How does connection shape performance at work?
Through feedback from over 286,000 employees across over 1,600 organizations, this study reveals new, powerful insights into connection and its vital role in creating a high performance organization that attracts and retains great talent.
Connection is not a “nice to have.”
Highly connected employees are:
7x
more likely to recommed their organization
Connection predicts over half of the variation in how include people feel, how meaningful their work feels, and whether they intend to stay with the organization.
6.7x
more motivated
This study set out to answer a simple question:
What happens when people feel connected at work, and what happens when they don’t?
Connection is the energy that powers performance. Like electricity in a building, you don’t see it directly. You see what it enables—people doing their work well, systems running smoothly, teams moving forward.
When that energy is strong, performance feels natural. When it weakens, everything becomes harder.
Most organizations treat connection as something to improve through programs, communication, or culture initiatives. But the data shows something different: Connection isn’t what happens after the work. It’s what makes the work possible.
Most people assume connection is primarily about one-on-one relationships. Connection is not evenly distributed across the workforce, nor does it follow a single pattern. It varies by role, environment, and access to the organization’s direction.
And this research revealed some surprising findings.
THE MOST DISCONNECTED EMPLOYEES
Non-management
Fully onsite
It starts with one question:
Can I be myself here?
The most important enabler of connection is the degree to which a person feels they can be themselves at work. We call this Identity Congruence. And it's the foundation everything else stands on.
When people can show up as themselves, connection comes more easily. When they can't, it becomes difficult — if not impossible.
THE MOST CONNECTED EMPLOYEES
Fully remote
This signaled that there’s far more to connection than most expect. What this study revealed is that there are two types of connection that people experience at work:
Resonance
Our connection with meaning and significance at work
Relational
Our connection with the people we work with
While our relationships with people at work are important, our connection to meaning and purpose is the most powerful type of connection when it comes to predicting performance and retention outcomes at work.
In fact, an employee’s feeling of connection to the direction and purpose of the organization was the most powerful predictor of 4 of the 5 desired workplaces outcomes we measured.
The research also uncovered a third variable that is vital to connection. It’s not a type of connection but more of the key that unlocks its potential.
60%
Of disconnected employees feel they can't be themselves at work. Among connected employees, that number is only 1%.
When connection is strong, work feels energizing
When you cannot be yourself at work, the conditions that would normally help you feel connected cannot take hold. And when connection is lost, so is performance.
Strong connection tends to show up when employees can:
Be themselves
Have strong relationships with the people around them
See how their work connects to a larger purpose
When one of the three is missing, something feels off — like a system that's still running, but not at full power. That's why so many employees feel only partially connected. Not because connection is absent, but because it's incomplete.
Leaders create the infrastructure. Managers activate it.
For most employees, connection isn't shaped in town halls or HR programs. It's shaped in everyday interactions with one person — their direct manager.
75%
of how supported employees feel is explained by their connection to their manager.
No other factor — compensation, benefits, tools, or workplace design — comes close to this level of influence.
Managers shape relational connection by:
Listening
Responding
Recognizing effort
Creating space for openness
59%
of how employees experience growth and development is explained by the same connection.
Managers are usually evaluated on one thing: results. But in practice, they're responsible for two things at once — driving results and creating the conditions that make those results possible. That second job is where connection lives.
Managers shape connection to purpose by:
Framing the work
Clarifying priorities
Connecting effort to impact
Communicating direction
What you'll find in the full study
| Why Connection Matters | The decisive role connection plays in motivation, advocacy, and retention. |
| What connection actually is | The three elements: identity, relationships, and meaning. |
| How connections start to fade | The early signals that show up before performance drops. |
| Where connection lives | Why managers, not programs, are the real catalysts. |
| Where connection is at most risk | The demographic and structural blind spots leaders miss. |
| What it takes to build connection | The conditions that strengthen connection over time. |
About the research
The Human Connection Study combines qualitative depth with large-scale quantitative validation to understand how connection is experienced — and what it produces. The goal: to equip leaders with the understanding needed to build environments where both people and performance thrive.
Phase 1 Qualitative
806 employed individuals
Demographically representative U.S. sample
Open-ended responses on connection and disconnection at work
Conducted June – August 2025
Used to develop the initial model of what connection is, how it works, and what enables or prevents it
Phase 2 Quantitative
286,379 respondents
1,692 organizations
Anonymized, non-attributed employee survey data via Energage
Used to test and validate the Phase 1 model against real workplace outcomes at scale
806
qualitative respondents
286,379
quantitative
respondents
1,692
organizations
About the partners
Created in collaboration
Energage
Energage is an HR technology company that helps organizations measure, shape, and showcase cultures where people and performance thrive. Its insights are grounded in more than 20 years of workplace culture research, drawn from tens of millions of employee surveys across over 80,000 organizations nationwide. Energage also powers the Top Workplaces employer recognition program.
More about Energage >
Ingenuity Design
Ingenuity Design is an employee experience agency that strengthens organizations from the inside out. For over 18 years, the firm has partnered with Fortune 1000 companies and high-growth organizations to design experiences that improve how employees connect, contribute, and perform.
Grounded in insight and built for action, its work focuses on the everyday experiences that influence trust, meaning, and performance—helping organizations build stronger teams and better business outcomes.
More about Ingenuity Design >
Jason Lauritsen
Jason Lauritsen is the CEO of Connected Performance Group and an advisor to leaders who are tired of choosing between results and their people.
A former corporate executive, he developed the Connected Performance System to help leaders fix the systems that drive performance by strengthening connection at work. Jason is the author of Unlocking High Performance and a keynote speaker known for pairing provocative insight with practical guidance leaders can use immediately.
More about Connected Performance >
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