We spend much of our adult lives going to work, and when you don’t like your coworkers, it makes staying at a company extremely difficult. Having workplace friendships is not only great for employee morale, but it’s great for employee retention. And if you can retain your workforce, it saves on having to recruit and hire new workers. However, are workplace friends really friends?
That’s a question recently asked by Olivet Nazarene University, which surveyed people across 21 industries. Their goal was to learn about circles of friends in the workplace. HR managers are always looking for ways to engage employees. Workplace friendships, or the lack of them, is an important piece of the engagement pie.
Some of the highlights of the survey include:
- 71% don’t consider any coworkers “best friends”
- Only 15% of coworkers are considered “real friends”
- Barely half of the survey respondents feel comfortable talking to coworkers about their love life or health issues
Here is a complete infographic on these findings. You can view the results on Olivet Nazarene University’s Website.
