That is the answer to the question, “Why are so many people talking about engagement in the workplace these days?” All the discussion of culture and engagement has companies scrambling to find a way to make sure they have some of each. Executives are talking about it, internal marketing campaigns are promoting it, and a billion-dollar industry is flourishing around ways to assess organizational culture and employee engagement and make them better. It is a legitimate area of focus, and all companies need to consider how they can curate a culture that serves as a place where people will perform at their peak and, in turn, feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves.
Your Company’s Cause
By default, all companies have a culture, and there are ways to measure engagement, but it all boils down to the question of “why.” The topics of culture and engagement are hot, because people inherently want to be part of something meaningful and an organization that allows them to grow professionally and personally. The challenge is bridging the gap between talking about engagement and creating a corporate setting where people truly feel like they are a part of something unique. Bridging that gap extends beyond posting mission statements around the office or charismatic town hall speeches; it is about knowing how employees feel about what they do and why they do it.
Some of the Data
In February, ReportLinker reported that only 40 percent of millennials are “highly committed” to their employers, and we know from LinkedIn’s 2016 study that many millennials will have nearly three different jobs in a five-year period. Since they will make up 50 percent of the workforce by 2020, companies that want to keep their top performers will need to give them a reason to stay beyond a paycheck. More money does not equate into a more engaged employee, since engagement is defined as how a person feels about the company and being fully connected and committed to the company’s interests and reputation. This definition is reflected in Deloitte’s 2016 Millennial Survey, which concluded that 40 percent of millennials intend to stay with their employers beyond 2020 due to a strong sense of purpose beyond financial success.
In other words, you could have a well-paid employee who is performing adequately but disengaged from the company’s direction and purpose. What is your company’s cause? Many will argue that companies do not exist to serve their employees but rather to generate a profit and maximize shareholder/stakeholder return. What they fail to see is that these goals don’t have to be mutually exclusive. You absolutely can maximize your returns and increase organizational performance while providing a substantive purpose and meaning to the work that people are doing. People desire this type of workplace, and Clark University’s 2014 poll supports the need for it. Failing to do so reinforces the disengagement that companies are experiencing.
How Healthy Is It?
The question of whether your company offers a “healthy cause” to its employees is not rooted solely in offering the opportunity to exercise during the day or a selection of fruits, vegetables and snacks in the lunchroom, which can be part of a creative and comprehensive wellness approach to the workplace. Rather, companies should be thinking in terms of what people naturally desire from their work versus what they need from work.
Yes, we all need to earn money to pay our bills and save for retirement, but we learned over 50 years ago that money is not a true motivator. Money can certainly incentivize, but people are drawn to jobs with a purpose, where they feel valued and their contributions support something bigger than themselves. Conversely, they are repelled from a situation that conflicts with their values and beliefs. This fact of human nature and motivation was evident in the work of Maslow and Herzberg and today in the work of Daniel Pink.
Even when a company fails to provide a true guiding ideal, you can find pockets of managers who are successful in motivating their teams to a purpose within that void. Here, we find the culprit of the lost cause: managers who are ill-equipped or unaware of how to inspire their direct reports and who may not fully understand or embrace the mission of the organization. Our managers are the synapse that connect the big picture to the individual pixels. Just think how much more performance would be unleashed if companies held up a purpose to which all its members are drawn and to which they actually felt a connection.
