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The case for more connected teams.
Workplace relationships can be easy to dismiss as a nice-to-have. The research suggests otherwise.
Here, we collect evidence on connection, recognition, onboarding, and distributed work, along with practical answers about using Faxie.
Flexible work
Remote work isn't the problem to solve.
Flexible work can deliver real benefits. In a six-month randomized controlled trial involving 1,612 employees at Trip.com, employees assigned to a hybrid schedule had one-third lower attrition and higher job satisfaction than employees working in the office five days a week. Researchers found no evidence that hybrid work reduced performance grades or promotions over the following two years.[1]
That matters for how we think about connection.
The goal should not be to recreate the office online or argue that distributed work is inherently worse. The more useful question is:
How do we preserve the flexibility people value while creating more opportunities for relationships to grow?
Bloom, Han & Liang · Nature · 2024 · Randomized controlled trial, n=1,612 [1]
Workplace relationships
Connection isn't separate from the work.
Workplace relationships are associated with outcomes organizations care about. Microsoft's 2022 Work Trend Index surveyed 31,000 people across 31 countries. Employees who described relationships with their immediate teams as thriving were more likely than those with struggling relationships to report good or excellent wellbeing (76% vs. 57%), increased productivity compared with the prior year (50% vs. 36%), and an intention to stay with their employer another year (61% vs. 39%). [2]
Relationships beyond the immediate team mattered too. Employees reporting thriving relationships across the broader organization were more likely to report employer satisfaction (76% vs. 57%) and fulfillment at work (79% vs. 59%).[2]
61% vs. 39%
Employees with thriving immediate-team relationships were more likely to say they intended to stay with their employer another year.
These are survey associations, not proof that stronger relationships by themselves caused the differences. But the pattern makes workplace relationships a legitimate organizational concern rather than merely a social perk.
Microsoft · Work Trend Index · 2022 · Survey, 31,000 respondents, 31 countries [2]
Distributed work
When people aren't together, some connections need a little help.
Distributed work removes many of the incidental encounters that happen naturally when people share a physical workplace. In Microsoft's Work Trend Index, 43% of leaders said relationship-building was the greatest challenge in remote and hybrid work. Among surveyed employees, 59% of hybrid workers and 56% of remote workers said they had fewer work friendships since moving to hybrid or remote arrangements. [2]
The same research found a difference between remote and hybrid employees: 58% of hybrid employees reported thriving relationships with their direct teams, compared with 50% of fully remote employees. For relationships outside the immediate team, the figures were 48% and 42%, respectively. [2]
There is an important caution here: simply scheduling more social activity is not necessarily the answer. In the same survey, 66% of respondents said informal virtual coffee chats felt more like a chore than meeting in person. [2]
More interaction isn't automatically better interaction.
The opportunity is to make connection easier to initiate, lightweight to join, and natural enough that it doesn't feel like another required program.
Microsoft · Work Trend Index · 2022 · Survey, 31,000 respondents [2]
Recognition
Being noticed matters.
Recognition is one of the clearest places where a seemingly small human interaction connects to a measurable business outcome. Gallup and Workhuman followed 3,447 employees from 2022 to 2024. Employees receiving what the researchers defined as high-quality recognition were significantly less likely to have changed organizations two years later. [3]
Gallup estimates that employee replacement costs vary substantially by role, at roughly 40% of salary for frontline employees, 80% for technical roles, and 200% for leaders and managers. These are estimates rather than universal costs, but they illustrate why even modest changes in avoidable turnover can have meaningful financial consequences. [3]
45% less likely to leave
Well-recognized employees were less likely to have changed organizations two years later in Gallup and Workhuman's longitudinal research.
Recognition does not need to be elaborate to be meaningful. The business question is whether people regularly have opportunities to notice good work and make that appreciation visible.
Faxie's role is not to replace every recognition system. It is to make some of those moments more personal and expressive.
Gallup & Workhuman · Longitudinal study · 2024 · n=3,447 [3]
Onboarding
New employees are joining a group, not just learning a job.
A large body of organizational-socialization research suggests that successful onboarding involves more than role clarity and training. A 2007 meta-analysis covering 70 independent newcomer samples found that newcomer adjustment (including social acceptance, role clarity, and self-efficacy) was linked to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job performance, intentions to remain, and turnover. [4]
A newer review and meta-analysis published in 2025 reinforced the importance of social acceptance. Across the updated research base, social acceptance emerged as a particularly consistent mechanism linking organizational socialization to outcomes such as job satisfaction, commitment, turnover intentions, performance, and wellbeing. [5]
A welcome message is useful. Feeling welcomed is different.
For distributed organizations, creating early opportunities to see faces, hear voices, and interact with coworkers may be especially worth designing for.
Bauer et al. · Journal of Applied Psychology · 2007 · Meta-analysis, 70 samples [4] · Bauer et al. · Journal of Management · 2025 · Review & meta-analysis [5]
The business case
The ROI isn't one number.
Connection can influence several economic pathways. Rather than publish a universal ROI multiplier, we think the more useful question is: what are the inputs your organization can actually measure?
Retention
If recognition and stronger workplace relationships contribute to retention, even small changes can matter because employee replacement is expensive.
Onboarding
Better social integration may support newcomer adjustment, commitment, and performance.
Participation and reach
People Ops can measure whether connection initiatives actually reach the organization rather than relying on anecdote.
People Ops time
Programs that require constant moderation, scheduling, prompting, and manual coordination carry a real operating cost.
In-person investment
Offsites and company gatherings can be valuable. The question is not necessarily how to replace them, but how to create more connective moments between them.
Using Faxie
Questions? Start here.
References
- [1]
Bloom, Han & Liang · Nature · 2024 · Randomized controlled trial
Bloom, N., Han, R., & Liang, J. (2024). “Hybrid working from home improves retention without damaging performance.” Nature, 630, 920–925.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07500-2 - [2]
Microsoft · Work Trend Index · 2022 · Survey, 31,000 respondents
Microsoft. (2022). "Great Expectations: Making Hybrid Work Work." Work Trend Index Annual Report.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/great-expectations-making-hybrid-work-work - [3]
Gallup & Workhuman · Longitudinal study · 2024 · Longitudinal, n=3,447
Gallup & Workhuman. (2024). "Employee Retention Depends on Getting Recognition Right."
https://www.gallup.com/workplace/650174/employee-retention-depends-getting-recognition-right.aspx - [4]
Bauer et al. · Journal of Applied Psychology · 2007 · Meta-analysis, 70 samples
Bauer, T. N., Bodner, T., Erdogan, B., Truxillo, D. M., & Tucker, J. S. (2007). "Newcomer adjustment during organizational socialization: A meta-analytic review." Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(3), 707–721.
https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.3.707 - [5]
Bauer et al. · Journal of Management · 2025 · Review & meta-analysis
Bauer, T. N., Erdogan, B., Ellis, A. M., Truxillo, D. M., et al. (2025). "New Horizons for Newcomer Organizational Socialization." Journal of Management, 51(1).
https://doi.org/10.1177/01492063241277168
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