Mastering the Art of Bonding: How to Build Valuable Work Relationships in a Hybrid Workplace

Building valuable work relationships in a hybrid workplace means creating deliberate, repeatable ways for on-site and remote colleagues to connect, trust each other, and do their best work together, no matter where they log in from.

As companies continue to refine the protocols behind hybrid work models, much of the conversation stays fixed on the mechanics of supporting these arrangements.

Some big brands have focused on new office designs that replace conventional cubicles. We are seeing the redesign of breakout rooms and snack bars, the rethinking of conference rooms, and the adoption of collaboration tools.

For most companies, the objective is to build systems that schedule office time, preserve office space, and simplify payroll.

Far less attention goes toward the coworker relationships that hold a team together. How do colleagues relate when half the team is remote on any given day?

How can they build work relationships that create real value?

This guide helps HR professionals and facility managers develop hybrid work relationships that support team success.

We cover two things:

• Why team cohesion matters in a hybrid environment
• Practical steps HR professionals, facility managers, and people managers can take

Why building valuable work relationships in a hybrid workplace matters

Hybrid work has settled in as the default for desk-based teams, not a temporary experiment. Gallup finds that hybrid workers now spend about 46% of their workweek in the office, or roughly 2.3 days, a level that rose in 2023 and has held steady since.

After all, hybrid workplace arrangements can improve work-life balance, reduce burnout, lift productivity, and cut wasted time and resources.

There’s a catch. When a team is split across days and locations, connection stops happening by accident. Gallup’s research on hybrid work points to the same conclusion: its success depends less on office mandates and more on how teams coordinate schedules and build trust.

The gap is real. Gallup reports that just 2 in 10 U.S. employees say they have a best friend at work, and the share among workers under 35 has slipped since before the pandemic. That’s a problem, because Gallup ties having a best friend at work to profitability, safety, retention, and how likely people are to recommend their workplace.

So how can HR managers nurture coworker relationships across that divide?

How do you build collaboration that supports personal accountability, emotional commitment, and business alignment across a distributed workforce?

In an interview with CNBC Make It, Laysha Ward, then Target’s executive vice president and chief external engagement officer, put it plainly:

We need human relationships now more than ever coming out of the pandemic and in the midst of racial reckonings and the uncertainty that’s happening around the world.

The future of work is hybrid, and that makes the need for human connection more pressing, not less.

Here are five proven tips to build stronger work relationships and valuable bonds between employees.

5 tips that build work relationships

#1 Communicate on purpose

Start by making communication intentional. In the office, casual greetings and shared lunches build relationships without much effort.

Your team gets to know each other by sharing space, seeing each other work, and connecting over a shared schedule. For remote and rotating team members, that connection has to be built on purpose.

For more on communication and hybrid work, see our roundup of the latest hybrid work statistics.

Keep communication clear and frequent

Set your baseline with clear, frequent communication. Make sure people know they’re welcome to reach out, and that casual chatting between remote and in-office employees is encouraged.

Hold regular meetings, chats, and events that bring people together, and create email loops that keep shared goals clear. Leadership should model that clarity and stay visibly connected to both on-site and remote members.

All of that makes your workplace more intelligent.

Give people shared channels

Your communication channels matter. Give on-site and remote employees shared places to talk.

Every person and team has a different style, so offer a variety of channels. Some teams prefer video meetings for the nuance of expression and the speed of live conversation.

Others connect through a group chat or the comments feature of a collaboration tool. Channels like these improve your hybrid workplace.

Listen and confirm understanding

With a hybrid team, listening and understanding matter more than ever. Build a culture of clarifying and confirming so everyone stays on the same page.

When communication breaks down, name it and fix it.

Work together to make sure every person, goal, and project is fully understood as you move forward.

#2 Build a strong hybrid community

Hybrid teams need a hybrid sense of community. Early in the shift to remote work, many teams discovered an “us” and “them” culture forming between those in-office and those working remotely, even when members rotate.

It comes from a split in communication. To close it, create opportunities to connect and shut down exclusive channels that leave people out.

Encourage social interaction

Encourage people to socialize. Make it clear that it’s fine to talk about non-work topics, crack jokes, and hang out casually across the digital divide.

If someone in-office and a remote teammate are both working late, why not open a call and keep each other company the way two in-office coworkers might?

If there’s a birthday, celebrate it wherever the person happens to be. Small social moments hold a team together.

Recreate the water cooler

Create a casual space where hybrid team members can gather now that a shared lunch break isn’t a given.

Replace the proverbial water cooler with something like an always-open chat channel where anyone can trade off-work commentary and form friendships.

Many workplaces use Slack or Discord for this, where people can socialize without formal barriers.

Plan in-person team events

Bring your team together in person. Plan events and invite (but don’t require) every remote team member to join.

In-person events can be conferences, offsites, or company celebrations, and they’re easy to organize with collaborative scheduling software (more on that below).

When hybrid teams meet face to face, they build the friendships and rapport that carry back into the team dynamic once everyone splits between the office and home again.

#3 Encourage collaboration

Isolation is one of the biggest risks in a hybrid team, and it’s not a soft one. A 2026 study in Science, drawing on five nationally representative surveys of 588,322 American workers from 2011 to 2024, links remote and hybrid work to higher isolation and its effects on mental health. Encourage collaboration, and give people a virtual workspace where working together is the easiest option for both in-office and remote employees.

Build your collaboration toolkit

Give your team a toolkit of collaboration software and resources.

Cloud platforms let people work on the same projects at once, share information, and build relationships through the natural camaraderie of shared work.

When both groups find your collaboration tools more useful than working solo, hybrid teamwork happens on its own.

Encourage cross-team collaboration

Collaboration software makes cross-team work easy. No team works in isolation, and yours can usually help each other.

Whether your teams are blended or split between in-office and remote, cross-team collaboration builds stronger relationships and connections that pay off over the long run.

Create opportunities to work together

Make an effort to create teamwork. Instead of handing everyone a separate task, design projects that are best done together.

For some teams, book a good hybrid meeting room and run a live collaboration session.

For others, the answer is bringing everyone into the office on the same day. You can coordinate that with the right scheduling software.

One option is OfficeRnD Workplace and its collaborative scheduling features. OfficeRnD Workplace helps teams coordinate office days so the right people are in the same room on the same day. It lets team members:

• See who’s in the office on a given day
• Invite teammates to the office
• Add frequent collaborators to a “Favorites” list and see their schedule and work location
• Book desks and meeting rooms in a couple of taps, a step up from a free meeting room booking template in Excel.

Here’s a video that shows it in action:

Investing in a tool like this can set your organization up for long-term success. Collaboration is proven to help businesses grow.

#4 Establish trust between hybrid team members

When you’re building work relationships, trust plays a major role in whether people feel confident reaching out and relying on one another.

That’s especially true with hybrid teams, which can feel disconnected. Remote workers may feel they can only rely on themselves, while in-office staff can feel distant from colleagues they rarely see.

Related reading: our guide to the best workplace occupancy tools.

Build trust with remote workers

Make sure remote team members know they can count on leadership and their team. Show them it’s fine to ask for help, and set a foundation of teamwork.

Encourage remote staff to email or drop a line in the shared chat when they’re stuck, need resources, or even need an on-site colleague to grab something off the printer. That kind of back-and-forth builds trust and stronger teams.

Prioritize transparency and reliability

Hybrid work can hide the workflow from view. Intentional transparency rebuilds the shared trust that visibility used to provide.

Keep operations transparent and make team performance reliable enough that people feel comfortable depending on each other.

Announce what you’re doing, assign tasks openly, and encourage people to check in on each other. Recognize those who close out tasks on a public board, and encourage the team to leave notes and chat as they work.

Run virtual team-building activities

Team-building builds trust in a hybrid setting. Try virtual escape rooms or a relaxed Friday video call that brings everyone together regardless of location.

These give people a chance to know each other outside the work context and build the human connection that strengthens a hybrid team.

#5 Make transparency the default

Make transparency a priority and build it into every layer of how you manage.

This is what finally breaks down the barriers between hybrid team members and creates a culture of friendly collaboration.

Share information openly

Lead by sharing. Prevent information from pooling in a few inboxes, and build a team style where everyone discusses their tasks, challenges, and progress in the open. Use shared dashboards and task lists.

Discuss progress in project chat channels and make announcements so they reach everyone at once. Avoid both exclusionary around-the-desk conversations and virtual channels that leave on-site staff out, so information reaches people evenly.

Make decisions in the open

Guide transparent decision-making. Encourage the team to use collaboration comments so everyone can see the thinking, the suggestions, and the agreed solution.

Make changes where everyone affected can take part, ask questions, and contribute their own expertise to make each decision stronger and more inclusive.

Keep communication public

Encourage people to communicate in the open. Move decisions out of CC’d email threads and into shared platforms and chat channels, so each one can involve everyone it touches.

It recreates the in-office discussion culture that likely bonded your team before the hybrid split.

How to build better virtual work relationships: 6 ideas

In a traditional office, people have plenty of chances to connect with colleagues. In a remote or hybrid setup, those chances are fewer and further between.

That’s where virtual relationships come in.

Employees who feel connected to their colleagues are more likely to be motivated and productive, and to find belonging and purpose in their work.

And when people are engaged and fulfilled, they’re more likely to stay, which is good news for them and their employers.

OfficeRnD Workplace’s Workplace Experience Software helps you support virtual relationships with your remote team. In a few clicks you can send announcements, update office policies, and share upcoming events.

Its facility request and ticket management system also makes it easy for employees to report issues and track resolution, which builds their trust in how you run workplace operations.

Here are some ways to build those virtual work relationships alongside OfficeRnD Workplace.

1. Fun Slack channels

Fun Slack channels built around shared interests or hobbies build camaraderie. Think channels for cute animal photos, memes, or debating TV shows and movies.

2. Virtual coffee breaks

Just like booking a meeting space in the office, schedule virtual coffee breaks or informal hangouts where people chat about non-work topics. You could even send care packages with everyone’s favorite coffee or tea.

3. Weekly “show and tell”

Run a weekly or monthly “show and tell” where team members share interests, hobbies, or recent wins. It’s a simple way to find common ground outside of work.

4. Online trivia

Organize virtual trivia games or quizzes, and split people into teams for some friendly competition.

It’s fun, and it quietly sharpens how teams communicate.

5. Personality tests

Encourage self-awareness and respect for differences by having the team take a personality test like the Myers-Briggs or Enneagram. Host a session where everyone shares results and what they learned.

6. Online holiday parties

Seasonal parties help you celebrate with colleagues who aren’t in the office. Plan a holiday-themed virtual game, encourage everyone to dress up, or send virtual cards to the team.

It’s a good way to lift morale and show appreciation for a year of hard work.

6 tips for keeping virtual work relationships healthy

So how do you build camaraderie and mutual support from afar? Here are some practices for strong relationships with colleagues in a virtual environment.

Be proactive

Reach out instead of waiting for others to start the conversation. Use messaging or email to connect with teammates regularly.

Respect different communication styles

People prefer different modes. Some want email, others want messaging or video calls. Notice your colleagues’ preferences and adjust.

Use video conferencing well

Video can be a strong tool for building relationships. Use your camera, keep eye contact, and mind the etiquette: mute and unmute at the right times and watch for non-verbal cues.

Whether your team runs on Microsoft Teams or Google Workspace, OfficeRnD Workplace integrates with the communication platforms you already use.

Respect time zones

If colleagues work in different time zones, be mindful of their hours. Don’t expect instant replies.

Show appreciation and recognition

Acknowledge achievements and contributions. Regular gratitude and recognition build a positive culture.

Respect work-life balance

Mind your colleagues’ boundaries and personal time. Avoid scheduling meetings outside regular work hours.

Frequently asked questions

How do you build relationships in a hybrid workplace?

Make connection deliberate. Set clear, frequent communication norms; give on-site and remote staff shared channels; coordinate office days so the right people overlap in person; and run regular social moments, from a water-cooler chat channel to in-person events. Gallup’s research shows hybrid work goes best when teams, not just individuals, agree on how they’ll coordinate and build trust.

Why are work relationships harder in a hybrid setup?

The casual moments that build relationships (shared lunches, desk chats, hallway run-ins) don’t happen automatically when the team is split across days and locations. A 2026 Science study of 588,322 U.S. workers ties remote and hybrid work to higher isolation, which is why deliberate connection matters.

How many employees have a best friend at work?

Gallup finds about 2 in 10 U.S. employees say they have a best friend at work, and the share among workers under 35 has dropped since before the pandemic. Gallup links close workplace friendships to profitability, safety, and retention, so the gap is worth closing.

How can software help build hybrid work relationships?

Scheduling and workplace experience tools make coordination easier. OfficeRnD Workplace shows who’s in the office on a given day, lets people invite teammates and favorite frequent collaborators, and handles desk and room booking, so the right people are in the same place on the same day and connection has room to happen.

Before you go

Managing a hybrid team means learning new ground when it comes to building valuable work relationships.

The good news: technology and your team’s own desire to work together are on your side. OfficeRnD Workplace includes collaborative scheduling features that help you coordinate in-person time for special gatherings or rotating attendance, for any model of hybrid team.

Start for free with OfficeRnD Workplace or book a live demo with one of our workplace experts.