Having a healthy, high-performing workforce goes far beyond physical wellness.
So while it’s important to empower your employees to get good sleep and make time for exercise, you can’t ignore social wellness in the workplace.
Social wellness isn’t just about hosting happy hours or getting along with colleagues. It’s about fostering a culture of belonging, shared purpose, and psychological safety.
Humans are pack animals. As such, we have a deep fundamental need for belonging — at work and otherwise.
Social wellness is the ability to form healthy relationships with a sense of connection and belonging.
In a work context, it’s the degree to which employees feel connected, valued, and supported: by their teams, their leaders, and the organization as a whole.
It’s easy to write off the importance of social wellness. Sure, it sounds nice, but that’s secondary to actually getting the work done, right?
But work gets done by teams. And teams are made of connected humans.
We’ve all dealt with that one boss or teammate who makes work feel like an absolute slog: at best, jamming up processes, and at worst, being outright toxic.
On the flip side, you’ve hopefully had the experience of working in a team that not only cares about you as a person, but actively empowers you to do your job well. Teammates speak openly, reflect honestly, and lift each other up.
Which environment would your team perform better under?
In short, social wellness isn’t a nice-to-have HR perk. Strong team dynamics are the foundation to everything your organization wants to achieve.
Humans are hardwired for connection.
From infancy, our brains develop through attachment, and that need persists throughout our lives — including at work. The quality of our relationships shapes everything from how we process feedback to how we handle pressure and change.
But in a post-pandemic world, many organizations are still navigating the balance between flexibility and connection.
While rising rates of remote work have enabled productivity and autonomy, it’s also increased isolation and fragmented team dynamics.
Research has proven that organizations with strong social bonds…
When employees feel like they belong:
So how can leaders and organizations bring this concept to life? Here’s a roadmap, adapted from Exos’ Thriving Together Ebook.
Teams tend to progress through four stages of psychological safety:
Many teams stop at "inclusion.” Don’t fall into this trap. Inclusion is just stage 1 of psychological safety, whereas truly thriving teams are able to reach stages 3 and 4.
If people don’t feel safe being themselves, they won’t contribute powerfully. Psychological safety means people can speak up, offer ideas, and take risks without fear of embarrassment or retaliation.
Here’s how you can create psychological safety as a leader:
Teams thrive when people know and care about each other. This doesn't require in-depth personal friendships, but rather a shared sense of accountability and familiarity.
You can foster this through:
The strongest communities are built on shared rituals, language, and moments. These help people feel “in the know” and part of something bigger.
At Exos, the senior-most leader cleaning up after a shared meal became a symbolic ritual of humility.
What rituals could you build to express your company’s values?
Consider these rituals:
You don’t need to overhaul your organization overnight to start seeing benefits. Small changes add up.
At the end of the day, social wellness is about treating your team members as whole humans first, and task-doers second.
Here's where to begin:
When employees thrive socially, they show up differently.
They perform better. They collaborate more freely. They recover from setbacks more quickly.
All in all, socially well teams are simply better teams.
Want to build social wellness directly into your spaces? Talk to us about how we can help.