A sense of belonging - key to organisational success

Posted 27. July 2021

In business training, culture, organisations

Unwritten systemic laws, that is what we started talking about in my last two blog posts, initially in German, followed by English. In those I focused on the balance of give and take and how important that is within organizational systems. Also about how people can intuitively tell if that balance is out of kilter or not. Today I want to focus on a sense of belonging.

How does this impact humans and organizations that they work in?

A sense of wanting to belong somewhere is innate to all humans. We are social creatures and as such are at our most comfortable when we are part of some group or other, however big or small. This applies in private and work social settings.

Onboarding is a great way to initiate a sense of belonging.

It is one of the reasons businesses do onboarding and many organizations put a strong focus on making sure that new employees entering into the system are introduced in a way that puts them in touch with the company culture. It makes it easier for them to understand the ‘local lingo’, how things are done, what is important and how and where they can best contribute, amongst undoubtedly many other things.

Another good way to ensure a sense of belonging in your whole organization is to have a got exiting policy when employees leave the system.

You can be sure that however this proceeds, everyone in the organization will be paying attention and checking how the leadership and, by consequence the organization, values people who are moving on, for whatever reason. If handled well or badly, the knowledge of how this is handled in the company will inform your employees on how members of the system are valued and people will draw their own conclusions.

So next to measures like team-oriented activities, development of team spirit, strengthening of teamwork, common vision, goal and interrelated tasks, etc… onboarding and offboarding are a good way to ensure a sense of belonging throughout your organization. If you have any questions about this, from a team or leadership point of view, get in touch. Looking forward to hearing from you.