Why is socializing important at work?

Performance Management & Discipline

January 7, 2025

Why is socializing important at work?

Fostering employee engagement is a challenge for all organizations. And with new ways of working on the horizon, the challenge can be daunting. The idea that organizing friendly remote competitions, midi-games, and teambuilding activities, as well as creating a communication space where employees are free to exchange ideas as if they were at the coffee machine, is important. All these measures are about socializing at work and socializing employees. But how does socializing at work really impact employees?

Maslow’s pyramid

By adopting practices that encourage your employees to socialize, you enable them to satisfy one of the primary needs found in Maslow’s pyramid. Feeling loved, appreciated, socialized, and accepted within a group gives us wings. Enough even to fly to the next level of the pyramid, that of secondary needs: the need to develop our self-esteem and realize our full potential. Socializing at work plays a significant role in this process.

The working atmosphere

Do you have children of primary school age? Who only want one thing when they go to school: to see their friends! At work, it’s the same desire that drives us when we develop beneficial working relationships with our colleagues.

By encouraging socialization, your employees feel they’re in a safe environment, where they can be authentic and talk to their colleagues about issues that affect them personally. Good-en, bad-en, they develop a spirit of camaraderie in a climate of security. We learn that a colleague loves to cook international dishes, just like us, or we let ourselves be transported by the tales of another who is a seasoned globetrotter. Socializing at work helps in developing these affinities. The result is greater commitment and a better working atmosphere! We’re thrilled to be reunited with our colleagues, because socializing has strengthened our bonds and made for a pleasant working environment.

Now that you know why it’s important to socialize your employees, are you tempted to direct your actions to encouraging socializing at work?

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Jessica Dufresne, CPHR

Human Resources Consultant

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