Engaging and Retaining Top Talent Is an Ongoing Battle
As companies struggle to maintain their competitive edge, each year more employees who take our best places to work employee engagement survey report feeling adrift because they have lost the sense of meaning in their work.Ā How can leaders help employees find more meaning at work?
The Role of Meaning at Work
While āmore meaningful work” sounds like another fluffy HR-feel-good idea, employees need more than a paycheck and good benefits to stay engaged at work.Ā In fact, over 500,000 employees per year consistently rank pay and benefits as having the lowest correlation to employee engagement and retention.Ā And when asked, āWhat makes you stay at your company?ā the number-one answer, according to a study by the WorkHuman Research Institute, was, āI find the work meaningful.ā
We know that employees who feel their work has purpose are more fully engaged and more productive.Ā They work harder, are more collaborative, and put forth their best ideas and effort.Ā Many leaders try to cascade the companyās strategyĀ and fundamental purpose to their employees.Ā But when we assess organizational culture, we find that the message is not getting through.
Whatās the Missing Link?
How can leaders be more effective in communicating the corporate strategy and purpose to their employees?Ā We believe the missing link between workers and the broader meaning of their work is simple.Ā Workers do not find more meaning at work because they do not feel personally connected.
When the line of sight at work is weak, employee connection is weak.
Four Steps to Help Employees Find More Meaning at Work
Customer centric cultures provide employees with meaning by providing the freedom to know their customersā personally and professionally, anticipate their emerging needs, and include their feedback in the continuous improvement process.Ā The more freedom employees feel to inject their work with personal meaning, the more engaged they become.
You will know that you are on the right path when people feel that showing up every day makes a difference.
One client had great success by instituting on-site customer visits for all employees.Ā Not only did employees appreciate how what they did benefited others, but they also better appreciated different company roles and had more suggestions for improvement and cross-functional collaboration.
Be aware however that extrinsic motivation has a shelf life.Ā The key to consistently higher performance goes deeper ā itās intrinsic.Ā Meaningful work creates the intrinsic motivation that drives employees to perform because they want to, not because they have to.
While higher meaning is easy to deduce for biotech companies, nonprofits, and healthcare organizations, it is not easy for many others.Ā But imagine a company that makes cars whose purpose is to help people to get to where they want to be. Or a company that makes watches that helps people to better balance their lives.Ā Or a company like Patagonia that aspires to deliver the best product without creating unnecessary harm to the environment.
The Bottom Line
Meaning and performance tend to go together.Ā Employees want their work to have meaning.Ā Leaders want their employees to make an impact.Ā While you canāt choose what matters most to each individual employee, you can certainly create the right environment for employees find more meaning at work.
To learn more about how to help employees find more meaning at work, download Employee Engagement Mistakes: Are You Aimlessly Engaging Your Employees?
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