How to Create a Sense Of Belonging At Work

Communities come in all shapes and sizes. While our geographic community is important, we also spend significant time in our workplace community, a constellation of different human beings working together toward a shared mission. When people feel as though they can be their authentic selves in the office, feel heard and valued by others, and have the chance to thrive, they contribute to the strength of the organization as a whole. 

Achieving collective goals is easier when everyone has a strong sense of belonging. For this reason, building a company culture where people are included and valued is imperative to realizing your business’s broader financial and operational goals. 

How Belonging Creates More Successful Teams

The success of a community begins with the well-being and engagement of each member. When individuals feel seen and welcomed at work, they bring their best selves to every effort, creating and sustaining a healthy environment. Engaged and empowered individuals become active contributors to the company’s overall success and strong leaders within their teams and departments.

Building a strong sense of belonging helps leaders unlock the many employee and business benefits of diversity:

• Healthier employees: Emotional and mental health are closely tied to the human need for acceptance. When team members feel a sense of belonging at work, other aspects of their health often improve. Workplaces that prioritize inclusivity and belonging report lower burnout rates and higher overall well-being than those that don’t foster these qualities. 
• Enhanced collaboration: Employees in high-trust environments feel more comfortable taking risks and seeking validation. Close-knit teams can more confidently present ideas and solve problems, fostering better collaboration. According to Paradigm’s research, employees who feel they belong have up to 10x higher engagement. 
• Longer tenure: A strong sense of belonging motivates employees to stick with their teams through thick and thin, resulting in lower turnover and higher loyalty. Satisfying long-term careers benefits both employees and businesses. Companies where employees feel they belong experience an impressive 50% lower attrition rate.
• Lower risk: Well-bonded teams care about their work and their fellow colleagues. This may translate to greater attention to job responsibilities and fewer issues that lead to business risks, whether intentional or unintentional.
• Better performance: When coworkers are happy, engaged, and supported in their work, it creates a positive, productive environment. This, in turn, leads to improved organizational results as everyone benefits from a healthier, more motivated atmosphere.

7 Strategies To Foster a Sense of Belonging at Work

Creating cohesive teams takes intentional effort. Implementing some or all of the following strategies can help build bridges that foster a sense of belonging. 

1. Promote Open Communication

Strong communities talk things over. Create a culture where team members feel comfortable sharing their thoughts, ideas, and concerns without fear of judgment. This could be through regular team meetings, suggestion boxes, or open-door policies. A community communication tool (like an all-hands Slack channel, for instance) can also give everyone a place to talk things out informally. 

Sharing is a two-way street. As a leader, practice vulnerability and share experiences that have shaped your work. Model humility and candor as a means to build rapport and create safety for others to do the same.

2. Support Growth-Minded Development

Skills can make you feel like a more valuable member of the team, giving you confidence that comes from personal growth and deeper connections. To help teams deepen their knowledge and expand their skill sets, invest in workshops, courses, and seminars that help them grow individually and as a team. 

When offering feedback, frame it as a growth opportunity. Deliver clear, actionable feedback while conveying to the recipient that you believe in their skills and the ability to adapt and thrive.

Another option is to create a system where employees can recognize each other’s accomplishments and contributions. This boosts morale and helps in building respect among peers.

3. Create Social and Team-Building Opportunities

Casual activities and events outside of work hours can help promote social cohesion, offering benefits that are harder to achieve when the team only spends time together at the office.

For more structured team building, engage employees in a fun, team-oriented outing that helps get them working together. Scavenger hunts, escape rooms, cooking classes, and outdoor challenges are all fun ways to break down barriers and build new connections.

4. Encourage and Model Inclusive Leadership

Leaders have a unique part to play in building a workplace environment where diversity is celebrated and every voice is heard. By actively encouraging diverse perspectives and equitable participation, leaders can build a stronger sense of community and belonging. This approach not only enhances creativity and innovation but also drives deeper engagement and loyalty among team members.

Paradigm’s Inclusive Leadership model gives leaders a useful framework for structuring management and policy-building. Align leadership activities with the four pillars of Inclusive Leadership: Objectivity, Belonging, Voice, and Growth.

5. Celebrate Individual and Team Accomplishments

Recognizing individual achievements and milestones is crucial for fostering a sense of belonging and appreciation within a team. Celebrating these moments boosts morale and strengthens the connection between team members and the organization. It’s a powerful way to show that every contribution is valued and significant.

Recognize learning over simply acknowledging results. Encourage a growth mindset approach by celebrating the learning journey and its impact upon the individual and their role within the organization or team.

6. Address Bias and Exclusion 

Bias harms the sense of belonging within your workforce, and it’s not always easy to spot. Take time to assess your overall work environment and communication channels. Are hidden biases or cliques hindering collaboration between team members or departments? If so, examine the underlying causes for these rifts and develop an action plan to reduce the friction and create a more inclusive atmosphere. 

7. Gather and Act on Employee Feedback

Gathering candid feedback is foundational to fostering a greater sense of belonging. Encourage open dialogue where everyone feels heard, and more importantly, act on the insights you gain. By making meaningful changes based on employee suggestions, you signal that every voice matters and is instrumental in shaping a more inclusive workplace. This feedback serves as a great jumping-off point for developing inclusion goals that drive the organization forward.

Strategies like the seven above bolster workplace culture and enhance team cohesion. When teams and individuals are in sync, there are more opportunities for harmonious and productive working relationships.

Barriers to a Sense of Belonging at Work

Culture-building becomes even more challenging if you don’t take the time to remove common roadblocks to togetherness. At all times, leaders should be asking, “Who is our culture not working for today?” and following those inquiries up with strategic adjustments.  If current efforts aren’t landing or the business receives negative feedback, one of these barriers may be the culprit: 

• Lack of engagement: When employees feel excluded from groups of people, meetings, or decision-making processes, it can lead to feelings of isolation and disconnect from the organization.
• Poor communication: Inadequate or unclear communication can leave team members unsure of their roles, hinder their contributions, or make them feel undervalued.
• Negative work environment: A workplace culture that tolerates negativity, bullying, or harassment can severely impact an individual’s sense of safety and belonging. When people feel they belong, they are five times more likely to report psychological safety that enables them to do their best work.
• Favoritism: Perceived favoritism or preferential treatment by management can erode trust and create a divisive atmosphere among team members.
• Cultural insensitivity or bias: An environment that does not respect diverse cultures, languages, or traditions can make employees feel unwelcome or misunderstood. This also applies to workplaces that don’t address bias in their efforts to establish belonging. 

For instance, certain groups are less likely to feel they belong compared to their male counterparts. Non-binary employees may report 26% less belonging, and disabled employees as much as 16%. 

Removing these barriers and creating an intentional sense of belonging that works for everyone helps employees feel valued and connected, encouraging a well-run, cohesive team and organization.

Measuring the Impact of Belonging Initiatives

Belonging might be a feeling, but it’s also an outcome of systems and practices that work well for all employees. There are ways to measure the strength of community in the workplace. Leaders who monitor belonging and inclusion can understand the effectiveness of their efforts, set improvement targets, and reinforce the value of their teams and contributors. 

Paradigm approaches this challenge through a detailed culture gap analysis, looking for areas to strengthen in order to create better insights that empower beneficial outcomes. This approach delivers action steps that can help close the gaps: 

• Bringing data together from disparate sources to get a clear and accurate representation of your office culture as it exists today. 
• Aligning discoveries with action plans to acknowledge gaps and take steps to remedy them. 
• Making culture an organization-wide effort through education, policy-building, process design, and iteration.
• Building buy-in and engagement for the culture-building process by ensuring all employees can see themselves within the efforts.

Perform Employee Engagement Surveys

Regularly distribute surveys that specifically ask about feelings of belonging, inclusion, and cultural sensitivity within the organization. Analyze trends over time to assess the effectiveness of initiatives.

Track Key Performance Indicators

Identify measurable key performance indicators (KPIs) that help tell the story of your inclusion efforts and associated results. While not every aspect of belonging is measurable, the following metrics may provide insight into the cultural life of your organization:

• Employee turnover rates as a whole and for specific demographics
• Frequency and nature of complaints or workplace incidents
• Accessibility feedback and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance rates
• Participation rates and results of inclusion and diversity training
• Engagement trends from employee surveys by demographic 
• Participation rates for employee resource groups (ERGs) and learning initiatives
• Exit interview feedback

Establish Confidential Feedback Channels

Give employees safe methods to talk about their experiences. While some feedback may come through HR or people leaders, creating confidential feedback structures can give employees the confidence to share their concerns or ideas. Confidentiality is the key to giving employees the psychological safety to be candid. Establish secure channels to discuss belonging and inclusivity efforts. 

Analyze Cultural and Operational Data Together

While performance metrics alone aren’t an indicator of employee sentiment or belonging, declines in performance may indicate areas of friction or poor employee experience. 

Using a system like Paradigm’s Culture for Everyone platform gives leaders and HR teams the tools to bring together data across sources for more clarity about the current state of the organization. Other tools, like our maturity benchmarking and AI-driven workplace insights, provide a wealth of resources for turning data into positive change.

Use Exit Interviews as Strategic Listening Moments

People move on from an employer for many reasons, but understanding their motivations is essential for improving retention. Conduct exit interviews that incorporate questions about belonging and inclusivity. First, take steps to ensure that your exiting employees feel the same level of psychological safety as others. This ensures a smooth, amicable separation process and the chance to get candid feedback. Analyze the responses for patterns that indicate the effectiveness of current measures.

Turn Insights Into Action

Data is the first building-block of change, but to foster more belonging, you need to commit to new methods and behaviors. With the data centralized and contextualized for easier use, leaders can begin to address gaps in belonging. For instance, if the data shows high attrition rates within a certain group, take time to analyze the root cause. From there, you’ll have a clearer view of how to improve attrition and make the office a place where employees want to stay and thrive. Paradigm’s Culture for Everyone platform provides access to your data, and recommendations from AI tools and live experts to make changes necessary for better connection in the workplace.

How Paradigm Helps Leaders Build Belonging Within Teams

Paradigm gives leaders and organizations the tools they need to assess inclusiveness efforts and instill a deeper sense of belonging in the workplace. With the tools and analytic insights offered in Paradigm’s Culture for Everyone platform, leaders can better understand workforce interactions and identify actionable steps to strengthen team member connections and improve organizational results. 

To learn more about using the Paradigm suite of tools to build a more inclusive, welcoming organization, connect with an expert today.

 

June 30, 2025

If you’re interested in more information about building sense of belonging, contact us today!