How To Help Your Team Find A Sense Of Purpose In Work

How To Help Your Team Find A Sense Of Purpose In Work
WorkPlan

Did you know that 70 percent of employees feel their sense of purpose is defined by their work? Especially since the pandemic, people have been re-evaluating their purpose. More and more people have tied their sense of purpose to their work. Translation? Employers are responsible for ensuring their team feels a strong sense of purpose through their work. If they fail to do so, they risk losing their employees.

Purpose-driven employees also result in a far more productive workplace. Employees who are driven to live their purpose through work have far greater productivity than employees who don’t feel a strong sense of purpose at work. Importantly, purpose-driven employees tend to be more adaptable, happy and loyal to the company.

Clearly, cultivating a strong sense of purpose through work is critical to your employees’ health and wellbeing, while also being imperative for employee retention. Read on to learn the tools to help your team find a sense of purpose at work.

Include The Whole Team

 

Work team gathering around a table

Get ready for some telling statistics. While 85 percent of upper management and executives report they are living their purpose at work, only a mere 15 percent of frontline managers and frontline employees agreed. Even more concerningly, the notable disparity in these figures may have occurred because upper management has incidentally conditioned their frontline staff to feel a lower sense of purpose in their job.

One way to help cultivate a sense of purpose among your employees – from the frontline to the top – is to include the whole team in important decisions, company updates, etc. Currently, frontline staff are three times less likely than leaders to admit to feeling a connection between their day-to-day work tasks and their organisation’s purpose.
When managers take the time to share top-level company initiatives with the entire team, from the top to the bottom, they are actively including every employee, making them feel like a valued member of the organisation.

One easy way to foster an environment of inclusion in the workplace is through Learning & Development (L&D) platforms, like WorkPlan Learning.

Provide Opportunities To Build Purpose

While many employees feel their sense of purpose at work is lacking, this does not mean they don’t want this to change. In fact, sixty-three percent of people claim they want their employer to provide more opportunities for purpose in their daily work lives. It’s up to the employer to find ways to implement this.

Some companies will revert to the tried and tested approach of implementing programs that are designed to be ‘purpose building’; for example, helping the community. Sometimes these opportunities are even paid for.

These opportunities can be beneficial, but they are not the right solution to solve your team’s sense of purpose in their workplace. Instead, employers need to strategise ways to build their employees’ sense of purpose day-in, day-out in the workplace.

One simple way to start fostering a sense of purpose for your employees is to conduct immersive, small group sessions. By organising more intimate conversations with the team, you encourage every employee, at every level, to share their thoughts and ideas. This can work wonders when fostering a sense of purpose among your staff.

Fine-Tune Your Organisational Purpose

Happy worker at his desk

Finally, when employees feel their work is aligned with their organisation’s wider purpose, the entire team will experience the benefits. For example, organisations with a strong purpose that drives the entire organisation’s work can expect improved employee engagement and loyalty.

To look at your company’s purpose, there are a few things you can consider. Firstly, does your company consider its wider role in society? Do team members frequently look to the company’s wider purpose when they need to make tough decisions? If the company purpose is just a motto with no backbone, you’re wasting an opportunity. It’s one thing to say something, but it’s another to back it up with action.

One way to start actioning your purpose is to devote time with your team to reflect on the impact the company has on the world. This conversation won’t look like a company-wide email. Your employees don’t need a one-way street conversation. Instead, open a dialogue. This will have significant benefits on your team’s morale. In fact, employees are five times more likely to be excited to work at a company that allocates time to reflect on their wider impact on society.

Champion Every Employee’s Purpose With WorkPlan Learning

Every employee deserves to feel a strong sense of purpose from their work. Your team likely spends half their waking hours at work. It only makes sense that they find their purpose through their day job. That’s why it is so important your team has the opportunities to feel a sense of purpose from their work. With WorkPlan Learning, this can be done. WorkPlan Learning facilitates a space where every employee can share their ideas and learning. Our platform seamlessly links learning and content to your strategic goals and team objectives.

ALSO READ: Employee Engagement vs. Enablement: 4 Things That You Need To Do Right Now

 

Learn more about WorkPlan Learning

To find out more about WorkPlan Learning, be sure to get in touch with our helpful team, or perhaps give the platform a free trial.

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