Top Ways to Improve Employee Connections

Businesses today are not only staring down the challenges of hiring and onboarding talented staff – it is also a question of retaining them long term. To that end, employee retention has a great deal to do with perks, salary, company culture and a sense of place and purpose – but strong employee connections are similarly vital.

Workplace connections thrive not only by ensuring a strong sense of camaraderie and teamwork when deadlines loom large and the going gets tough. Indeed, it is also a question of leveraging employee connections [1] to foster a sense of place, of purpose, and of consistent motivation and innovation throughout your organization.

Of course, even the most experienced of business leaders and HR professionals know that the kind of rapport that makes for solid employee relations cannot be forced. Instead, such workplace relations are coaxed and cultivated with the right approach – such as via the strategies detailed below.
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How to define employee connections
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Employee connections describe not only the ways in which your teammates communicate and coordinate with each other. It is also a question of how they relate to – and feel comfortable around – the organization's leadership as well as how they build relationships and build connections with each other.

In this regard, workplace relations can often be relied upon to arise naturally as workmates interact and cohesive team efforts are pushed over the line. Challenging projects and interesting new directions in which you are taking the business help employee relations by uncovering new talents – and inspiring new ways of working.

However, due to the benefits of robust workplace connections, defining the employee experience to be a more positive and socially binding productivity cycle can help your business thrive – even during intervals of economic uncertainty [2].
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How to boost employee connections

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The employee experience thrives at its best when workers feel engaged, valued and dedicated to a worthwhile cause. Workplace connections are often built under duress – against stringent deadlines or when the team is facing sudden swerves to project deliverables that need everyone at the top of their game.

Of course, no business leader sets out to create an employee experience fraught with stressors – and few enterprises could survive long-term under such operational circumstances. Instead, strong employee connections can be cultivated by frequent and engaging social events – but also by the everyday environment in which workers interact.

Of course, creating a welcoming office environment in the working world of today is given an extra layer of complexity by the advent of hybrid and remote workstyles. The heavy investment you have put into creating an inviting break room, for example, does little to motivate or foster a feeling of connection in someone working from home.

However, there are intelligent ways around this [3] – workplace relations can hinge on employees sharing tips on their home office setups, for example, while stories about their pets – or local landmarks for geographical disparate teammates – can help create employee relations that transcend the need for physical presence.
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Benefits of having strong employee connections in the workplace.

While every business leader understands how important it is to have strong workplace connections among their teammates, the true benefits of fostering strong employee connections within your business have some surprising added advantages.
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Increased employee retention

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Strong workplace connections make colleagues feel like tried-and-true teammates – ready and willing to face even the most demanding of workdays. In an employment climate in which retention has become a major concern [4] for many business leaders, having an added layer of employee connections can go a long way.
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Added transparency between leadership and colleagues

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The spotlight is shining bright on leadership practices today – and transparency is often the key to helping business leaders remain approachable and trusted by the wider workforce.

Workplace relations that are actively improved over time remove the traditional sense of unease many employees feel when confiding in their managers. That means leaders have greater insight into what’s truly going on in their teams – and can more proactively identify and remedy pain points.
Greater employee motivation and satisfaction
Employee motivations [5] can be complicated to understand, yet the role that workplace connections play in helping that motivation to manifest cannot be understated.

Workers are motivated by promotions, bonuses, favorable performance reviews and impressing their bosses – but when employee connections in your organization are strong, they also want to be seen to be doing a good job among their peers.
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Greater resilience under duress

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When times get tough, the last thing any business needs is employees who hand in their notice just when their skills and competencies are in the direst need.

While there is no truly ideal time in which to lose top talent, employee connections nevertheless help businesses to sustain a tight-knit team when the odds seem stacked against you. It is also far easier to motivate a group than an individual, and that means you can rally the troops when circumstances are at their most trying.
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Employees will support one another

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A team of gossiping and snide remarks when backs are turned seldom goes far. Conversely, an employee experience buoyed by positive workplace relations will have teammates covering one another’s absences, rectifying one another's mistakes, and organic training and knowledge transfer opportunities arising – all without managerial intervention.

Those business leaders most keen to see teams that can be relied upon to self-manage to a greater extent will see countless such advantages, when employee connections are encouraged to develop.
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Strong employee connections are central to your company’s success

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Business as usual seems to be a concept that simply doesn’t apply to the working world of today. Nonetheless, there are still plenty of ways in which intelligent business leaders can cultivate strong employee relations – and numerous advantages that follow from doing so.

Motivation, preparation, coordination, communication and increased loyalty to the organization – rich rewards indeed for enterprises today.

Cultivating strong employee connections is not an arcane art or secret science either. With the right technology, like Qualee by your side, you have the communication and team building resources at hand to develop your employees into true comrades in arms.

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[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/01/07/14-ways-to-foster-connection-between-employees/?sh=239c6a22667f
[2] https://www.economicsobservatory.com/why-uncertainty-so-damaging-economy
[3] https://www.business.com/articles/remote-workers-feel-connected/
[4] https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/428111
[5] https://www.inc.com/encyclopedia/employee-motivation.html