The search for the ‘Meaning at work’

Research has shown that 70% of employees suggest their own sense of identity comes from their job role.

Have you ever doubted your ‘meaning’ at work? Questioning, “Does what I do matter? Should I be focusing my time on this? Does my role fulfil me?”

Many people are increasingly questioning their ‘meaning’ at work, but how can you create meaning to your work and what does this changing behaviour mean for businesses?

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, many people had time to sit and reflect upon their own life, particularly their work purpose, including their sense of fulfilment and contribution to their role.

With remote working blurring of lines between home and work, it’s no surprise employees have been seeing their sense of identity and purpose has become increasingly influenced by their work purpose over the last few years.

Employees are more likely to be committed and show better performance when they have meaning and purpose to their job role.

According to research, 82% of employees also believe it’s important that their company has a purpose.

The search for meaning in work that happened to many over lockdown was one of the main contributors to the Great Resignation.

Therefore, it’s important that employers ensure that their employees understand their businesses mission and vision, as well as ensuring that individual employees can clearly see how their role contributes to the businesses objectives.

This is important not only for performance, but for employee wellbeing too.

With this in mind, we’ve brainstormed some ways, you could create meaning at work!

Whilst individuals’ purpose and fulfilment are personal, businesses play a crucial role in facilitating these feelings!

How employers can crease a sense of purpose to their employees: 

• Share mission and vision statements – Sharing the businesses mission and vision with employees allows them to clearly understand the purpose of the business to the wider world.
• Create a community – Ensure employees feel part of a team. According to research, relationship building in the workplace is the most important aspect to peoples sense of meaning at work.
• Speak to your employees – Take the time to understand what creates fulfilment for individuals and create strategies to integrate this into the work culture.
• Demonstrate appreciation – Appreciation doesn’t always have to be shown through financial rewards,  showing your team that they’re appreciated can be done verbally by telling them why what they’re doing matters!
• Show clear career progression – Outlining steps to career progression can give employees a sense of direction, and therefore purpose.
• Get out of the office – Where relevant and appropriate, it can be useful to encourage employees to get out of the office to go greet their clients in person, or take site visits! This can help employees to see first-hand what impact the business is having on others.

How to find your meaning at work personally:

• Find out what energises you – Discovering what energises you by looking at what motivates you and what you want to contribute to society can be really helpful to get a better insight into yourself, and therefore what will give you a sense of meaning in the workplace.
• Create meaning outside of work – Get involved with volunteering and charity opportunities outside of work. This can help you to feel a sense of purpose individually, and can also give you ideas to suggest in the workplace when it comes to supporting specific charities.
• Reflect – Think about times that you have had a positive influence on co-workers and team members. This will remind you of the times you have created value for others.
• Consider taking steps to change your role – If you’re struggling to understand or build your sense of purpose in your role, then perhaps it’s time to find a new one! Consider your options, whether it is a change in industry, job role or business size!

How we’ve found our meaning of work at T2M

At T2M, we have been finding the meaning of work through a recent team building activity we did!

We split into two teams, with each team having to produce a painting on what T2M means to them.

‘Teamwork’, ‘ethical’ and ‘partnership approach’ were just a few words that came up.

As well as ‘charity support’ including our Macmillan Coffee Morning, St Richards Hospice Donations, and various Christmas Charity donations, as well as ‘Jobs for the Planet’ with our tree planting scheme.

These elements of our business help to provide the team with a sense of meaning and purpose beyond our initial purpose of finding the right people for the right jobs at businesses they will thrive in.

Take a look at the finished masterpieces….

If you’d like more support in your career journey, then let’s have a conversation!

Whether you’re a business looking for some help to hire, or a candidate looking for your next challenge, get in touch with us to see how we can help!