Belonging is the feeling of security and support when a person feels accepted and included as a member of a particular group or place. It is the main fundamental driver to form and maintain lasting, positive and meaningful relationships with others. In the workplace, these relationships can be extended to an organization and its values.
Why focus on affiliation?
The importance of affiliation has been demonstrated by several studies. Employees that a lack of sense of belonging are 74% more likely to leave their workplace.
Belonging has a strong relationship with commitment and motivation in the workplace. It directly affects retention and motivation. Engaged employees are often more likely to recommend their organization as a great place to work. Initiatives that are centered around cultivating a sense of overall belonging can have a greater impact on improving workplace engagement.
What does belonging look like in practice?
What makes one person feel like they belong in the workplace can be different from the perception of their colleagues, depending on whether one or the other is from an underrepresented group and a myriad of other personal traits. However, there is considerable evidence that creating a sense of belonging can influence whether or not a person feels that they belong, and even how successful they are.
People who feel they belong perform better, are more willing to challenge themselves and are more resilient.
Ways to promote a sense of belonging
The first step is to gather information about engagement in the organization. This can happen using an employee engagement survey. Once one has an idea of overall engagement, focused research can be done specifically on diversity and inclusion.
Bringing people together can provide an environment where people feel they belong. Strengthening social bonds can be done by creating opportunities for teams to work on a case different from their daily work
The development of belonging does not have to happen only among groups of people in equal positions. Those who have established trust with a mentor or manager can better take advantage of critical feedback and other learning opportunities. Establishing a formal or informal mentoring program helps with this.
Unless people consciously try to be inclusive, exclusion can occur by mistake. Even unintentional cues from the environment can undermine people’s sense of belonging. An example of this is a wall of pictures of senior managers, where there are no pictures of women or people from minority groups. This discourages employees who are from the same background and can make them doubt their development prospects.
