Navigating the global loneliness epidemic

- Workplace loneliness is now a global issue, affecting both the physical and mental wellbeing of employees around the world. So what is loneliness? Loneliness is the gap between the type and amount of human connection you desire, and the type and amount of human connection you are actually getting. And guess what? When we're lonely, we become stressed. Now that stress related to loneliness, leads to absenteeism, and in turn is costing American organizations $154 billion US dollars per annum, according to the US Surgeon General's Report. In a 2023 State of the Nation Report out of Australia, it was cited that people who said they were lonely also said that they were less productive. Workplace loneliness also means that employees treat their jobs as far more transactional. They just go in and get out, and therefore, attrition is also higher, because they're not engaged in the mission of the organization. So how do we improve things? Let's start for getting engaged on how connected you and your team at work are. We can do this with three simple reflection questions. So get your pen and paper ready. Number one, if you had to give a score of one to 10, 10 being the best, how connected would you say your team is? Have a deep think. Are there cliques in your team where other people could be being left out? Number two, how committed have you and your organization been to arranging social events to foster human connection? Number three, again scoring from one to 10, 10 being the highest, how big has human connection been in your management style up until now? After you've written these down, reflect on your answers. And if you're still unsure and want an even more full picture, you can ask a trusted colleague to give their opinion on you and your work team. From there, we should have a nice baseline to gauge how important human connection is, and how much you might need to build it amongst your workplace team.