In honour of #LonelinessAwarenessWeek, find out how to tackle the silent epidemic unfolding in the workplace—and build stronger, more resilient teams. 

This past June, the Workplace Options Center for Organizational Effectiveness (COE) hosted a virtual summit on ‘Thriving in Uncertainty: Leadership and Wellbeing in Turbulent Times.’ 

Over the course of the four-day event, global thought leaders, practitioners, and executive peers came together to explore four of the most urgent challenges facing today’s leaders as they work to build resilient, future-ready organisations: 

• Burnout 
• Psychosocial Risk 
• Change Leadership 
• Psychological Safety 

As the speakers shared practical strategies for driving innovation, wellbeing, and sustained success during times of disruption, one theme wove their insights together: the importance of connection. 

Especially in periods of great flux, connection is what holds people together. It provides a sense of continuity and stability, reminding people that while circumstances may change, some things stay the same: the goals they’re working toward, the values they share, the relationships they’ve built, and the respect and care they have for each other. 

But in today’s increasingly disembodied, isolating world of work, that sense of connection is under growing threat. Especially in Australia, where one in three people struggle with loneliness, the impact is particularly pronounced: nearly 40 per cent of the workforce there reports feeling lonely, contributing to elevated rates of anxiety, depression, and chronic health challenges. 

These effects carry serious implications for organisations. Recent findings show that employees who feel lonely are twice as likely to be unproductive and actively disengaged. A lack of connection at work is also associated with a 109% greater risk of burnout, a 77% increase in stress, and higher rates of absenteeism, turnover, and preventable mistakes. 

How leaders respond to this growing epidemic is a litmus test for how well their organisations will navigate today’s culture-driven, disruption-defined world. Whether the issue is burnout, psychosocial risks, psychological safety, or change management, the through-line is the same: employees need to feel connected in order to thrive. 

When employees feel part of something bigger—when they’re connected to a larger mission and a community of people working toward it—their perspective expands. They begin to see themselves, their environment, the challenges they face, and the opportunities ahead through a broader, often clearer lens. From that wider view—and the deeper sense of purpose it brings—emerge solutions with real, lasting impact. 

Cultivating this sense of connection, therefore, is paramount to building a resilient organisation—one equipped to thrive through turbulent times.  

To get started, experts at WPO and the COE recommend 5 steps leaders can take to strengthen ties across the organisation: 

Step 1: Check in regularly. 

Authentic connection starts with authentic leadership.  

As summit speakers like Starr Guthrie, LCSW; Kurt Merriweather, CDE®; and Donald Thompson, CDE® emphasised, how leaders interact with employees profoundly shapes their sense of belonging, inclusion, and purpose at work.  

When leaders fail to ask real questions, personalise communication, or show genuine interest in their people, employees notice. They feel unseen, undervalued, and become emotionally checked out—consequently making it harder to connect with their peers, too. 

A lack of authenticity from leadership also, of course, makes it harder for employees to be authentic themselves. Without that green light or example set by leaders, employees hesitate to be vulnerable. This goes back to the idea of psychological safety—that employees need to feel safe to speak up and show up as their true selves. Not only does this enable them to contribute meaningfully in the workplace—connecting with their work—but it also opens the door for honest, human conversations between employees and their colleagues, managers, and leaders. 

Creating that kind of safety and connection starts with demonstrating a genuine investment in employees and their wellbeing. This means checking in regularly—through various channels—to ask employees how they’re doing, how they feel about their roles, team dynamics, and work processes, and what they can do to support them. Importantly, it also means checking in simply to build rapport. 

By sharing parts of themselves and inviting employees to do the same, leaders help create the sense of community that defines engaged, high-performing teams. 

Step 2: Create a culture of trust and transparency. 

Connection thrives in environments where trust and transparency are the order of the day. 

Just as leaders need to be sure to check in with their teams, so, too, must they make sure to be honest with them—and invite employees to be honest with them, and with each other. 

Especially in times of change, information blackouts, vague or siloed communications, and role confusion undermine workplace connections. When employees feel their colleagues, their managers, or their leaders aren’t being honest with them, they check out. Likewise, when the stress of uncertainty results in tense interactions between peers, relationships quickly break down. 

To maintain and strengthen connections—whether during tumultuous times or periods of relative calm—leaders must prioritise transparency. This, of course, relates back to authentic leadership and demonstrating vulnerability as leaders. But crucially, transparency also means making sure that all employees feel informed and included.  

When information flows freely, and when employees feel they can trust those around them to provide them with both the emotional and practical support they need to thrive, connections deepen, and endure through those periods that put their depth to the test. 

Step 3: Use communication tools thoughtfully. 

It’s not counterintuitive to say that too much communication makes people feel lonely.  

While lack of interaction on the job is a well-documented predictor of loneliness (and a core psychosocial risk), an excess of superficial communication can have the same effect. 

For remote and hybrid employees, especially, an over-reliance on text-based tools like email, group chats, or internal platforms has exacerbated the loneliness crisis. People are more connected than ever—all while feeling more apart than ever before.  

At the root of the problem is the fact that online communication cannot replace face-to-face interaction. Body language, cadence, eye contact—these are essential for deep conversation and real relationship-building. Without them, messages quite literally fall flat. Text is great for the quick transfer of information, but it cannot capture emotion.  

When organisations default to text-based communication, the impact is two-fold: employees miss out on quality interactions with colleagues, and the constant digital chatter often spills into personal time—reducing opportunities for real-world connection with friends and family outside of work. 

The key is to use communication tools with intention. This means opting for a video call—or better yet, a face-to-face conversation—when the topic is sensitive or emotionally significant. It also means creating online spaces that go beyond work—places where people can connect over shared interests, like pets, books, travel, or food. These ‘nonwork’ touch-points help humanise the digital experience and build community in meaningful ways. 

By making sure that emotion is still given the space it deserves within day-to-day interactions, leaders can protect their teams from communication burnout and ensure employees feel genuinely—and not just digitally—connected to their teams. 

Step 4: Design work to be collaborative. 

Real, lasting connections can’t rely on small talk alone. To form meaningful bonds, employees need to work together to solve problems, brainstorm solutions, and interact in ways that feel purposeful. 

When leaders design work to be collaborative, they lay the foundation for that kind of engagement. As summit speakers like Oliver Brecht, Rivkah Sherman, and Marie Boon-Falleur emphasised, that means giving employees the autonomy, clarity, and empowerment to make their own decisions—encouraging them to take calculated risks, voice ideas freely, and communicate laterally, not just up the chain of command.  

This kind of flexible, trust-based environment serves to strengthen employees’ sense of connection—to their work, their colleagues, and the broader mission. By aligning teams around a shared purpose and empowering them to do the work together, leaders create the opportunity for genuine connection to emerge through the work itself. 

Step 5: Establish structured connection opportunities (mentoring, ERGs) 

Though spontaneous, authentic interactions are often seen as the gold standard for tackling workplace loneliness, structured opportunities can be just as effective in fostering meaningful connections. 

While ill-timed or poorly conceived attempts at connection—like forcing a lighthearted check-in right before a high-stakes meeting or cramming a bonding exercise into the last 10 minutes of a call—often fall flat, coming across as disingenuous or even infantilising, thoughtfully planned and well-placed opportunities are a different story.  

When these moments are designed with care, employees will participate. More specifically, they’ll participate when, where, and how they wish to participate—reducing time spent in awkward or performative interactions and thus creating more space for genuine connection. 

One example of a structured—yet impactful—opportunity for connection is the employee resource group (ERG), which has gained considerable traction in recent years. These groups span a wide range of focus areas—commonly race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, and age—and aim to bring employees together around shared identities, lived experiences, or common interests.  

Mentorship and ambassadorship programmes are two other examples. Through peer mentorships, employees have the opportunity to share knowledge, provide guidance, and nurture their peers’ growth and development. These relationships foster connection through mutual learning and collaboration, helping to reduce feelings of isolation—especially for those navigating new roles, transitions, or work experiences. 

Likewise, wellbeing ambassador programmes empower employees to help break down the stigma surrounding mental health, help-seeking, and vulnerability that so often keeps employees distant—fostering a more open and supportive culture at work. 

With these meaningful—yet structured—connection opportunities in place, leaders can cultivate a culture of belonging and inclusion that feels genuine and is thus more effective in combatting loneliness. 

Connection as the Key to Continuity 

As leaders reflect on how to steer ship through troubled waters, the answer is simpler than it seems. Leaders don’t need to have all the answers or foresee the future. They don’t need to solve every team challenge or be invincible. What they need, more than ever, are employees who truly believe their work is more than just a job; that the people they work alongside are more than just co-workers. 

When employees feel deeply tied to the ‘why’ and ‘who’ behind their work, the result is happier, more engaged, and more resilient teams—guaranteeing the success of the organisation and their people, even when the future is uncertain.  

For more insights on how to foster connection and drive innovation and engagement, check out the following resources: 

• Click here to watch the full session recordings from the #2025COEWEEK summit.  
• Click here to read Dr. Kennette Thigpen Harris, Chief Clinical Officer’s piece in HR.com, ‘Tackling Loneliness to Build Resilient Teams: A Leadership Imperative’ 
• Click here to read Dr. Harris’ piece in HR.com, ‘Closing the Connection Gap: Maximizing Technology’s Potential to Strengthen Workplace Bonds’