Meaningfulness at work boots productivity, improves talent retention

Increasing a sense of meaningfulness at work is one of the most potent, yet underutilised ways to increase productivity, engagement and performance. Employees who derive meaning from their work are more than three times as likely to stay with their organisations.

According a recent survey of over 12, 000 employees across a broad range of companies and industries, the Energy Project, an engagement and performance firm that focuses on workplace fulfilment, found that 50 percent of the survey sample lacked a level of meaning and significance at work.

Little wonder the 2016 edition of the annual meeting of the Academy of Management has been dedicated to conversations on “Making Organisations Meaningful”. Come August, scholars from around the world will gather in California to discuss meaningfulness in organizations.

Experts say meaningfulness differs from happiness in a remarkable way. Whilst happiness is associated with ‘taking’ meaningfulness goes with ‘giving’. Happy employees might consider what they are getting from the organisation. However, meaningful work entails a suspension of what one wants and desires for a fair amount of self-sacrifice.

Timothy Anchovur, a sociology lecturer at the Benue State University, identifies three relationships patterns and personalities at the workplace: takers, matchers or givers. “Takers want to get as much as possible from others; matchers strive to trade evenly; givers, the rare breed of people contribute to others without expecting anything in return. However, the majority at the workplace have matching patterns. The top echelon is largely populated by givers.”

Anchovur held that in order to increase productivity at the workplace and build high levels of employee engagement, managers must create a sense of meaningfulness at work. Meaningfulness comes from contributing to something worthwhile, feeling valuable and valued, feeling able to give to, and receive from one’s work, and feeling able to give and receive from others in the course of work.

Fidelia Osime, country organisation & human resources director, LAFARGE, highlighted that corporate organisations are changing rapidly because millenials (those born from early 1980s to 2000) are by far the majority at the workplace today and are much more interested in experiencing, exploring, and learning. They want to be globally relevant and are globally mobile. They are not interested in jobs or money for their own sake. Meaningfulness is what drives them.

Adesewa Olufunke, 23 year old employee at a Public Relations firm disclosed to BD Human Capital that what keeps her committed, engaged and dedicated as an employee is a sense of recognition, personal development which is built on a realisation that her work contributes to a bigger worthwhile cause. “The money is important, it pays the bills. Over and above money though is a need to feel valued” she said.

Gurpreet Jagpal, director Research, Enterprise and Innovation, and CEO South Bank University Enterprises averred it is important “to create an environment where people feel the investment of their true-self is worthwhile, valued, and valuable.  With this approach you will go a long way towards building a sense of meaningfulness across your team or organisation and with this you’ll help raise the level of employee engagement.”

A social media manager for a multinational firm who pleads anonymity opined that meaningfulness is everything to him at work. “An adaptive leadership approach that taps into and makes the best use of unique individual talent, passion and contribution to worthwhile organisational goals will help promote a sense of meaningfulness” he said.

He observed that even where the nature of the work context dictates a higher degree of constraint and less flexibility, opportunity still exists to create a sense of meaningfulness by helping each employee understand how the tasks they perform support the organisation’s quest.  Even if these tasks do not necessarily make the best use of talent, it may still be possible to tap into passion for the organisation and what it stands for in order to create a sense of meaningfulness at work.

STEPHEN ONYEKWELU