The great resignation. The great reprioritization. The great reshuffle. Whatever you want to call the tsunami of people voluntarily leaving their jobs – a record-breaking 47.8 million in the US in 2021, it’s clear that too many employees have felt uninspired by their job. And voted with their feet.

Moreover, millions more continue to feel decidedly unengaged by their place of work. ‘Work is just a pay cheque’ for 79% of people, according to Gallup’s annual survey. 

It’s a damning statistic with huge implications.

Recently, we’ve seen commentators try to unpack the story behind various headline statistics, rightly identifying nuances across industries and roles, painting a more complex picture beyond the idea of COVID-19 giving people a wakeup call.

But this misses the point. The elephant in the room is that engagement has been flat for several years if not decades. Clearly, something needs to change. Is purpose the answer? Well, yes and no.

A ‘purposeful’ purpose

The importance of purpose in business is now well established. Our 2022 Brandpie CEO Purpose Report revealed that 83% of organizations now have a purpose statement or intend to create one in the next 12 months.

But purpose can mean different things to different people. Most people now recognise that a company’s purpose goes beyond philanthropy, cause marketing, sustainable commitments and having ‘strong points of view’. At Brandpie, we see it as an invaluable tool that sits at the core of your business, aligned with your strategy, guiding the decisions you make. We think about organisational, not brand purpose.

Our definition of purpose involves connecting what you do with what the world needs in a meaningful way. It should inspire, challenge, and enable you to build long-term value creation. 

That first part on ‘connecting what you do’, is important because while purpose statements do need to be ambitious, they can often feel too high-level, too hifalutin, or too remote to your most important stakeholders – your people. A purpose that employees struggle to connect with, or one that is deemed irrelevant to their everyday role, really is falling at the very first hurdle. 

So, no, having a purpose on its own doesn’t fix the problem of people feeling switched off at their workplace. 

However, when your organisation explicitly articulates the clear connection between what they do and the meaningful reason why they do it, purpose can indeed be a powerful driver of long-term engagement. 

Making meaningful connections

One of the main areas in the great resignation debate was the number of people who, because of the pandemic, were questioning the work they did. Is it meaningful? What positive impact does it have on the world around us? How does it connect to my individual purpose and values? Or more bluntly, why am I here, doing this? 

“Human connections are deeply nurtured in the field of shared story”, wrote the philosopher, Dr. Jean Houston. This is especially true in the realm of building purposeful organisations. A connected purpose is a shared story. A shared story gives people a stake in their company’s future. And that sense of having a stake in the company’s future is critical to building employee engagement. 

Making that connection between what you do, and what the world needs is hard but getting it right matters. Take the example of global professional services provider EY. EY’s purpose is defined as: Building a Better Working World. The key word? Working. This is clearly not about philanthropy and connects what EY do with why they do it. That link enabled EY’s people to understand how their role contributed to the company's purpose.

“Having a shared purpose unifies our culture and helps people connect their day-to-day work to something bigger than themselves,” says Carmine Di Sibio, EY Global Chairman & CEO. “Purpose is where we start, but we activate it through our strategy – to create long-term value for our clients, people, and society. We are now a $45 billion company, growing at an impressive rate, and attribute that to our stakeholder-focused strategy, as well as the ability of EY people to adapt, innovate and deliver value in new and different ways.” 

Carmine frequently talks about the critical part the company’s purpose has played in forging a stronger bond between employer and employee. How it has contributed to a stronger sense of identity. How it gave EY a clearer role in an unstable world. 

Think big. Think small.

Over the past few years, at Brandpie we’ve listened to thousands of employees across different industries to understand their career motivations. What our research shows is that organizations need to not only think big and deeply about their purpose, they also need to think at a micro level. 

Answering the bigger ‘why’ is important, but employees will always have fundamental questions: ‘what does this mean for me?’ What are the career paths open to me? How will I develop my skills? What is the policy on flexible working? How do we put project teams together? Will I be working with global colleagues? How will I be rewarded? Are benefits tailored individually? 

In terms of retaining talent and engaging properly with employees and colleagues, providing answers to these questions is as important as providing an answer to why you exist. 

The challenge is therefore twofold. Leaders need to grapple with articulating a meaningful purpose and speak directly to the changing needs of employees. In our experience, those companies who successful link the two – who make that connection – are the ones who are best placed to stem the rising tides of attrition.