Last week LinkedIn published the results of a study they co-created with Gallup on the prevalence of friendships at work. I love these little research snippets, and really appreciate Gallup and LinkedIn leveraging their shared skills to do them. I have some qualms with the way the results are crafted and published, but more on that later.
The basic question asked LinkedIn users whether or not they had “at least one close friend” at work. 16,450 people took part across a range of industries, and that is how the data is presented. On the low end, 46% of respondents in Transportation and Logistics said they had a close friend at work, while 64% of those surveyed in Utilities felt connected to others on the job. Though I’m sure there’s a lot more data available, the top and bottom 5 categories were highlighted, as seen below.
A couple of things jumped out at me as interesting about this data, especially for HR and Executive leaders interested in making their workplaces more Friend Forward.
There’s Lots of Opportunity for Growth / 75% Target
Whether it is in the top or bottom industry, there’s seemingly lots of opportunity to grow the percentage of employees with a close friend at work. Because we know that work friendships are so important in fostering better outcomes and satisfaction, it makes sense for every company to pursue a 75%+ goal target for close friendship formation.
While that might seem high at first, think about your high school or college experience - what percentage of your fellow students had a close friend? Those environments are similarly insular and intense when compared to the modern workplace, and we benefit from friendships just as much.
The IRL Inversion
A few industries with a guaranteed in person workplace seemed to fare worse in the study than those that might be hybridized or remote. Retail, accommodation and transportation all have high in-office profiles, but scored at the bottom of the rankings. It’s difficult to draw further conclusions about this without knowing the more specific employee role breakdown, however. For example, transportation employees can include bus drivers - who have fairly solitary jobs - and airline gate agents, who work with the same people every day and interact a lot.
The core lesson I’ve seen in my work with companies on Friend Forward cultures is that being in-office doesn’t automatically make friendships happen. It does make them easier to foster and nurture, but they don’t just magically happen at scale. We have to work at them.
Stability and Longevity Matter
Industries with lower turnover have more friends, and industries with more friends have lower turnover. This is evidenced quickly in this chart, where some of the lowest employee churn professions (utilities, education, government, healthcare) are also those with the greatest number of friends. Conversely, the industries with the greatest turnover (retail, tech, transport) are at the bottom of the list.
The virtuous circle of friendship and retention continues, and this chart definitely drives that home.
Understanding Your Organization
Now’s a great time to conduct a quick study in your organization on friendship. Using the Friend Forward Framework, we ask several key questions to understand the nature and strength of connections in your company. These go beyond who has a single close friend to investigate both the quantity and quality of connections. Understanding this landscape can help your organization foster and grow friendship connections to improve productivity and outcomes.
While it might be tempting to look at these industry data points and try to quickly compare your organization, I’d advise against doing that. In order to really understand the friendship landscape and what can be accomplished, additional data is needed, including:
Total number of connections
Quality of connections
Longevity of connections
Organizational support for connections
Attitudes towards friendships at work
When those vectors are brought together and analyzed, a clearer picture can emerge around opportunities to improve internal Friendships.
In Conclusion
It’s so exciting to see more and more insights and data emerging about Friendship in the workplace and how to foster Friend Forward cultures. If you’re curious about this idea and how to encourage more connection in your culture, drop me a line or leave your ideas in the comments below.
Why Some Industries Are So Good at Fostering Work Friendships