A new report and analysis from Big Four accounting firm KPMG and CivicScience, an advertising and analytics platform, finds that employees with close personal friends at work are the most engaged employees, experiencing the biggest emotional highs as well as the lowest emotional lows.
They are also most likely to search for a new role this year, with nearly half (42%) actively job searching in the next 12 months—nearly three times the rate of other groups, according to the Friends at Work 3.0 report.
“As AI increasingly handles more complex tasks, the cognitive and emotional demands on people in the workplace are only increasing,” Sandy Torchia, KPMG U.S. vice chair of talent and culture, said in a statement. “Employees fostering close friendships at work often sit at the center of that pressure, representing a high‑demand, high‑impact segment of the workforce that combines strong market value with an outsized role inside organizations, absorbing elevated stress while driving engagement, trust, and AI adoption. Leaders who recognize this dynamic will be best positioned to keep pace as expectations on people and organizations continue to rise.”
The analysis examines how four different types of workplace relationships shape how employees feel, perform, and persist at work. These include close personal friends (relationships that extend beyond work hours), workplace friends (social interaction primarily during the workday), collegial relationships (friendly interaction without a personal connection), and employees who don’t socialize at work.
Employees with close personal friends at work are the most engaged across multiple dimensions, combining high engagement with high emotional intensity
“The people absorbing the most pressure, adopting AI, building the most trust, and carrying the culture are also the ones most likely to walk out the door,” Torchia said. “When they leave, the pressure doesn’t disappear—it just moves to people less equipped to handle it. That is a risk most organizations are not actively managing, and in a workplace that is only going to get more demanding, they can’t afford not to.”
- Employees with close personal friends experience the strongest emotional highs, reporting the highest levels of happiness (82%-83%) and excitement (65%-66%) while also carrying the strongest emotional lows, including elevated stress (63%-68%) and sadness (47%).
- Despite that intensity, they deliver the strongest outcomes: they’re the most engaged group at work (49% say they are “always engaged”), most likely to turn to artificial intelligence for questions compared to other groups (35%), most likely to say they’re focused on skill development (87%), and among the most trusting at work (47% say they trust their company a lot and 39% say they trust their CEO a lot).
- They are also the most active in the job market. More than two in five (42%) employees with close personal friends say they’re very likely to search for a new job in the next 12 months—reflecting a confident, highly mobile segment of the workforce that remains deeply engaged while staying connected to external opportunities.
- Employees with close personal friends are also more likely to manage other employees (55%).
Across the spectrum of relationships at work, there are meaningful differences in how engagement is experienced, supported, and sustained as workplace connection increases
- Nearly eight in 10 employees (78%) with close personal friends say their manager cares about them as a person, compared with 71% of those with workplace friends, 60% of those with collegial relationships, and just 32% of non‑socializers.
- 87% of employees with close friends say they can focus on skill development in their role, compared with 68% among employees with workplace friends or collegial relationships and 52% of non‑socializers.
- 84% of employees with close friends say the work they do matters to them personally, compared with 75% of those with workplace friends or collegial relationships and 62% of non‑socializers.
- Engagement also extends beyond the workplace: employees with close personal friends are four times as likely to volunteer weekly (32%) as every other group (8%).
Friends at work shape the emotional experience of work, with distinct benefits and tradeoffs depending on the type of connection
- Close personal friends experience higher emotional highs and lows, while employees with workplace friends tend to report more happiness (69%) and excitement (50%) at work and significantly less sadness at work (26%) than those with collegial relationships or no workplace relationships—indicating a more emotionally buffered experience.
- Employees with collegial relationships may have found a relative sweet spot, reporting the highest overall wellbeing at work (59.4%) and the lowest levels of negative emotion, including sadness (22%) and fear (22%).
- Non‑socializers don’t report lower engagement—35% say they are “always engaged,” close to other groups—but their experience is more muted. Far fewer report strong feelings of happiness (48%-53%) or excitement (35%-37%), only 32% say their manager cares about them as a person, and 37% say they have no one to talk to about their mental health.
“Human connection at work is a force multiplier. It amplifies emotion, both the highs and the lows, but it’s also what fuels performance, trust, and resilience,” Torchia said. “Less connection comes at the cost of everything that makes organizations thrive.”
Photo credit: KPMG International
Sign in to get access to this free resource, and all of our whitepapers and reports.
Download this content today!
Register Now Already registered? Click here to Log In
