With workplace incivility on the rise, these companies are trying harder to bring workers together

Linda Peterson spent years working in salons where she didn’t feel valued.

So when she set out to open her own salon, she knew it had to be different, starting with a big break room where employees could gather to decompress and talk openly.

“I know I don’t make money in my break room, but what it did is it created a culture in which people could have conversations,” said Peterson, who owns Beau Monde Salon in Burnsville. “And it’s really cool, because you get to hear different points of view on things, and it never gets heated. They have a great conversation and then they learn from each other and they just go back to work, doing what they love.”

Beau Monde, like other Star Tribune Top Workplaces, is bucking a national trend.

Workplace incivility, from harsh emails to physical violence, is on the rise, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Employees reported over 20% more uncivil interactions in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the prior year, when the organization launched its Civility Index.

Nationwide political divisions and deteriorating discourse seem to be bleeding into the office. More than half of U.S. workers believe American society is uncivil, SHRM reported, and differing views on political and social issues were top contributors to the uptick in workplace incivility.

“With the state of the world, I think even beyond the country, there’s just a lot of volatility,” said Anna Deley, talent management and regional general agent at Deley Organization-Globe Life in Coon Rapids. “The evolution of how we as Minnesotans take in politics and the emotions of it all have been really heavy.”

That volatility has real costs. Reduced employee productivity and absenteeism due to incivility costs U.S. businesses about $2 billion a day total, according to SHRM.

“It’s no longer something that’s floating around in the background. We actually view this as a crisis that workers and workplaces need to address,” said Jim Link, SHRM’s chief human resources officer. “There are societal divides out there, and they have a deep impact in our workplaces and, more broadly perhaps, in our communities at large.”

Company leaders say they’ve worked to foster a culture where employees feel seen and heard and where tough, respectful conversations are encouraged.

The first step? Hiring the right people.

Derek Freese, executive vice president at Award Staffing, said the Edina-based company intentionally hires people who don’t have previous staffing agency experience.

It’s a different approach, he said, when economic uncertainty is making it easy for employers “to fall back on the transactional nature of hiring” and opt for the safe choice.

“Our mantra and our philosophy is the résumé and the job description is about 40% of what we’re hiring for,” Freese said. “The other 60% is ... the characteristics, it’s the human experience.”

Once those new hires are in the door, there are regular opportunities to connect with other employees. Once a week, Award closes all its office locations and brings everyone to headquarters for a “better together day” with food and activities.

Other top employers are taking a similar approach.

The Deley Organization offers training and support for new employees working toward insurance licensure, including those who want to get licensed in multiple states, Deley said.

State General Agent Chad Deley is available to employees round the clock, Anna Deley said.

While there’s plenty of scheduling flexibility “so you can still make your daughter’s dance recital,” she said, there’s also a physical office space for employees who want to meet in person.

“We want to make sure everyone feels included, supported and heard,” Deley said.

Edina-based FRSecure has helped employees get to know each other amid fast growth and virtual onboarding, said President Oscar Minks.

Staffers get paired up as “hacker buddies,” he said, and monthly mental health bingo encourages employees to reach out to co-workers or friends they haven’t connected with in a while. Employees and their spouses get to attend a big, all-expenses-paid company party every year.

“On top of all those initiatives, the most important thing for me is everybody feels like they belong here,” Minks said. “And everybody feels like they’re cared for; we have compassion for you and we want you to be successful.”

When problems do come up, company leaders said, they aim to lead by example and tackle them head-on.

“It’s our responsibility as leaders to give [employees] the voice, the space, the guidance to address their concerns,” Freese said. “If we don’t, or we don’t understand what they are or what they look like, they’re going to quit.”

At Beau Monde, Peterson said she often participates in employee conversations.

When she opened the salon, she wanted her office to adjoin the break room so she could easily chime in — and make sure things stay civil.

When politics started coming up, Peterson said, “I told all of them, you know, it’s part of our world and we need to discuss it and if you guys can talk about it in a good way, great, but if you start feeling like it’s causing tension, that conversation needs to end.”

After consulting with FRSecure’s employee experience committee, Minks said he decided to address the national pushback against diversity efforts with the staff.

He wanted to make it clear the company’s culture wasn’t changing, he said.

“We just decided to take it head-on at one of our all-company quarterly meetings, and just really give a message of reassurance that for us, this idea of diversity really matters,” Minks said. “I’ve always just been a believer that if everyone who’s on our, say, technical team or consulting team is from the same background, from the same space, and they have the same experiences, then we never give ourselves the ability to evolve and grow.”