rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_54f276af-6c33-5c5e-84d3-50b538a66456">4 The demand for meaningful, purposeful work has never been stronger than it is today.
Is compensation suddenly not important? Of course it is – though in one survey, the portion of workers who say that pay is most important is only 19 percent.5 There will inevitably be significant differences in how much people say they are motivated by money; salespeople will answer differently from social workers. Compensation is a huge influence on our willingness to accept and remain in a job, even if it is not that important to us in the day-to-day work. What's more, the issue of money can be a huge de-motivator for anyone who feels they are being paid unfairly.
It's not just about purpose and meaning, though. Opportunities for learning and a breadth of career development in a professional job are among the top reasons given for remaining with a company.6 In fact, one study found that 94 percent of employees say they would stay at a company longer if they had learning opportunities.7 Three-quarters of employees say they are more motivated to improve their technical and professional skills as a result of the pandemic.8
Our fundamental psychology has not changed all that much. What made our grandparents happy at work is the same for us: achieving meaningful things in an organization where we are appreciated, valued, and feel a sense of belonging. What has changed is the environment we live in. What has changed is our ability to get the things that make us happy at work.
And a lot of people out there are not happy.
A staggering number of people are quitting their jobs without immediately looking for the next one – a phenomenon in the United States and elsewhere that's been dubbed (in the U.S., anyway) “The Great Resignation,” creating an unpredictable labor market. “I don't want to make the same mistakes, where I just take anything, because I could end up in an even worse situation,” says Kara,* formerly a project manager at a software company, voicing a common concern. “Now that I have an idea of what's out there, I don't want to jump into a brand-new role just yet.” Companies are worried about recruitment and retention, about compensation and perks, and whether their efforts will succeed in this new landscape. Working conditions at a given company, bad or good, are public knowledge. “Amazon built cutting-edge package processing facilities to cater to shoppers' appetite for fast delivery, far outpacing competitors,” reports The New York Times. “But the business did not devote enough resources and attention to how it served employees, according to many longtime workers.”9
Burnout, a key indicator for quitting, is rampant. Among tech workers, 58 percent report experiencing it.10 Lots of employees – and former employees – are prioritizing that ever-elusive “work-life balance.”
Companies are starting to address employee experience, but it's not easy given that they're already dealing with the challenge of the hybrid workplace. What are the new working policies? What do employees really need? How do leaders meet those individual wants and expectations if they oversee a company of 100,000? Or even just 100? Business leaders and CHROs alike face a challenge.
“I know they want to create a better experience,” says Rachel, a copywriter and brand developer, about the mid-sized design firm she left for a better opportunity, “but I don't think they really know how.”
Keeping Pace
For those in positions of leadership, it may feel daunting to try to manage the pace of change today. But we all know it's necessary in order to stay relevant and succeed. Because people change. Society changes. Constantly. On a recent trip to Washington, D.C., with my daughter, Kalie, I came across these words etched in stone: “Laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times.” Thomas Jefferson said that more than two centuries ago, and it's still true today.11 Companies and their practices must change to keep pace with the progress of the human mind.
It's hard to argue that the changes in work from thousands of years ago to a century ago were greater than what we've experienced in just the last two generations, or the last five years. The word disruption has been overused, yet it accurately describes what has been going on for the last decade and even more recently. Business leaders have seen a massive reorientation around the notion of work.
Your work life was once far less flexible. Today, there's more choice, thus companies need to compete harder for your attention and loyalty. Since 1972, average gross domestic product (GDP) per capita around the globe has increased more than tenfold, which translates to more personal discretionary spending, which means more people who are able and willing to tolerate a few months out of work looking for their next job.12 Many people are no longer satisfied simply by reaching the base levels of Maslow's iconic hierarchy pyramid – physiological (food, shelter, etc.) and safety/security (employment, social stability, etc.). They want to scale the upper levels, right to the top of the pyramid: self-actualization.
Who – during the Great Depression – would have thought that self-actualization was something to expect from one's job? Work was about a steady paycheck. Now, more people are willing and able to make trade-offs. Do I want to spend x more hours making y more money? Or do I want to spend more time meditating? “What if paid work is not the only worthwhile use of one's time?” The New York Times' Farhad Manjoo ponders. “What if crushing it in your career is not the only way to attain status and significance in society?”13
People want and need to feel fairly compensated and secure in their job. But people today are increasingly interested in moving around, changing jobs; résumés read like novellas. If employees are unhappy at work, they can leave. Maybe they want to do good, or more good, or see a bigger picture, or they're no longer willing to feel like a cog in the machine.
Companies can't expect to attract the best talent, and therefore grow and succeed, without examining what they're offering. “Businesses have to understand that they need to attract and work with people in a different way if they expect to keep us,” says Mark, an executive who just returned from four years in Asia. “I'm happy to be back in the San Francisco Bay area but I can work anywhere in the world. I have a talent set and I have a network. If I had an offer for a job back in Asia, I wouldn't have to move there to do it.”
Leaders must think more purposefully about how they're helping their people. Today's worker will not be won over easily by empty corporate campaigns or initiatives that offer perks like foosball tables in the breakroom, ostensibly to improve their experience. These gimmicks might get you a better rating on workplace surveys but, as much psychological research shows, if companies are not offering something meaningful, they will fail. Genuine improvements in the work environment are those that affect intrinsic motivation and allow the worker to contribute and have a voice. These are much more predictive of employee fulfillment and business success. Some forward-looking companies are redefining their HR processes to focus more on human experience management (e.g., aspiration, work style, growth) rather than its previous focus, human capital management.
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