One thing that every employee desires is to find meaning within their work. If your employees aren't truly connected to your firm's mission, purpose and core values, it's time to start thinking about how to help make their work more meaningful.
But what does it mean to make work meaningful?
Let's explore ways you, as an employer, can help bring deeper meaning into the workplace while helping create a culture where people are motivated, productive and innovative.
We often think of work as what we do to make money, but work provides many things over and above a paycheck, such as:
- Status and identity;
- Community and social connection;
- Tasks we find stimulating; and,
- Opportunities to make a positive contribution to society.
All of these things make work feel meaningful to people.
5 qualities of meaningful work
Finding meaning in work can be done regardless of someone's level, position or status. There are five qualities that make work meaningful.
- Self-transcendent. Work feels meaningful when you're working toward a higher goal. People are more likely to view their work as significant when it matters to others — not just themselves. For example, trash collectors may find their work meaningful because they are helping recycle refuse, contributing to a clean environment for their children or grandchildren.
- Poignant. Meaningfulness isn't always a positive experience, so people don't have to walk around in a euphoric state all day. For example, medical professionals who use their skills to ease the passing of patients at the end of their lives often find meaning in their work, even if it is sometimes emotionally draining.
- Episodic. Meaning can come and go during your working life — it's not necessarily an everyday occurrence. For example, you might feel like a rock star after helping your client cut their tax bill by thousands of dollars or improve cash flow.
- Reflective. Meaningfulness is rarely experienced in the moment. Instead, it's often something we recognize in retrospect when we see our completed work and connect our achievements to a broader sense of meaning. For example, an academic researcher might think they've wasted years on research that didn't deliver the intended results. However, 20 years later, their work becomes the foundation of a new development that saves lives.
- Personal. Meaningful work is often understood in the wider context of personal life experiences. For example, an entrepreneur's motivation to start a business may stem from a desire to make a parent or grandparent proud.
For firm leaders, it's tough to help team members find meaning at work if you don't feel that sense of meaningfulness yourself.
Below are some tips to help you identify what's meaningful to you about your work:
- Think about who you are serving. Consider the people and organizations that benefit from your efforts. This can include employees, clients and those who receive a more indirect benefit. For example, providing consulting and advisory services to clients might help them fulfill a long-term goal of growing a family business they can leave to their children today. Running a profitable and growing firm provides a living for your employees, allowing them to support their families.
- Make excellence a priority. Making excellence at work a focus is essential to making work meaningful. People who strive for excellence in their careers have more job satisfaction and are more engaged than those who don't. When you set high standards and continually strive to meet or exceed them, you experience a sense of accomplishment when you complete tasks or projects successfully.
- Develop good relationships with the people around you. Developing good relationships at work can make work more meaningful in various ways. By forming strong connections with coworkers and clients, you can share experiences and gain insight into the goals, values and motivations of others. Working together to achieve your goals allows you to find even more meaning.
- Remember the big picture of why you work. In a poll by PlanSponsor, more than
two-thirds of respondents said they would continue working in some capacity even if they didn't need the money. Clearly, people aren't working just for the paycheck. Even if it is about the money on some level, it may also be about supporting your loved ones and giving back to your community. Whatever your "why," it can help to bring focus, direction and motivation to your daily tasks and remind you why you're there.
To help your team members discover what's meaningful to them about their work, here are several questions to ask yourself and your people.
- Does your team have the autonomy needed to be successful in their role? When people have autonomy in their work, it gives them a feeling of self-determination and purpose. This benefits the firm and individuals in both the short- and long-term, as it helps employees feel more connected to their job and allows them to develop essential skills along the way.
- Do you feel valued and important to the success of the team? People need to feel valued and important to the success of the team. This helps foster a sense of belonging and connection with their peers. When team members feel appreciated and valued, they are more likely to be motivated to work hard and put in extra effort, leading to increased productivity and higher-quality work.
- Is the work environment enjoyable to work in every day? An enjoyable work environment contributes to a team's success, because when workers are in a pleasant and positive atmosphere, they're more productive and motivated to do their best work.
- Is your team excited when the company is successful? One way to get people excited about their work is to ensure they know how their contributions impact the company's goals. This can be done by providing access to the company's strategic plan and tying individual goals to that plan. Recognizing and rewarding employees for their efforts in helping the company succeed is also helpful. This gives them a sense of pride in their work and motivates them to strive for success. ·
- Does your team want to learn and grow? Providing learning and development opportunities is essential for keeping employees engaged and motivated. It helps foster collaboration and innovation and encourages team members to develop new ideas and strategies to succeed.
These are just a few questions that can provide insight into your team's overall motivation. Discovering what is meaningful for each team member is the key to helping them find purpose and engagement in their work. Investing in each individual's growth and development can help create a workplace culture that motivates everyone to do their best.
