In a McKinsey survey of over 1,000 employees, 82% answered that purpose was important to them in a company. Only 42%, however, believed that their company’s purpose was impactful or had positive effects.
That 40% gap illuminates a growing problem for organizations, more specifically for the HR departments within them. The Great Resignation, the massive increase of U.S. workers quitting their jobs in the past two years, has displayed that employees want more from their employers, and their motivations go beyond financial.
Employees, specifically Gen Z or millennial employees, want the places they work to have meaning beyond staying in the black. Another survey from Deloitte found that 37% of Gen Z and 36% of millennials “rejected a job/assignment offer based on their personal ethics.”
It has never been more critical for leaders to focus on their company’s purpose, not only for the good of their community but for the talent they wish to acquire.
Investing in Purpose-Driven Recruiting
When interviewing candidates twenty years ago, the critical conversation was around the interviewee’s qualifications, education, experience base, and references. These were the things that dominated the hiring process.
Obviously, these elements remain crucial to deciding who you should hire or not today. But when job seekers have more options than ever before, smart leaders must update the interview process to get the best candidates and keep their company competitive in its industry. This goes beyond compensation or perks like buying them lunch or a company car.
HR departments must be able to answer questions like:
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What do you stand for as a company?
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Why did this company start?
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What does leadership focus on besides the business?
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What type of outside activities are encouraged or areas of development for the business?
These points, which may have seemed trivial a couple of decades ago, are now crucial components that hiring managers must be able to answer competently. This means that hiring managers must know the organization’s core values, how its products or services align with those values, and how the organization’s actions positively impact its sphere of influence.
How to Define and Communicate Your Organization’s Purpose to Applicants and Employees
In some cases, you may not align with every candidate who walks through your door. But that’s not something you can distinguish if your purpose and the values it embodies aren’t clear. HR departments can save a lot of headaches and employee turnover by simply being clear about their company’s purpose and communicating the corporate culture to candidates in the interview process.
McKinsey encourages companies to find their “superpower”, that is, an organization’s unique approach or ability to create value and drive progress, both in and outside the company. If this superpower can be established, then leaders can effectively communicate that value to new hires, and filter out candidates that do not align with those values.
Applicants then come into the business with an even deeper level of conviction than simply meeting the typical criteria like the correct experience, salary, education, etc. For HR, this purpose-driven applicant interface is now a critical function that every company has to apply to their hiring practices.
Gartner suggests implementing the human-centric approach to make employment more enticing. This approach boosts productivity by giving employees more discretion over their work and work environment. It boils down to the employee having the autonomy to balance work and life as they see fit, in turn making them happier and more invested in the success of the company that gave them this level of freedom.
The Gartner approach obviously only works if the employee is meeting realistic progress thresholds in their work, but it allows the motivated employee to enact their own personal purpose outside of the companywide purpose your leadership has established.
What is an Employee Value Proposition (EVP)? How Can Purpose Improve It?
The Society of Human Resource Managers defines an employee value proposition (EVP) as a component of an employer’s branding strategy that represents everything of value that the employer has to offer its employees. These value propositions could be anything from competitive pay to flexible scheduling practices.
Why should leaders include their corporate purpose in their company’s EVP? Consider these stats from Gartner:
“Only 31% of HR leaders think their employees are satisfied with the EVP, and 65% of candidates report they have actually discontinued a hiring process due to an unattractive EVP.”
Employees and applicants are growing increasingly discontent with standard EVPs. Instead, they want to join a company that has a clear, tangible purpose and that allows them to fulfill their own purposes as well.
HR managers and key decision-makers must heed the statistics. 401k, dental, etc., are all considered baseline value propositions today. In order to really attract talented prospects in the post-pandemic world, companies need to sell applicants on the culture, the mission, and how the employee would thrive in your purpose-centric work environment.
Closing the Gap Between Employees and Purpose
As the research says, 82% of employees want purpose in their workplace, but only 42% of employees feel that they’re having that purpose fulfilled. Leaders that want to stay competitive in their industry have to evolve their hiring practices to align with a corporate purpose that engages employees.
HR in many ways is the entryway to a company’s success. In order to produce better business outcomes, leaders must equip their HR department with language and examples of the company’s purpose so that future employees are aware and invested in the ways their employer is serving its community.
Mark Bourgeois is an accomplished senior executive, both at a strategic and managerial level, with a strong history of providing leadership, innovation, business improvement, and change management.