How Employers Can Create Purpose at Work

 


How Employers Can Create Purpose at Work

In today’s workplace, workers are in search for more and that’s usually more purpose.

Based on a 2018 report published in Harvard Business Review, employees with very meaningful work spend one additional hour per week working and take fewer days of paid leave each year. Generating an estimate of an additional $9,078 per worker per year.

Besides generating more income for the organization why else should employers create a meaningful work environment? When employees have a chance to reflect on their own sense of purpose, and how it connects to the company’s purpose, good things happen.

Psychologist Martin Seligman says, “meaning comes from belonging to and serving something beyond yourself and from developing the best within you.”

We can conclude being fulfilled at work provides people with a greater sense of responsibility and them taking pride in basic job functions. Encouraging them to go beyond and being inspired to do so because they understand their piece in the puzzle.

Employees also expect their jobs to be purposeful. In 2020 63% percent of people surveyed by McKinsey & Company said they want their employer to provide more opportunities for purpose in their day-to-day work.

Here’s 3 ways to create a sense of purpose and meaning at work day-to-day:

Create spaces for support

Vocally sharing experiences of meaningful work is an important form of social support. Employers can encourage managers to talk with their direct reports about what aspects of work they find meaningful and get managers to share with employees. If the person can’t contribute to the conversation spend that time figuring out what will bring them meaning at work and how you can help.

Strengthen the connection between employees and a sense of purpose

Only one-third of respondents believe their organizations strongly connect actions to purpose. Author of The Power of Meaning Emily Esfahani Smith says there are 4 pillars of fulfillment, one of them being purpose, using your strengths to serve others. How does this worker’s individual role contribute to the overall community/industry that the company serves. A knowledgeable worker is an inspired worker because they feel like they are co-creating alongside with the organization and not just for.

Make sure to lead with the mission, vision, values everyday

Organizations don’t discuss their mission, vision, and values or work with these things in mind day-to-day. An employer must connect people to something bigger than themselves and help them understand the impact of their contribution. Research from McKinsey & Company showed that “respondents who indicate they are “living their purpose” at work are much more likely than those not doing so to sustain or improve their levels of work effectiveness, and they had four times higher engagement and five times higher well-being.”

For today’s worker, meaningful and purposeful work ascends money. This is the time for employers to fuse purpose into it’s work culture. 

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