Amid the storm of quiet quitting and debates over return to work, HR tech company Enboarder has found in its new research that workplace communication significantly improved over the last year. As per findings, 93% of employees feel connected to their coworkers and over half (56%) feel very connected. When Enboarder surveyed employees in August 2021, only 83% felt connected to their coworkers and just 31% felt very connected.

Key highlights:

• Over half (57%) of hybrid and full-time in-office respondents named the ability to form stronger relationships as the No. 1 most important benefit of going into the office.
• Employees who feel connected are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs (96%) versus employees who feel disconnected (60%). Only 13% of connected employees expect to leave their current role within 12 months, and this answer nearly doubles for disconnected employees (24%)
• While 19% of all disconnected employees say they feel disconnected because they work remotely (at least in some capacity), this statistic jumps when looking exclusively at full-time remote employees (63%). 
• From the manager perspective, half of the people managers surveyed confirmed they are struggling to provide enough human connection for their direct reports. That number jumps to 60% for millennial managers and 65% for Gen Z managers compared to Gen X (42%) and baby boomers (32%).

Commenting on the  findings, Brent Pearson, founder and CEO at Enboarder said, "This survey found connected employees are twice as likely to believe their workplace is innovative and feel motivated to go above and beyond. In a time when there is low unemployment and high employee turnover, it's crucial that organizations create better human connections across their team, inviting engagement and building alignment along every step of the employee experience — from onboarding to learning and development, performance management, career growth, organizational change, and every moment and milestone along the way."