Addressing loneliness in the workplace through human-robot interaction

New work has been a topic for a few years now and the COVID-19 pandemic has brought this trend more into focus, i.e., working remotely became more popular. However, besides various advantages, there is the risk of loneliness in employees, which can negatively affect their work performance and mental health. Research in different domains suggests that social robots could reduce loneliness. Since we were interested in whether and how such findings are transferable to the office context, we developed and tested a concept for a social office robot. More specifically, we first conducted a cultural probes study with white-collar workers to gain information about workplace loneliness and its drivers. Second, we explored design possibilities for a social office robot in a focus group. Based on the results, we created a concrete concept, Luca, which we finally evaluated and optimized with the help of interviews with participants from various industries. The present work contributes to HRI research and practice, e.g., by providing design recommendations for the implementation of a social office robot. Future research could investigate the effectiveness of a social office robot intervention in field studies. Next to implications for research and practice, potential limitations are discussed