Closing The Connection Gap: Maximizing Technology’s Potential To Strengthen Workplace Bonds
Building employee wellness, trust, and engagement
Posted on 04-24-2025, Read Time: 7 Min
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Highlights:
- Use digital tools with wellness in mind—foster real-time conversations that promote psychological safety, transparency, and open feedback.
- Create wellness-centered digital communities—build spaces around shared interests to strengthen peer relationships, reduce isolation, and nurture a sense of belonging.
- Leaders should prioritize accessible and humanized digital interactions that promote mental and emotional wellness, ensuring employees feel heard, valued, and engaged in their work.
In today’s hybrid world, connection is currency—and yet, many employees still report feeling disconnected despite a surge in digital tools. For HR leaders, the challenge isn’t adopting more technology—it’s using our resources to foster genuine human connection, well-being, and belonging. This article explores key trends and actionable strategies to turn your tech stack into a powerful lever for employee wellness and engagement.
Closing the Connection Gap: Turning Tech into a Pathway to Human Connectivity
We’re living in an era of nonstop notifications and digital check-ins—so why are so many employees still feeling isolated and unheard?The answer isn’t more tools. It’s using the tech we already have with intention—to cultivate conversation, not just communication. To build belonging—not just broadcast. To create culture—not just content.
We’ve never had more ways to connect. But here’s the question every leader needs to ask: Are we truly connecting—or just communicating?
Data tells the true story:
According to a study by Deloitte, 80% of employees believe technology can boost connection—but many are bogged down by misunderstandings, overwhelmed by meetings that miss the mark, or caught in the glare of “surveillance-style” systems that erode trust.
And as Workplace Options’ Center for Organizational Effectiveness Psychological Safety Study shows, interpersonal conflict is on the rise. It’s clear: if we want to bridge the gap between potential and practice, we need to be more intentional about how we use tech to inform, engage, and empower.
Lead with Intention. Connect with Purpose
Real relationships require real effort. And while visibility from leadership matters, what matters more is how leaders show up—whether they’re creating space for transparency, trust, and psychological safety.Employees don’t want to be talked at. They want to be talked with. They want honesty. Humanity. And the sense that their voice doesn’t just echo—but matters.
As Certified Coach & Project Development Leader Rivkah Sherman writes in the Organizational Development Review, belonging isn’t just about inclusion—it’s about “feeling accepted, supported, and agentic.” It’s about knowing you have a meaningful place in the story of your organization.
Yet, the communication gap remains wide (Organization Development Review, 2025, Vol 57, Issue 1, p40)
- 60% of leaders admit to weekly miscommunications.
- 1 in 3 employees say lack of clear communication from leadership is their biggest morale killer.
- And despite our many tools, 75% of workers still lack access to online communities that support open, authentic connections.
So, it’s no surprise that employee trust, engagement, and even innovation are at an all-time low.
But here’s the good news: we can turn the tide, and we can turn such challenges into opportunities—if we lead with intention, design for connection, and listen with heart.
5 Ways to Make Tech Work for Connection
Here’s how to transform digital tools from noisy distractions into meaningful bridges:1. Start the Conversation—Then Keep It Going
Use internal platforms like Teams, Viva Engage, or Slack to spark real-time, two-way conversations. Create spaces where feedback flows freely and employees feel seen—not just spoken to.
2. Build Digital Communities Around What Matters
From book clubs to travel groups, create interest-based channels that foster peer connection and joy. These aren’t just “nice-to-haves”—they’re essential culture-builders that make people feel like they belong.
3. Make Leadership More Human, More Empathetic (and More Accessible)
Host monthly interactive town halls. Share video updates. Create executive blogs. Better yet, rotate leadership hosts each month to champion different departments and voices across your organization.
4. Celebrate Loudly and Often
Use platforms like WorkTango and Viva Engage to spotlight standout moments—big and small. Recognition fuels retention, and gratitude is contagious. The more we celebrate, the more we connect.
5. Close the Feedback Loop
Use insights from platforms like Culture Amp to keep a finger on the pulse. Don’t just collect feedback—act on it. That’s how trust grows, and that’s how culture evolves. One example? Based on direct employee feedback, we launched “The Why: A Podcast for WPO Managers.” It’s more than a mic and a message—it’s a movement toward mission-driven leadership, where managers feel connected to purpose, to people, and to one another. And create a Viva Engage community for the podcast to keep the dialogue flowing, episode after episode.
Use internal platforms like Teams, Viva Engage, or Slack to spark real-time, two-way conversations. Create spaces where feedback flows freely and employees feel seen—not just spoken to.
2. Build Digital Communities Around What Matters
From book clubs to travel groups, create interest-based channels that foster peer connection and joy. These aren’t just “nice-to-haves”—they’re essential culture-builders that make people feel like they belong.
3. Make Leadership More Human, More Empathetic (and More Accessible)
Host monthly interactive town halls. Share video updates. Create executive blogs. Better yet, rotate leadership hosts each month to champion different departments and voices across your organization.
4. Celebrate Loudly and Often
Use platforms like WorkTango and Viva Engage to spotlight standout moments—big and small. Recognition fuels retention, and gratitude is contagious. The more we celebrate, the more we connect.
5. Close the Feedback Loop
Use insights from platforms like Culture Amp to keep a finger on the pulse. Don’t just collect feedback—act on it. That’s how trust grows, and that’s how culture evolves. One example? Based on direct employee feedback, we launched “The Why: A Podcast for WPO Managers.” It’s more than a mic and a message—it’s a movement toward mission-driven leadership, where managers feel connected to purpose, to people, and to one another. And create a Viva Engage community for the podcast to keep the dialogue flowing, episode after episode.
Connection Starts with Care
At its best, technology doesn’t replace human connection—it amplifies it.But only when we use it with care. With clarity. And with a commitment to build workplaces where employees feel heard, valued, and inspired to show up as their authentic selves.
Closing the connection gap isn’t about chasing the next shiny tool—it’s about showing up with empathy, communicating with consistency, and fostering a culture where every interaction feels like it matters.
Because when we lead with that kind of intention, technology becomes more than a tool. It becomes a catalyst—for connection, for collaboration, and for creating the kind of culture where people don’t just stay—they soar.
Author Bio
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Dr. Kennette Thigpen Harris, affectionately known as Dr. K, is the Chief Clinical Officer at Workplace Options. With over 15 years of experience as an International Psychologist and Clinical Social Worker, Dr. K specializes in creating workplace cultures that prioritize mental health and employee engagement. She is also the founder of Welltrust Partners, where she consults with organizations to implement effective mental health strategies. Dr. K is a sought-after speaker and author dedicated to empowering individuals and organizations to achieve optimal well-being. |
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