Worth Reading – Purposeful Work Boosts Engagement, but Few Experience It
If you suspect that your job doesn’t involve anything with a purpose, you might be right. And, you aren’t alone.
Purpose drives employee engagement and retention, but most workplaces undervalue it, and many U.S. employees say their jobs fall short of providing purpose.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/697403/purposeful-work-boosts-engagement-few-experience.aspx
The results of the research linked above are pretty stark. Clearly, very few people are doing work that feels purposeful to them. That can be explained by organizations that do a poor job of communicating with and recognizing employees’ contributions. The work seems without purpose because they don’t see how it connects to the organizational purpose.
It might also be explained by organizations that do a poor job of convincing employees that the organization serves a purpose in the first place.
I would suggest that another partial explanation is that many jobs and businesses don’t involve work that feels purposeful because the work has no purpose. Too many jobs exist solely to make more money for CEOs and investors. They don’t sell anything that helps society. Employees don’t benefit directly from business improvements, and those same CEOs justify all of the efforts by talking about how much the stock price went up. That seems to be the entire point of the organization. That’s the purpose.
It’s not easy to feel like your work has a purpose when the real purpose is to make some number go up. It’s hard to be engaged with that.
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