Purpose motivates individuals to accomplish tasks and do better, which is why more employees are starting to search for purpose in their workplace. According to Deloitte’s Global 2022, Gen Z and millennial survey, about a quarter of employees from these age groups derive their sense of meaning through their work. Since professionals link their purpose to their occupation, Michele Parmelee, Deloitte Global’s chief people, and purpose officer, explains that more employees want businesses to drive societal and environmental change.
Now that more employees value their work purpose, companies need to leverage their corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies to better align with their own workforce. Both business and employee purposes are critical to organizations, and here’s why you should pay attention:
Employee purpose has a bigger impact on the performance of companies than many may think. An article on the Meaningfulness of Work and Employee Engagement revealed that employees who find significance in their role are more likely to be engaged and committed to their workplace. Once professionals deem their work as purposeful, they will feel more responsible and interested in their projects and daily tasks. That’s because their sense of purpose affects their emotional commitment to their role, consequently affecting their loyalty to their job.
Therefore, it’s critical for organizations to start focusing on their CSR strategies and how those affect their employees’ purpose. This is especially true since insights on employer focus by LHH reveal that there's a huge gap between the expectations of employees and the experience that companies provide. It's also revealed that expectations surged by at least 56% across various age groups and that workers are now showing increasing concern for well-being, diversity, inclusion, as well as environmental issues— and they're expecting their organizations to take action. By revisiting your CSR strategies and aligning them with the workforce’s expectations, you can help your employees find their purpose as part of your team.
How You Can Help Your Employees Find Their Purpose
Before focusing on your employees’ purpose, your organization has to assess how its own CSR strategies are being carried out. Since these strategies show the positive contributions of your organization to society, a Griffith University study on CSR internal branding emphasized that employees highly value how a business acts in accordance with its CSR principles. It turns out that professionals evaluate their workplace’s sincerity on their CSR, so your CSR performance affects their purpose and engagement as an employee.
Once you’ve reflected on your CSR strategies and adjusted them accordingly, you’ll need to provide your employees with a chance to ponder on their own purpose. To start, you can ask your organization’s managers and leaders to hold leadership workshops or storytelling sessions that will help employees find their own purpose within the workplace. Through these enlightening sessions, you can give your employees a chance to reflect on how their values align with the organization.
Your organization should provide employees with an opportunity to find meaning through your CSR strategies. Since more workers are concerned about environmental issues, our article on Purpose-Driven Team Building Activities encourages philanthropic activities like beach clean-up drives or volunteering sessions at local shelters. You can also offer waste-to-wealth workshops for consumers and employees so that you can carry out CSR strategies that involve recycling and sustainability.
Your CSR strategies can inspire your workforce to become more engaged and motivated. As such, your organization needs to improve its CSR strategies and get employees involved so that you can improve society as one.
Join hands with Chezuba to nudge your employees in the right direction of finding their purpose. As part of your CSR, you can have your employees volunteer their skills with nonprofits from around the world. This type of exposure to the needs of others can be beneficial for them to determine what drives them. Book a free trial to know more about how Chezuba can help.
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