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Loneliness might still be seen as a "personal" problem, but it reduces productivity and compromises psychological safety, so there's a strong business case for employers to "get interested, and intentional".

Director of HR advisory at Gartner, Neal Woolrich, says loneliness has been a significant problem, both within and beyond the workplace, for some time.

A major study on cultural connectedness and emotional proximity, which Gartner conducted in 2022, found only one in four employees felt connected to their organisation, their team, and their peers, Woolrich tells HR Daily. And last year, a global Gallup survey showed one in five employees were frequently lonely.

More recently, Gartner's research has found that employees are more likely to make a 'high enterprise contribution' when they are satisfied with the level of camaraderie in their organisation (23%, compared to only 13% of those who aren't satisfied)...