Building Social Capital in a Hybrid World

We have all been scratching our heads trying to work out the best hybrid and remote work models for our businesses and pondering whether there will be performance fallout from a lack of office attendance over time. While we juggle the pros and cons of individual well-being, open recruitment strategies, and business performance, many companies are finding it difficult to find the perfect balance. We are trying, and often failing, to meet divergent interests. What can we learn that we don’t already know, maybe a better understanding of the nature of social capital and how it is built? If we understand this, we may be better able to clarify our workplace thinking.

For those of you who are familiar with Robert Putnam and his book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, written in 2000, you may know the influence his thinking has had on the importance of civic engagement and its impact on society. However, you may not know that his theory may also bring some much-needed clarity to the current workforce and workplace complexities we are grappling with.

Putnam’s theory is based on two types of social capital: social bonding and social bridging. His theory considers the ongoing decline in the social connectivity that underpins democratic principles. Social bonding is explained as those relationships built among similar people, such as age, race, religion etc., while bridging involves the same activities among dissimilar people. Putnam argues that both social activity types are required for successful multi-ethnic societies, and he further argues that face-to-face interactions are how strong relationships start. He provides examples of how this happens in social environments, the social and sports clubs we join, our book clubs, the companies we work for and, of course, in reference to the book title, the bowling leagues we join. The trust formed in social bridging is what allows communities to flourish. Empathy is the cornerstone of building trust between people who may have different life experiences, backgrounds and ethnicities.

So, how does this impact our thinking around our current working practices and workplace?

Although Putnam did not examine how this may extend to work and the workplace environment, understanding his theory is critical to understanding the importance of how social bonding and social bridging may undermine or underpin business success. In our current work environment, it is essential to consider how we build relationships and trust in our business relationships, and this may closely align with Putnam’s explanation of how we build social capital.

One recurring theme I have found in my work in the last number of years with a broad range of businesses, is the relative ease that tenured employees have transitioning to hybrid work versus the relative difficulty many new recruits or young employees feel transitioning into working life or new roles. The complexities around open geographic recruitment strategies, virtual onboarding coaching and training programs, and creating esprit de corps is an ongoing struggle. Recently, one business leader told me that young staff members are ‘starving’ to interact with their colleagues and leadership. Loneliness is a growing issue in our culture, and our choice to work remotely may save us time and money but ultimately make us more unhappy and isolated.

The inevitable inequities created by hybrid work arrangements can put stress on businesses that were difficult to foresee at the outset of this experiment. Those who choose to stay home may have optimal work setups that make working from home ideal, and those who may have less than ideal settings at home may find no discernible benefit when commuting to work to find that their managers and leaders are ensconced at home. The most equitable work models may be those at each end of the spectrum; all staff are out of the office working remotely, or all staff are working in the office. It’s the part in the middle that proves the trickiest to navigate.
If these complexities and inequities are broad-reaching, they do set up a future scenario in which, as Putnam argues, our business communities will break down.

Is the answer to returning to a traditional work model where we spend 5 days a week in the office?

It is hard, maybe impossible, to put the genie back in the bottle, but if we understand what we are missing by working in this new way, we may be closer to finding a more fitting solution.

Our working future does hold solutions, and although some may find it hard to imagine now, they will include Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). But it is some of the simplest solutions that present the greatest potential benefit; company resources dedicated to social and business engagement activity and empathic leadership that model the behaviours we emulate. Leisure and retail businesses have always had to depend on enticing rather than compelling their stakeholders to use their services and facilities. We can learn a lot from understanding how others have navigated this realm successfully and start to better use some of their successful strategies.

For more information, reach out to our Workplace Solutions experts and explore how Robert Putnam’s theory of social bonding and bridging sheds light on workplace dynamics and why face-to-face interactions still matter, or visit https://www.cresatoronto.com/.