Loneliness: From Public Health Concern to Workplace Risk

 

"Loneliness at work isn't a soft issue. It's a leadership issue that has real human and real organisational consequences."

— Michele Grow

About this Webinar

In most workplaces, loneliness doesn't show up on dashboards, risk registers, or safety briefs. It hides behind competence: in the high performer who never asks for help, the leader who carries everything alone, the employee who shows up every day but is quietly withdrawing.

And yet its impact on decision-making, engagement, and safety outcomes is real, and it's measurable.

In this session of the Safety Voices webinar series, host Craig Bleakley sat down with Michelle Grow, CEO of Mental Health and Wellness at APM, to unpack loneliness, not just as a human experience, but as a workplace risk that leaders need to understand, measure, and respond to.

Drawing on her research and decades of experience, Michelle offered a clear-eyed look at loneliness as a leadership issue, along with practical guidance on what actually works.

The numbers behind loneliness as a workplace risk

• The World Health Organization (WHO) declared loneliness a global public health concern in 2023

• One in three people experience loneliness, and one in six experience it severely

• In a workforce of 1,000 people, that's -roughly 170 employees experiencing severe loneliness

• The health risk is comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day

• One in two people who feel lonely will actively try to hide

Key takeaways from the session

1. It's a leadership issue, not a personal one. Loneliness shapes decision-making, weakens psychological safety, and increases risk, long before anyone raises their hand. 

2. Hybrid work helps, but only if choice is preserved. Research shows hybrid workers experience lower levels of loneliness than those working exclusively in the office or from home. The protective factor isn't the arrangement itself. It's the choice employees have over it.

3. Connection starts with a conversation. Meaningful action doesn't need a large programme or budget. Raising awareness, equipping leaders to have better conversations, and making connection a shared responsibility, not just an HR initiative, are often enough to start shifting the culture.