The rise of the purpose-driven organisation: the changing expectations of employees
Establishing a clear purpose
Global research by The O.C. Tanner Institute highlights that although the majority of organisations have a purpose, this isn’t always being well-articulated, with the purpose failing to resonate with employees and inspire their day-to-day work.
Just over three quarters (76%) of UK workers surveyed state that their company has a clear purpose. However, when asked if the organisation’s purpose motivates them to do their best work, just 60% say that it does. And in fact, when asked whether they believe their work makes a real difference to the company, a mere 37% think that it does, highlighting that an organisation’s purpose might be clear at a high-level but it’s failing to provide engagement and inspiration at an employee-level.
The positive impact of company purpose
Getting purpose “right” can have far-reaching impacts, with a clearly defined, articulated and inspirational purpose positively impacting everything the company does. If employees understand how their role and the work they do contribute to the company’s purpose, they are more likely to produce great work. And if the company uses its purpose as the foundation for creating experiences that inspire each employee to pursue their daily work whole-heartedly, this will inevitably lead to a more profitable organisation. In fact, the Harvard Business Review’s The Business Case for Purpose, states that purpose-driven companies outperform their peers in stock price by 12 times.
Communicating your purpose
So how do you go about articulating a purpose that connects with employees? The company’s purpose needs to be inspiring and ‘speaks to’ the employees. It can’t be too generic, a mere re-working of the competitor’s purpose or cliched. The purpose must also tie to the employee value proposition, customer value proposition and social good. By articulating the difference the organisation makes and specifying what aspect of humanity is positively impacted by the company, will help to determine purpose. If you manufacture farm equipment, you might say you help to feed the world and if you’re an airline, you’re about bringing loved ones together.
Once the purpose has been determined, it needs to be communicated clearly and often, so that it is ‘lived and breathed’, becoming organically adopted rather than ‘pushed out’ from head office. Staff recognition should also be related back to purpose and values, and leaders need to reinforce the company’s purpose every single day, during one-to-ones, decision making and everyday conversations.
Employees are no longer satisfied with going into work each day and just leaving with their pay. They want to feel like that they’re making a positive and far-reaching difference. Organisations that are able to harness a sense of purpose and communicate it well so that it resonates with everyone, from the packer in the warehouse through to the outward-facing customer service advisors, will be the ones that drive its employees to ‘greatness’.
The author is Robert Ordever, MD of O.C. Tanner Europe.
This article is provided by O.C. Tanner Europe.
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Watch Evelyn Doyle, HR director EMEA at Patagonia, about what it’s like to work at a purposeful organisation.
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