2022 CONFERENCE
SMILEY STATS
Smiley is a big fan of using hard data to support his views on some admittedly squishy subjects : “ When it comes to topics like friendship , human connection and belonging , people think of those as soft skills . I think that data helps us show that [ those things ] are actually fundamental to the day-to-day ,” he says . These figures help illustrate his point :
● Nearly 70 percent of employees are disengaged from their jobs .
● Only 30 percent of employees feel connected to their teams .
● Only 30 percent of employees report having a best friend at work .
● Employees who have a best friend at work are seven times more engaged . *
* Statistics courtesy of smileyposwolsky . com .
support me .’” I genuinely believe that the shift to employee care , showing up for each other and community thinking is a good thing . It ’ s a shift that needed to happen for a long time .
P : Speaking of community , you write and speak about belonging in much of your work . Why do you see fostering belonging as such a top priority in workplaces ? SP : If you look at the data , the cost of loneliness is pretty clear . Lonely employees cost the U . S . economy $ 460 billion a year . They ’ re less productive , they ’ re less engaged and are more likely to quit . They use more sick days and miss more days at work — many times due to stress or anxiety . There ’ s higher risk of turnover and a lower quality of work . And on the flipside of that , belonging literally saves companies money . It ’ s both a cost savings and a huge improvement to employee engagement , job performance . [ Belonging leads to ] a 50 percent drop in turnover risk and a 75 percent reduction in sick days , which can result in an annual savings of $ 52 million for the average-sized company , as well as a 170 percent increase in employer promoter score — how likely you are to recommend your job to somebody else .
So , belonging is kind of a lifeline . It ’ s essential , and more important than the business case , to be perfectly frank , is that it ’ s good for the world , it ’ s good for the culture to build an organization where people feel like they can be themselves where people feel respected , where people feel celebrated . If you can build that kind of culture that has ripple effects into how the world works , we have less hate , less violence and more understanding , which I think we can all agree is ever more important in the world we ’ re living in today . Now we have this wake up call where we can actually ask the questions : Do I feel belonging ? Do I feel connection at work ? Do I have friends at work ? Do I like my job ? It ’ s kind of fundamental .
“ If you can say , ‘ Tell me more ,’ rather than , ‘ How dare you insult me ,’ then you ’ re just setting yourself up much more to make positive changes .”
FEBRUARY / MARCH 2022 ■ PULSE 17