These days, few modern professionals are motivated by money alone. In fact, most search their sectors for organizations with a salient, yet nebulous trait: purpose.
This lofty feature is especially important to the growing number of younger workers, consulting firm Deloitte found. Still, many businesses fail to address this matter and see high rates of turnover, disengaged C-level staff and slow growth as a result. Looking to avoid such roadblocks and attract new, idealistic talent? Infuse purpose into your workplace with some simple strategies.
Determine your purpose
The first step to establishing enterprisewide enthusiasm is identifying your purpose. To do this, turn to your founders, the Harvard Business Review suggested. Evaluate your organizational origin and look for the "ah-ha" moment or core ideal that led to the creation of your company. This brief recollection will not only give you insight into the true essence of your business, but will also provide great narrative imagery for internal and external rebranding efforts.
If your organization has been around for a while, you may find that some of these original values no longer match up with current operational standards. So, evaluate those founding principles to identify those that are essential and those that no longer apply or simply don't work within the modern market. However, when you finally nail down your corporate values, be prepared to back them up with action. Modern consumers with myriad social media tools at their fingertips can seriously harm companies that fail to live up to their own expectations.
Draft a compelling mission statement
Organizations normally draft lofty, highfalutin mission statements that carry little substance and a whole lot of search-engine-ready buzzwords. Additionally, many focus solely on customers. On the other hand, strong mission statements engage all stakeholders, lay out key company goals and demonstrate to employees how their work directly contributes to achieving these aims, the Harvard Business Review reported.
With the latter approach in mind, craft strong language that reflects your overarching objectives and speaks to all of your personnel, from the suits in the C-suite to the workers in the loading docks. Once you've penned something, ask yourself some key questions: Is the statement specific and defensible? Can you develop an operational strategy to support it? Again, good statements of purpose present values that are both inspiring and actionable.
Take substantive action
After you've established your values and expressed them via a compelling statement of purpose, take action to show customers, employees and prospective talent you mean what you say. Many companies do this by changing their operational approach to reflect their renewed commitment to core values, Inc. reported. Others look for ways to impact customers and stakeholders outside of day-to-day operations. For instance, some enterprises sponsor charitable-giving and volunteer programs that match company and individual employee values. Studies suggest that these external outlets stimulate engagement and drive up recruitment numbers.
"Look for ways to impact customers outside of day-to-day operations."
Hire purpose-driven employees
To maintain a purpose-driven workplace environment, you need unique professionals that place a high premium on key company values, FastCompany reported. Attract such contributors by building new roles that include a certain amount of autonomy and facilitate personal investment.
Of course, don't be afraid to ask for help from external executive recruiters. These firms can connect you with purpose-driven talent with the executive experience required to drive enterprisewide change. Interested? Get in touch with YES Partners today. To see some of the roles we have already successfully searched for and placed, click here.
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