Millions of people this year have quit their jobs, a trend that has been described as “the Great Resignation,” as the economy adapts to a “new normal”. The transition to remote work has loosened the ties that people feel toward their workplace, challenging organizations to develop stronger relationships among employees.
“The ‘new normal’ is a remote and hybrid environment for organizations all over the globe,” said David Lobo, co-founder of the interpersonal engagement platform Covalent in this interview with Beet.TV. “You need to have relationships within your organization to have a foundation for people to be more supportive, collaborative, innovative and engaged.”
For businesses, the lack of a workplace culture can foster a mercenary-like attitude among employees that inhibits collaboration and innovation, Lobo said. He sees an opportunity for organizations to facilitate meaningful professional relationships between their people based on relevance, helping to form stronger bonds. He sees his fast-growing start-up as a solution. .
Sense of Belonging
While inadequate pay or work-life balance contribute to why people quit their jobs, employees are far more likely to cite relational factors for leaving. The top three reasons employees said they quit were that they didn’t feel valued by their organizations (54%) or managers (52%), or because they didn’t feel a sense of belonging at work (51%), consulting firm McKinsey & Co. found in a survey.
Lobo said he and his co-founder Abhishek Bhargava are in the “business of belonging.” They help people feel more connected to both their organization and to each other.
“We can create a customizable way for people to come together in a relevant manner with respect to their organizations,” he said. “We’ve built this customized matching algorithm with AI that understands mutual relevance.”
The platform helps introduce the right people and helps them meet in person or online, such as in a video call. Lobo said Covalent is building an end-to-end platform for the 500,000 businesses worldwide with more than 50 employees.
“All of our progress over the next 12 months is going to be hyper focused on building an amazing product experience to support any type of organization,” Lobo said.
Powering Personalized Connections for Beet.TV
Beet.TV is using the platform for networking for its executive retreat in Santa Monica next month. Later this year, it will power the “BeetNet,” a network of the Beet.TV global following.
