allows Individual contributors access to meaningful connection beyond their line manager.

It is important to purposefully think about opportunities for workers to cross paths across work streams, generations, genders and race.  The first step is to curate environments where your workers can meet people who are older or younger than them etc.  We gave some examples of this in our prior article.

Employers should ensure managers are checking in to connect with staff via regular, informal one to one catch ups as well as any relevant group team meetings. Employers could also develop systems to make sure that frequency of manager check-ins are maintained and give helpful conversation starters/nudges to managers to ensure wellbeing and connection matters are discussed.

Employers can also emphasise cooperation and connectedness as part of their company values, proactively ask employees about loneliness through surveys or focus groups, make loneliness part of managers’ responsibilities and facilitate staff networks and a blend of social events to help tackle the problem.

It could also include supporting the local groups that provide opportunities for people to connect through their shared interests, as well as reducing digital exclusion within your organisation so that people can choose the online connections they want and need.

For those still with a high proportion of staff working remotely or hybrid, you can nowadays easily use software such as Donut, to facilitate randomised weekly or bi-weekly ‘coffee connection’ sessions between different team members or people from different geographies.  Feeling noticed and appreciated by the MD/CEO is also important – a Coffee Lottery with the CEO is one way to help employees feel that sense of in person connection and value.

Employers can also look to sign post employees to resources such as a company Employee Assistance programme or mental health private healthcare coverage as a further route by which employees can discuss mental health concerns.

Inderstanding what motivates your employees as well as taking action to ensure that loneliness and isolation is recognised as a risk for businesses, talked about and acted on will help. .By tackling loneliness and supporting employees to build social connections, employers can ensure a happier, healthier, more productive and resilient workforce.

Suggested Resources

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week/resources  – banners, e-signatures, booklets and information resources to help your org promote mental health awareness week.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/emerging-together-the-tackling-loneliness-network-action-plan/emerging-together-the-tackling-loneliness-network-action-plan  The Tackling Loneliness Network was formed as part of the government’s plan to tackle loneliness during Covid-19, bringing together over 70 organisations from across sectors.

https://www.hroptimisation.co.uk/culture-engagement/loneliness-at-work/ HR Optimisation article from 2020 on the topic of loneliness