Social interactions play an essential role in wellbeing, which, in turn, has a positive impact on employee engagement. 
Organizations with higher levels of employee engagement indicated lower business costs, improved performance outcomes, lower staff turnover and absenteeism, and fewer safety incidents

Employee Engagement

Social interactions in the workplace help to ensure everyone in a group is on the same page. Peer relationships (also referred to as equivalent-status relationships) represent the most common type of employee interaction.These relations exist between coworkers with no formal authority over one another and act as an important source of informational and emotional support for employees. Coworkers who possess knowledge about and an understanding of their specific workplace experience are given opportunities to feel connected and included through the sharing of information.

Peer Relations: All In The Same Boat

At their very best, interactions can be a source of enrichment and vitality that helps and encourages individuals, groups, and organizations as a whole to thrive and flourish.Conversely, negative workplace interactions have the potential to be a source of psychological distress, depletion, and dysfunction.

Importance Of Positive Interactions

With the advent of digital communication, we’re now only ever a few clicks away from contact with virtually anyone anywhere in the world. 
While the internet has facilitated communication on a scale hereto unrivaled, there’s a lot to be said for traditional face-to-face interaction. An email might be easier, but we lose the nuances of nonverbal cues and tone.

Promote Face-To-Face Interaction

Psychologists have long identified the desire to feel connected to others as a basic human need, and interpersonal relationships have a significant impact on our mental health, health behaviour, physical health, and mortality risk.
Our physiological systems are highly responsive to positive social interactions. Close relationships are linked to health as they build certain biological systems that may protect against the adverse effects of stress. In response to social contact, the brain releases oxytocin, a powerful hormone linked to trustworthiness.

The Science Behind Positive Relationships at Work

Both employees and employers require meaningful relationships with others in the workplace, and yet these needs may be impeded by counterproductive and destructive workplace practices (Bolden & Gosling, 2006).
Organizational leaders should attempt to minimize negative interactions between employees by proactively mediating and resolving differences and building a culture of open communication that fosters trust and relationship building.

Effectively Mediate Conflict

Social interactions in the workplace have been found to increase self-reported positive feelings at the end of the workday.Repeated positive social interactions cultivate greater shared experiences and the gradual development of more trusting relationships.

Building Trust

The information collated through social interaction can help a team collectively improve its performance and the precision of its estimates.

Collating Information

By establishing consistent patterns of behavior that exemplify the desired culture, you can promote an emotional environment of inclusivity and positivity.Positive psychology founding father Martin Seligman’s (2011) PERMA model highlights five critical elements for mental wellbeing, which business leaders can adopt to promote a positive culture that encourages belonging.The five elements of the PERMA model are:<ul><li>Positive emotion</li><li>Engagement</li><li>Positive relationships</li><li>Meaning</li><li>Achievement/accomplishment</li></ul>

The PERMA Model: Leading By Example

Social interaction and positive relationships are important for various attitudinal, wellbeing, and performance-related outcomes. 
Employees in both low- and high-status positions reported higher levels of motivation when interpersonal relationships with coworkers were good.

Better Outcomes

A lack of social interaction in the workplace can have potentially negative consequences in relation to social support. Several studies have indicated that the sense of isolation that comes from this lack of social support is associated with a host of negative health consequences, including a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, compromised immunity, increased risk of depression, and shortened lifespan.

Lack Of Social Interaction at the Workplace

Positive social interactions at work directly affect the body’s physiological processes. Positive social interactions serve to bolster physiological resourcefulness by fortifying the cardiovascular, immune, and neuroendocrine systems through immediate and enduring decreases in cardiovascular reactivity, strengthened immune responses, and healthier hormonal patterns.

Our Psychological Health

Dedicating time to specifically promoting positive social interactions in the workplace can be a powerful route to ensuring the relationship-centric approach doesn’t fall by the wayside amidst organizational pressure to achieve.
Set aside time for employees to interact; focus on interests and experiences out of work to direct attention to shared interests to allow for employees to discover commonalities and relatedness.

Plan Collaborative Events

Strong within-group ties with coworkers (characterized by frequent social interactions) provide opportunities to facilitate innovative thinking. The strong ties developed by social interactions assist innovators in the search for inspiration, sponsorship, and support within the workplace.

Strong Bonds

Positive interactions in the workplace have been shown to improve job satisfaction and positively influence staff turnover, as employees who experience support from colleagues are more likely to remain in an organization long term.

The Big Picture

The upward trend in telecommuting is expected to continue over the coming years, with more employees working from home (or otherwise remotely), posing fresh challenges for the relationship-centric organization.
Where in-person interaction isn’t feasible, face-to-face interaction can still be facilitated using social technology. Using video-conferencing software regularly can help to foster positive social relationships for remote workers.

Include Remote Workers

Social interaction can lead to knowledge and productivity spillover from trained to untrained workers in collaborative team settings or between senior and junior workers, particularly in low-skilled tasks and occupations. 
For instance, one research team found that productivity was improved when employees were assigned to work alongside faster, more knowledgeable coworkers.

Knowledge Sharing

Employees who are satisfied with the overall quality of their workplace relationships are likely to be more attached to the organization. 
Leaders who encourage informal interactions, such as after-hours social gatherings, can foster the development of more positive relationships and significantly influence and improve employee satisfaction

More Attachment To The Organization

According to the Society for Human Resource Management’s 2016 Employee Job Satisfaction and Employee Report, relationships with colleagues were the number one contributor to employee engagement, with 77% of respondents listing workplace connections as a priority.It is therefore crucial that leaders and managers determine ways to promote positive workplace relationships.

How to Foster Employee Interaction in the Workplace

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We look at the science behind positive relationships at work, the importance of positive interactions, and their role in workplace wellbeing.