Closing the Connection Gap: The Key to Employee Experience
Slalom’s future of work incubator, HabLab, leads to big insights about what employees need and want.
Connection drives business
Senior leaders at top organizations across the globe are searching for new ways to elevate employee engagement. They’re asking themselves, “How can I create a thriving workplace for my employees today?” Research has shown that connection in the workplace is no longer just nice to have — it’s a critical business priority.
The challenge is that we’re in the middle of a connection crisis — one that’s playing out daily across the global workforce. According to Harvard Business Review, “Another way to think of the Great Resignation is as the ‘Great Disconnection.’ In the wake of the pandemic and the vast shift to flexible, ‘work from anywhere’ policies, 65% of workers say they feel less connected to their coworkers. Employee disconnection is one of the main drivers of voluntary turnover, with lonely employees costing US companies up to $406 billion a year.”
The problem isn’t just that people have become isolated; we can be surrounded by people all day and still feel lonely. When people don’t have the opportunity to connect on a personal level and share their unique perspectives and experiences, they suffer.
Research by Cigna shows that lonely employees have a higher risk of turnover, lower productivity, more missed days at work, and lower quality of work. Meanwhile, BetterUp — a platform to transform performance and growth for people, teams, and organizations — found that organizations with employees who experience high-levels of belonging have a drop in turnover risk, an increase in job performance, a reduction in sick days, and an increase in employer promoter score, which results in an annual savings of $52 million for a 10,000-person company.
With this much at stake, connection is an area that organizations must start investing in.
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The future is now
The future of work is now, and we’ve been living it ever since the global COVID-19 pandemic began nearly three years ago. Leaning into the unsettling feeling of the unknown is HabLab — an internal laboratory at Slalom focused on experimenting around the habits and habitats of our employees and how they work best.
The lab was created in spring 2021 by Slalom CEO Brad Jackson and is run by passionate Slalomers representing various disciplines and backgrounds. It aims to “sit in the discomfort” in order to have hard conversations, test out ambiguous hypotheses, and get serious about what employees want and need to do their best work. The team is passionate about not testing ideas in a vacuum or — even worse — an echo chamber. In February 2022 they recruited The Slalom 300 — a group of over 300 Slalom volunteers dedicated to a year-long journey of helping the HabLab team test out ideas. The Slalom 300 is made up of team members at all levels, with different backgrounds and perspectives, from around the world.
As part of their year-long role, the Slalom 300 are participating in a series of experiments and sharing insights on their weekly work experiences. They’re providing input on what’s working, what isn’t, and what other workplace innovations we should test.
HabLab runs experiments simultaneously and offers insights, observations, and data along the way. The goal is to create ‘aha!’ moments that lead to opportunities to invest in, change, or support various employee needs. The first experiment — “Connection at Slalom” — ran for nearly one year and focused on one two key questions:
- What drives connection at Slalom?
- What inhibits connection at Slalom?
Experiment 1: Connection at Slalom
The team got to work examining current data, gathering additional insights, and learning about programs that promote connection to experiment with. After learning of a few formal programs focused on connection (defined by HabLab as “an intentional, structured space focused on creating more and deeper connections between Slalom employees”), we decided to experiment with a program called The Coffee Chat Connection Program to see if increasing the audience size would move the needle on employee experience and connection. To measure success, we leveraged Slalom’s Employee Experience Index — a proprietary internal measurement tool that aggregates employee survey data into ten themes to better understand employee experience.
The Experience Index
Over 120 members of the Slalom 300 signed up to be a part of the connection experiment, and with Slalom’s executive data team tracking their employee experience, off they went!
The first experiment focused on piloting The Coffee Chat Connection Program led by Jaime Diglio. These cohorts included groups of 15–25 Slalomers who met virtually each week to discuss human topics such as personal brand, authenticity, psychological safety, belonging, difficult conversations, navigating burnout, and more. With Slalom’s fiercely human approach, it’s imperative that employees get a chance to unpack what that means for them specifically. Therefore, each of the curriculum-filled weeks (weeks 2–11) anchors on one of the components of the Experience Index and talking through how that component shows up for them, what it means to them, and what goals they have around it.
Overall program layout:
- Week 1: Introductions and overview of the program
- Weeks 2–11: Each week of the program is centered around one of the 10 components of the Experience Index, diving into what each component means for the employee.
- Week 12: Reflections, wrap up, and how to stay connected with one another.
Big insights
As we piloted this program over the last six months, we extensively measured the impact via The Experience Index.
The program not only significantly increased the overall score of The Experience Index, but it increased the ‘connection’ component by 16 points — the most significant increase Slalom has seen thus far since tracking via the Experience Index.
In addition, nine employees stated that the program made them decide to stay at Slalom because of the impact it had on them.
As one participant stated, “The amount of connection I feel and confidence I have is very different than it was 12 weeks back. Now, I’m able to present myself better. There are things I can now talk about and can be authentic about that I was hesitant about before. It’s amazing how these 12 weeks have changed me.”
Another participant, new to Slalom, shared, “I was introduced to the program at a pivotal time when I was new to the organization and feeling isolated. This program made me want to stay at Slalom. These sessions have been the thread to keeping people engaged, motivated and curious during this challenging time. I’m grateful that Slalom sees this need that employees have.”
Participants repeatedly report that this one hour per week has re-energized them, giving them more confidence in their strengths and ability to make an impact at Slalom.
“This program was life-changing for me,” shared another participant. “I saw my growth as a leader strengthen after each session. Each week I came away feeling stronger and learned something about myself and others. It’s a dedicated space where I grow and get to help others grow too; that is huge. The psychological safety and connection that is built over such a short time is not something I’ve experienced before.”
In addition, members of the Slalom 300 provided feedback that the name “Coffee Chat” didn’t accurately reflect the power and impact of the curriculum and overall program. With that new data, Jaime Diglio has renamed the program to “The WIN Room”, standing for “What I Need”.
“Nine employees stated that the program made them decide to stay at Slalom because of the impact it had on them.”
From an experiment to a long-term investment
The results prove that dedicating one hour per week, built into the workweek is key for elevating employee experience. Giving employees “permission to pause” will make them happier, more engaged, and more productive in the short and long term.
The WIN Room Program is now available to all Slalom employees and HabLab has officially launched The Connection Office — a resource for different groups across Slalom to go to if they want to increase connection and engagement within their team.
In Jaime’s words, “The Connection Office now serves as more than a symbol. It’s a commitment to each member of The Slalom 300 — that their feedback matters and the company is taking quick action. It’s also a commitment to Slalom leaders that they will have support in addressing specific areas of their Experience Index survey results by being intentional about connection, oneness, safety, and inclusion.”
The HabLab team is excited to see the impact of the program spread and for Slalom to continue to invest in employee experience. As one employee shared, “This one hour a week directly impacts how I show up, how I interact with my peers, and the quality of output of my work. Slalom’s commitment to this program gives us consent to protect this time. It’s the permission slip that I didn’t know I needed.”
The HabLab team is delighted that our first experiment has led to something that can serve the wider Slalom community and meet the need that many shared with us. As one of our participants said it best, “The WIN Room program should be a regular Slalom program. It helped provide me with the connection I had been lacking. The key will be to extend this to an ongoing practice across Slalom.”
With HabLab, this is now possible.
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