Research

• 12% of people state they’re less likely to leave a company if they have a good friend there.
• 21% say that having a good friend at work makes them more creative.
• 89% of workers say work relationships matter to the quality of life.
• 71% of workers that have 25+ friends at work say they love their company (compared to only 24% of workers with no friends at work).
• Gallup research suggests that employees who are close with their co-workers are happier at work, more engaged, better with clients, do better work, and are less injury-prone.
• Gallup reports, “those without a best friend in the workplace have just a 1-in-12 chance of being engaged.”
• Research by Tom Rath suggests that if one of your colleagues is a “best” friend, you’re seven times more engaged at work than the average person.

Statement

Enhancers of this driver

• Appealing common areas
• Optimism and positivity
• Recognising common interests and goals
• Proximity
• Commonality
• Reciprocity

Detractors of this driver

• Not respecting personal boundaries
• Oversharing
• Unprofessional Conversations, gossip and “triangling” - talking about not with others
• Lack of physical proximity
• Negativity
• Unhealthy competition
• Adversarial structures

Individual

• Make time for personal contact.
• The mere presence of a friend can make it easier to tackle challenges and our blood pressure and immune cells are significantly affected by how much we like the people we spend our time with.

Leaders

• Open up team meetings by asking your employees how they’re doing, and focus on team-building, not negative competition.
• Open yourself up to authentic relationships - practise authentic leadership.
• Relinquish persona where possible.
• Forging a friendly setting often starts with the manager who sets the tone.
• Slow down - someone who is constantly rushing appears unavailable.
• Schedule “time outs” for bonding at work: Taking a break from work in a group can help employees feel more relaxed around each other. Think of sponsoring afternoon yoga sessions, Friday end-of-the-workday happy hours in the office, or an all-hands potluck lunch once a week.

Organisation

• Set up “down” time and spaces where employees can chat with each other about non-work things.
• Add a shared activity to your office space: Putting a ping-pong or foosball table, a darts board, gaming screen or a pool table or other activity in a break room can lighten people’s load, boost friendliness and encourage employees to relax together.

• Continue learning. Whether you choose on-the-job training or take an independent online course, it is essential to continue sharpening your skills. Show your employer how invested you are in learning new skills.

• Understand employee aspirations.
• Take a personal interest in employee career goals.
• Help employees outline a potential career path to visualise their future better and identify fields where they could develop their knowledge and skills.
• Collaborate with your employees. Together create a detailed and transparent development plan that matches their existing skills, experience and capability.
• Recording and checking in on this plan will increase each employee's accountability.

• Offer employees time and space to upskill. Research into employee attitudes to skill-building highlights that 96% of professionals rate upskilling as 'important' or 'very important' to them and their career. 84% aren't interested in roles with no skills development, and almost half (47%) won't work for an organisation that offers no formal training opportunities.
• A strong training program bolsters retention and cost savings in hiring, recruitment and onboarding.

• Pay attention. People are consistently telling us their stories, and many of us aren't good at genuinely understanding what they're trying to say.
• Take an extra second to pause and ask yourself (or them), "What are they trying to communicate?" This can improve any relationship in an instant.
• Respond to how people are feeling, not just what they are saying.
• Watch your body language. Body language is typically an indicator of your comfort and interest. Smile and nod when talking to colleagues to make it clear that you're interested in what they have to say.

• Model good listening practices.
• Arrange training to improve listening practices - get clear on empathetic listening.
• Encourage your people to take “breathers” to maintain healthy levels of focus and relaxation.
• Be diligent with monitoring reasonable workload. Stressed out people are less friendly.
• Use healthy conversation modelling to conduct healthy conflicts without sacrificing relationships.
• Build your mediation skills.
• Encourage people to air issues rather than stew on them.

• Foster a culture of Psychological Safety and trust.
• Make it safe to raise challenges and encourage recognition of mutual interests and goals.
• Eliminate blame language wherever you can.
• Build on Values that support trust and Psychological Safety.
• Articulate behaviours that support your values and preserve camaraderie.

• Be positive. It's important to have a positive attitude at work. When you maintain a positive persona, your coworkers are more likely to want to be around you.
• Recognize and support others. Recognize your coworkers' wins at work and congratulate them. It could be a presentation they aced or a promotion they recently received. Being supportive and communicating your support to your coworkers shows that you care and consider them a part of your team.

• Focus on successes upfront
• Celebrate personal events: Help employees get to know each other by bringing some of the personal into the office. Celebrate birthdays with lunch or a cake, throw employees baby showers and wedding celebrations. This encourages discussion among employees that has nothing to do with a project due Thursday.

• Communicate good news stories.
• Enlist advocates to arouse interest and enthusiasm in projects and activities.

• Work in common areas. If your workplace has a common area for collaborating or working more flexibly, consider spending some time there. You can interact with other employees working in the area, which may help you meet new people or develop existing relationships.
• Offer to help. Another way to improve your workplace relationships is to offer to help your peers. Even if they do not specifically ask for help, you can still offer to do

• Regular comms. Make communications with your teams informal, authentic, and as frequent as possible.

• Consult with diverse groups to keep your strategies relevant and inclusive of all your people.
• Celebrate differences and recognise the contributions of all.
• Ensure events are welcoming and take into account diverse groups.
• Consider creating employee resource groups: groups celebrating racial and ethnic groups, LGBTQIA+ identified people, women, and people with disabilities, among other groups. Translate this into your office environment and sponsor communities with common interests to forge social bonds.

• If your company hosts regular social activities outside of work, make an effort to attend. Any opportunities you have to converse with your colleagues about nonwork topics can help improve your workplace relationships.
• Maintain your balance and well-being. Stress tends to close down our ability to be considerate and insightful.

• Check-in on life balance and well-being in your check-ins with your team - Maintaining balance and well-being will enable your people to be more generous, forgiving and understanding with each other. It also underpins an upbeat, optimistic workplace culture.
• Employees are more likely to shed the strictly professional vibe outside of the office, so host an annual barbecue and encourage everyone to bring their family. Take your team members to a local sports game or amusement park. You could get more adventurous and bond over adrenaline with white-water rafting or another heart-pumping activity.

• Reinforce a culture of well-being and balance. Recognize and reward initiatives that safeguard employee well-being.
• Honour the life employees have outside of work. Celebrate and embrace employee milestones and life events.

• Keep your word. If you say it, do it. There’s no faster way to destroy trust than to break a promise.
• Be conscious of your time commitments - it is worse to let people down than not commit in the first place.

• Keep your word. If you say it, do it. There’s no faster way to destroy trust than to break a promise.
• Follow up on commitments - if you miss a one on one with your direct report, follow up on it.
• If you miss appointments habitually, it sends a clear message whether you mean to or not.

• Keep your word. If you say it, do it. There’s no faster way to destroy trust than to break a promise.
• ocus on fairness - create organisational structure and systems that enable all to thrive.
• Maintain a culture. Of transparency - Workplace conditions where only some are “in the know” lead to distrust, gossip and potential undermining of strategy, planning and individual people.