# How Leaders Can Break Through the Barriers and Build Belonging at Work

The past three years have been a turbulent time of rapid change for businesses. While many organizations shifted to fully remote policies during the early days of the pandemic, hybrid work models are quickly becoming the new frontier for the modern workforce. But it’s not the future many envisioned.

Based on our research, many employees thought they’d remain remote but that’s not the reality.

a gold icon denoting hybrid showing a person at a desk with a computer with an icon noting home

Remote Expectations
12% of employees reported they are fully remote in 2022 vs. the 32% who expected to be the year prior — a 20% point difference

A gold icon showing a bar chat with an arrow pointing up denoting an increase

Getting Creative With Hybrid
69% of employees are in some version of a hybrid work environment vs. 45% who expected to be hybrid — a 24% point increase

As more companies settle into long-term hybrid working models, leaders are facing new challenges. How do they establish strong cultures of belonging across geographically distributed teams and create meaningful interactions in a hybrid world?

# How Belonging and Business Go Together

Belonging is a universal human desire and research shows that sentiments around belonging are similar across all age groups.

By definition, belonging is “a feeling of being happy or comfortable as part of a particular group and having a good relationship with the other members of the group because they welcome you and accept you.”

Simply put, belonging and feeling comfortable in a group is a foundational element of our basic human needs that must be met in our personal and professional lives.

Creating belonging isn’t just good for the employee; it’s good for business. According to research conducted by Great Place to Work, people who experience belonging in the workplace are:

  • 3x more likely to look forward to coming to work
  • 9x more likely to believe people are treated fairly (regardless of their race)
  • 5x more likely to want to stay at their company for a long time

And Gallup research shows us that highly engaged employees experience:

  1. 41% less absenteeism
  2. 17% increase in productivity
  3. 10% better customer ratings
  4. 20% increased sales
  5. 21% greater profitability

# The Challenges HR Leaders Are Facing

Creating belonging at work doesn’t come without challenges, especially in a hybrid world. Recently, we led an interactive roundtable at the InspireHR conference. During our roundtable discussion, HR leaders shared their challenges with building cultures of belonging in hybrid environments.

The majority of HR leaders reported experiencing challenges with siloes, a lack of cross-team interactions, and not knowing how to approach the topic of belonging.

Each of these categories has been expanded below and ranked in order of frequency reported.

# Challenges With Siloes

data on belonging challenges with siloes from top to bottom "established staff vs. new hire, siloed teams, siloed time zones, tech-savvy vs. tech challenge staff, in-person vs. remote staff, frontline staff vs. leadership team.

# Challenges With Lack of Cross-Team Interactions

Collaboration issues in circles from left to right with the text "lack of socialization or water cooler conversations" noting 100% and "feelings of disconnection and isolation" noting 80% and "inconsistent in-office days make collaboration difficult" noting 20%

# Challenges With Approach

bar graphs with the following text from left to right saying "how to keep remote staff engaged" "consensus on what belonging means""how to get people to turn on cameras" and "remote staff doesn't have rituals like in-person"

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# How Leaders Can Break Through the Barriers and Build Belonging at Work


Organizations are getting creative with their approaches to building belonging in a hybrid world. Based on our roundtable discussions, here are some actionable ways leaders are breaking through these barriers.

1. Design For (and With) People

    When designing for belonging, leaders should invite input from their staff by intentionally requesting diverse opinions. Welcoming participation and contributions from everyone on the team as they collaborate to define what is most important to them in a hybrid work environment. Leaders must respect and celebrate their teams' diverse backgrounds and personalities and bring each person’s unique perspective to bear on the team’s work.

    Some people love being the center of attention and others shrink at the thought of being in the spotlight. The point is that not everyone will find the same things meaningful. When designing for belonging, tailor your focus around the person’s or group’s preferences. This level of transparency and understanding requires that you know your people beyond a surface level and have open conversations with one another.

    Related Content: How to Harness the Employee Voice to Cultivate Change

    2. Map Toward Meaningful Moments

      Identify opportunities on the horizon where you, as a leader, can intentionally celebrate your people individually or collectively. These can be professional accomplishments, business achievements, or even personal milestones. For example, you could help a new employee feel prepared and encouraged leading up to a major presentation and then celebrate with them after a successful delivery.

      3. Establish Psychological Safety and Trust by Creating Safe Spaces

        Leadership has a duty to foster psychological safety and trust in the workplace. Toward this goal, some companies have decided to establish coalitions made up of a diverse mix of individuals from varying levels of the organization. By combining their varying levels of influence, credibility, expertise, and personal brands of leadership, these members can help promote psychological safety in the workplace by learning from one another, sharing best practices, and influencing change from each of their unique perspectives within the business.

        # How HR Leaders Can Get Started

        To get started, here are 11 ways leaders can establish a culture of belonging. Our challenge to you, select one and try it out to start building momentum.

        • Lunch and learns
        • Leadership office hours
        • Slack groups for specific interests
        • 15-minute collaboration sessions, open to broad audiences
        • Mentorship programs
        • Weekly leadership email acknowledging various accomplishments
        • Written thank-you notes or virtual recognition cards
        • Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
        • Standup meetings with rotating roles and responsibilities
        • Welcome committee
        • Themed in-office days

        Our discussions confirmed that HR leaders are continuing to be creative and learn how best to design for belonging in a hybrid world. In a constantly changing environment, adaptability and a people-first approach will help organizations continue to evolve and establish stronger cultures of belonging across hybrid teams. Learn more about Propeller’s approach to people here.

        Related Content: Webinar: Designing for Belonging in a Hybrid World for HR.com