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Figuring Out SocialCapital Is Critical forthe Future of HybridWorkThe networks of employee relationships have beendepleted during the pandemic, but companies canaddress this by focusing on three key areas in their return-to-work plans.

Jennifer J. Deal and Alec Levenson • July 01, 2021 READING TIME: 10 MIN

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For many companies, the early months of the pandemic and the transition to

remote work led to a jump in productivity. Despite the uncertainty and

volatility of the global crisis — not to mention the seemingly constant Zoom

calls — many teams were enabled by a strong foundation of social capital that

had been established by previous long-term collaboration and in-person

interactions.

Established social capital made it relatively easy to shift to remote work

without losing a sense of the larger organizational context. But over time,

organizations shift in the way they function — even ones where many

employees are working remotely — as the economic situation evolves and

teams are disbanded and reformed to address changing competitive

landscapes.

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An unfortunate side eVect of persistent remote work during the pandemic

has been that social capital networks within organizations have weakened,

making it harder for people to maintain the same high level of productivity.

Concern about this phenomenon was voiced early on, in May 2020, by

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who noted that people had been very

productive initially following the quick shift to remote work but that “maybe

we are burning some of the social capital we built up [while not working

remotely] in this phase where we are all working remote.” What we saw

collectively in the following months of last year and continuing into this year is

that the social capital depletion was and is real.

When thinking about returning to the o`ce — whether in person full time or a

hybrid model — we recommend that leaders think strategically about how

their plans address three key areas: strengthening weak ties, building social

capital in new teams, and onboarding employees.

Why Weak Ties Matter inOrganizationsThe fabric of an organization’s social capital erodes if it is not shored up with

consistent interaction that develops and builds on weak ties. Strong ties can

form among long-standing team members, where common work and a

shared history help create more lasting bonds. However, these types of ties

are not isolated to one’s team or business unit; often, common interests with

others in the organization create opportunities for more frequent interaction.

Within organizations, weak ties may develop between people who rarely

interact with each other or who don’t share common work, responsibilities, or

interests. These are people who don’t rely on each other professionally or

socially but see each other in the hallway or at the proverbial water cooler in

the organization.

At the beginning of the transition to remote work, already established ties

(both weak and strong) facilitated continued eVectiveness, quick decision-

making, and adjustments that supported teams’ productivity. After a few

months of working at a distance, however, most weak ties had eroded,

although individuals continued to have strong ties with those they worked

with directly. These strong ties enabled teams and work assignments to

proceed in the new normal of remote work and highlighted how strong ties

within teams facilitated work regardless of where it happened.

When employees switched to working from home, many managers were

concerned that the lure of laundry and dishes and the lack of anyone looking

over employees’ shoulders would result in reduced productivity. Instead,

employees were pleased with their increased productivity as they beneeted

from a nonexistent commute and fewer of the regular interruptions and

distractions one might encounter in an o`ce.

But as their time out of the o`ce lengthened, team members began to feel

more isolated and realized that interacting with coworkers they were only

acquainted with was something they missed. Formal meetings didn’t provide

the same type of connection, context, or understanding of what was

happening in the organization that the hallway conversations in between in-

person meetings had provided.

One advantage of the physical workplace is that informal interactions

between people with weak ties support a signiecant fow of information in

organizations. While connections among people who have strong ties have

continued throughout the pandemic via technology, interactions across weak

ties have suVered signiecantly because there are fewer easy ways to initiate

these often chance encounters when working remotely.

What has become clear is that the joy in the e`ciency of not being forced by

context to have these side conversations isn’t necessarily improving

organizational e`ciency, because these side conversations end up being the

catalyst that helps organizations move more quickly and easily. What was

largely hidden from view before is now highlighted by its absence: When

people aren’t having hallway and watercooler conversations, a lot of

relationships that normally form through serendipity stop forming. These side

conversations that help organizations move more quickly are facilitated by

the weak ties that build up over time among people who have frequent,

repeated, incidental interactions with one another — the kind of interactions

that happen when people inhabit the same space but don’t happen when they

do not.

This presents an issue for organizations, because the social capital held in

weak ties supports work across silos, groups, and organizations. It turns out

that the “informal organization” is largely constructed of the weak ties that

need frequent strengthening to retain their functionality. Leaders need to

think about how they’re going to improve this social capital and, if employees

are going to continue to work remotely, how they’re going to invest in the

social capital of weak ties, not just the social capital involved in intact or

changing workgroups.

Forming Teams in the New NormalOne side eVect of the coronavirus crisis is a forced experiment for most

organizations in onboarding new teams remotely. Examples from this past

year suggest that when teammates can’t convene in person for a erst

meeting, having everyone online for that initial meeting can level the playing

eeld and create a more equitable environment than when some members are

physically colocated and others are remote. In fact, many members of new

teams have told us that this past year, they felt truly integrated into a new

team from the beginning for the erst time.

Another important aspect of team onboarding, getting to know one’s

teammates, has also seen some positive side eVects from the virtual

environment. In order to get work done, teams have been forced to coalesce

when none of the team members are together face to face. For global teams,

this has been a particularly advantageous learning opportunity. According to

one leader we spoke with who is frequently a part of global teams, this

process has served as an equalizer, because everyone has had to meet online

and no one has had to travel. This leader felt that new employees were more

fully and quickly integrated into the team because everybody was meeting in

the same way.

It’s possible that newly formed global teams will want to begin the teaming

process remotely post-pandemic, so that everyone has a similar opportunity

to contribute. While people might complain that that approach is suboptimal,

given that most global teams don’t meet face to face as a whole before work

begins, this more equitable approach may in fact result in stronger

performance.

Onboarding as a Critical Componentof Workforce DevelopmentOne concern for organizations is the loss of implicit knowledge transfer from

established employees to those who are onboarding through regular

interactions in the o`ce. While new employees can learn technical processes

and systems via virtual onboarding meetings, it is much more challenging to

pick up on subtle subtext, political norms, and insights into organizational

behavior without being able to observe it daily in person.

This is a di`cult situation for all new employees, and it is particularly

problematic for young people entering the workforce. As we know from our

research, those who are newer to the workforce often must contend with

squaring their outside expectations of how an organization is run with their

eventual understanding of how it actually functions on a day-to-day basis.

An online onboarding environment also does not facilitate younger

employees having incidental interactions with leaders at other levels and in

other departments. As a result, this cohort of the workforce risks missing out

on a crucial part of their organizational career development: erst-hand

observation of the subtleties of how organizations run and how leaders act

and interact with others. For this reason, we believe that it is critically

important to get young people into the o`ce alongside their older peers, who

can help mentor them and improve their knowledge of the organizational

context.

Part of the issue with remote onboarding for young people who are new to the

workforce is that they don’t know what they don’t know about how

organizations work. New employees who do have more substantial

organizational experience should have a better idea of what they don’t know;

although they may miss the implicit knowledge transfer, they likely have a

better idea of what questions to ask to ell in the gaps between formal

onboarding and implicit knowledge. Such employees have a better idea of

what information about organizational norms may be missing from a virtual

onboarding process and can seek out the information they think they need.

Principles to Think About With theReturn to WorkAs companies begin to strategize their post-pandemic planning — whether it

is a return to mostly in person, remote, or a hybrid mix of the two — there are

a few principles that we recommend leaders consider when making decisions

about return-to-work procedures.

Think about the opportunities to develop weak ties. We strongly

recommend that leaders prioritize the opportunities for employees to develop

weak ties. While there are obvious e`ciency arguments for bringing people

back only to work in teams that have speciec work they need to accomplish

together, leaders need to think about the beneets weak ties have for the

e`ciency of the overall organization. Therefore, when planning how and when

to have people in the o`ce, leaders need to include time that both allows

groups who work together to interact face to face eVectively to get work done

and facilitates interactions among those who don’t necessarily depend on

one another for work. Maximizing the opportunity for the development of

weak ties to improve the social capital of the network of the organization is

important both for the employees who were in place before the pandemic and

for new employees. While it is especially critical for those new to the

organization, in truth everyone — and especially the organization overall —

beneets when they have the opportunity for incidental interactions with

others.

Make online team formation a standard. Another area we recommend that

organizational leaders think about very carefully is how teams form. This

means preparing for a future optimized for fexibility and hybrid work

environments. Rather than returning to the status quo where teams, even

ones that may not work together regularly in person, form via face-to-face

kickoV events, it is arguably better to have new teams meet wholly online in

the beginning.

We know of one division within an organization that has made the decision

that all team meetings where everyone cannot be face to face will now be held

online. Rather than having part of the group together in a room in person

while the rest of the group is online, they’ve found that the team functions

better, and all members of the team can contribute more equally, when every

individual attends the meeting virtually on their own screen. We encourage

leaders to think about how they can maximize contributions of all team

members, regardless of where they are.

Support younger employees in the organization. Companies and leaders

have many considerations ahead for their employees in a time of hybrid work,

but they should be sure to prioritize younger onboarding employees’

development in their return-to-work planning. These employees have unique

needs in a remote environment and will need proactive support and

mentoring in order to gain their footing in the organization when daily

observation, apprenticeship, and face-to-face interaction may no longer be

the norm.

We recommend that any in-person solutions leaders come up with include

the opportunity for young people to interact both with one another and with

older, more experienced mentors. While it is important that new employees

bond together as peers, it is also critical that they have the chance to develop

relationships with established staV members who can provide real answers to

their questions about organizational norms and culture.

Organizations must continue to balance managing the many ongoing eVects

of the pandemic while at the same time transitioning to a work pattern that

includes more in-person contact. In the end, organizations and employees will

be most productive if they can leverage all that has been learned in the past

year about eVective remote work and focus in-person work solutions in the

areas that need the most support.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Jennifer J. Deal and Alec Levenson are both senior research scientists at the Center forEVective Organizations in the Marshall School of Business at the University of SouthernCalifornia (@CEOusc). Dr. Deal (@JenniferJDeal) is a contributor to The Wall Street Journal’s“Experts” panel on leadership, and her research and consulting focus on the human side ofwork. Dr. Levenson’s (@alec_levenson) research and consulting work optimizesorganizational performance through work design, analytics, and strategic talentmanagement.

REFERENCES (1)

1. J.J. Deal and A. Levenson, “What Millennials Want From Work: How to MaximizeEngagement in Today’s Workforce” (New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2016).

TAGS: Employee Networks, Productivity, Team Dynamics, Virtual Teams

REPRINT #: 63119

Topics

Leadership Workplace, Teams, & Culture

Talent Management Remote Work

1

Reed Nelson • July 02, 2021

Very nice points. Do you have a more academic version that supports you recommendation with statistical measures?

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