Work best friends, said to put an end to the Great Resignation

Employee retention has been a key topic of discussion among business owners. This is because owing to the Great Resignation, a record number of Americans are quitting their jobs and employers are at their wits ends trying to retain them. 

Therefore, it is natural that such a phenomenon has piqued the interest of academics who've carried out consistent research and study to find out what methods can be used to reduce employee turnover. The system of workplace best friends is the latest in this array of ideas. Consultant Bruce Daily recently explored this idea in his newsletter Make Work Better. He said that "one of the things that help forge these friendships is a sense of shared experience. Things we do with other people just feel more significant." A study by Gallup also suggested that it helps employees fit better into their roles, it also acts as a great motivator to continue working in the same place because you have a good time doing so. Gallup said in an online post " for example, women who strongly agree they have a best friend at work are more than twice as likely to be engaged (63%) compared with women who say otherwise (29%)."

Abigail Lee's story corroborates these findings. Lee started working at Ren fresh out of college. She said that the company and founders fostered an environment where they could interact with each other freely. Eventually, Lee befriended Eva, a Spanish colleague. Eva was older than Lee but over time they formed an amicable bond and would go to lunch together. Lee stayed at Ren for 7 years and she believes that having a strong workplace bond allowed her to stay put, the thought of coming to a place where you have happy memories and friends to share experiences with never abled her to think about changing. Having said that, most managers agree that maintaining such relationships is much more difficult while working remotely. Employees who joined companies based solely on their work culture and communication are considering a shift because they cannot experience that culture while working remotely. 

Source: CNBC