Three Simple Ways to Help Your Coworkers Feel Like They Belong

Research shows that a sense of belonging not only contributes to employee wellbeing, but also to organizational success and productivity. Employees who feel a sense of belonging at work report greater job satisfaction and engagement, take fewer sick days, and have less job turnover. Employees who feel they belong are 8.7x more likely to intend to stay with their organization for the next year than those who do not.

Creating a culture of belonging and inclusivity is key to helping your organization or business reach its goals. While workplace culture should be among the top priorities for organizational leaders, employees at all levels can contribute to a culture of belonging, if only they are empowered to do so. A study of 1500 employees across 50 states found that 73% of respondents want to take action to promote a culture of belonging at work, but only 21% feel strongly prepared to do it.

Here are 3 actionable steps you can take to promote belonging among your coworkers. 

1. Develop personal relationships with coworkers 

Getting to know your coworkers as whole people, and not just colleagues, can help create a culture of belonging. Consider reaching out to members of your team for an informal chat or cup of coffee, especially new employees or employees that you haven’t connected with in the past. This is especially useful for breaking down organizational silos that can leave people feeling isolated or excluded.  

2. Recognizing talents/diverse skills of workers

Employees are more likely to feel they belong when they feel “seen” by their coworkers and leaders. Recognition might come in the form of praise during a team meeting or a team email highlighting someone’s recent contribution or accomplishment.  You might reach out to your colleague to jointly problem-solve or to leverage their strengths when starting a new project. It is important to recognize employees’ individual strengths and contributions in order to build an inclusive culture.

3. Be intentional about combating exclusion

You can foster inclusion by deliberately combating exclusion in formal and informal ways. This might mean ensuring that relevant stakeholders are included on meeting invitations, encouraged to share ideas in a group setting, or included in team bonding activities. Promoting inclusion and belonging can also be as simple as inviting colleagues to lunch who aren’t typically included. 

Fostering belonging in the workplace requires that employees at all levels have the tools they need to be successful. That’s where Vityl comes in. Backed by leading research, we focus on empowering leaders and employees with prescriptive recommendations and resources to grow individually while building culture together. As employees engage in new actions and achieve culture goals, employers realize stronger retention and performance.

Belonging is the ultimate force multiplier for today’s teams and organizations. To learn more about Vityl and unlock the power of belonging, visit the Pricing page.