Recognise This! – “Friendships at work” is not a soft topic. It’s a driving factor in employee productivity, retention and wellness.

I couldn’t say everything I wanted to about the importance of friends at work in my post on this blog last week, so I continued the theme today on the Compensation Cafe blog. This latest post looks at several recent surveys (from LinkedIn, HRZone in the UK, and Globoforce) showing how friendships and deep relationships at work that drive key business factors – productivity, retention and wellness.

As I conclude on Compensation Cafe:

“Recognition, as a key component of Total Rewards, is a powerful, positive way of strengthening ties between employees. The Globoforce Fall 2014 Workforce Mood Tracker survey found 91% of us spend more than 30 hours a week with colleagues (vs. 52% who spend that much time with family). With that in mind, it’s no surprise 94% of employees say they like getting recognized by their peers for accomplishments at work. Few know what we do well better than those with whom we work most closely.”

Read the full post on Compensation Cafe, then tell me: How does your organisation support friendships at work? With whom do you have the closest relationships? Do those friendships help you achieve more?