On the cafeteria TV, the US Surgeon General was discussing the health risks associated with what officials were calling a national “epidemic of loneliness.” It wasn’t a topic Adee had thought about much. A married father of two, he leads a company with roughly 2,300 employees.

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The head of a major insurance company shares his thoughts with us on rebuilding worker connections and culture in a hybrid environment.

Loneliness as a health issue for employers has sort of flown under the radar.

What Are You Really Thinking?

Fixing Loneliness, Boosting Culture

Please, Pick up the Phone!

Lead Through Change

Find and Keep Top Talent

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What can employers do to help address loneliness?

Marc Adee was lost in his phone in the cafeteria of Crum & Forster, the insurance company where he is CEO, when a news report caught his attention.

But then he realized something: it was a Monday, and he was one of only a handful of people in the office. In fact, he was the only person in the 500-seat cafeteria, which is why he could hear the Surgeon General’s voice so clearly. “I looked around, and suddenly felt a little lonely,” Adee recalls. It’s not a feeling many CEOs would admit to, even though they may feel the same way. About half of US adults say they experience loneliness, with younger people feeling the most alone. The Surgeon General says loneliness is as hazardous to a person’s health as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. Yet when leaders talk about returning to the office or culture, loneliness is rarely part of the discussion, says Korn Ferry senior client partner Anu Gupta. “Loneliness as a health issue for employers has sort of flown under the radar,” he says. Research, he adds, has shown that finding shared meaning and shared learning can be “powerful antidotes to loneliness.” One of Adee’s main themes is “optimizing hybrid culture” and under the program, he says he has seen engagement surveys among workers improve. That’s partly because ever since Crum & Forster committed to a hybrid work model, the CEO says he has been thinking about how to replicate the feeling of “working side-by-side with real people even if through a virtual platform.” In an interview with Briefings, Adee shared his thoughts on the challenges of rebuilding culture and worker connections in a hybrid environment.

One CEO’s Challenge

Fixing Loneliness, Boosting Culture:

What Are You Really Thinking?

Briefings:

I think that’s one of the things we are all trying to figure out. I don’t think anyone has really nailed it, whether in the office or remotely. What we are working through is how, and how often, to get people together. What touch points do people need to feel connected? What do they need in order to feel that we have their back if these kinds of mental-health issues arise?

Part of the problem is that people don’t often talk about feeling lonely. How do you help erase the stigma associated with loneliness and get people to talk about it?

Briefings:

That’s a huge challenge. People who are lonely are afraid of being judged or looking like they have no friends. Leaders aren’t doing a really good job of connecting the dots between remote work and loneliness. We need to encourage people to share and get their stories out and be empathetic when they do.

Is that why you started writing your Friday notes—to connect with employees? [In these weekly notes to the entire company, Adee shares his personal musings on a range of issues.]

Briefings:

They started out during COVID as a way to get business and health information to employees. But over time they started to get more personal, and I noticed that the more introspective I got, the more people engaged. Employees started reaching out to me directly, from all levels of the company, with issues they were dealing with. They related to what I was writing about and weren’t afraid to share, and I think that brought us closer as a company.

Can returning to the office help people feel less isolated, as many leaders believe it will?

Briefings:

For some people, maybe, but that alone isn’t the answer. Even before COVID, a subset of people felt disconnected and lonely in the office. Just because younger employees return to the office, for instance, doesn’t mean they are going to develop the social connections or get the resources necessary to pull out of something like that.

What do you mean when you say one of your themes this year is optimizing hybrid culture?

Briefings:

Before COVID, much of corporate culture was centered around our bigger offices. Over the last few years, it became more about engaging people at home. Now that we are committed to a hybrid model, we need to figure out a way to get the best out of both worlds.

You mentioned your employee-engagement surveys have improved. What have you learned so far about boosting culture in a hybrid model?

Briefings:

I don’t think anyone has cracked the code yet; that’s for sure. But when we do get together in person, there is more energy. That’s partly by design, and partly because we aren’t meeting every day. People seem to be happier when they are around each other, and our engagement surveys reflect that. There is still a lot to learn about working in a hybrid model, and our approach is to try a bunch of different things—live events, virtual platforms, in-house social media site, career guidance counselor—and see how employees respond. I think the most important thing right now is for leaders to engage with all levels of the organization and help make people feel connected.

I think the most important thing right now is for leaders to engage with all levels of the organization.

Marc Adee, CEO Crum & Forster

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