A sense of meaning in the workplace may just be employers’ secret weapon in the war for talent.
A new PayScale study asked employees if their workplace made the world a better place, those workers who responded “yes” had the highest median pay of all survey respondents, at $50,600, followed by those who said “very much so,”at $49,700. In the same vein, the one percent of workers who answered, “My job may make the world a worse place,” had the lowest median salary, at $40,600. Whether getting paid well correlates with rosier-colored glasses, or whether mission-driven employees tend to be top performers and therefore earn higher salaries, higher pay and a sense of mission go hand in hand.
Higher Sense of Meaning also Correlates to Better Employee Engagement
Perhaps not surprisingly, higher job meaning equates to high job satisfaction. Eighty-five percent of workers who reported they “very much” believe that their job is making the world a better place also said they were “extremely satisfied” or “fairly satisfied” with their jobs. Conversely, workers who said “my job may make the world a worse place” reported only 29 percent job satisfaction.
Fight Turnover with Transparency
Lastly, we’ll close with an employee engagement metric very close to employers’ hearts: retention.The study found that if workers believe they’re doing good, they’re far less likely to be seeking a new job in the next six months. Sixty-one percent of employees who said their job “Very much so” makes the world a better place said they do not plan to seek a new job outside their current company within the next six months, the highest percentage of all workers surveyed. The second highest percentage of workers planning to stay in their current job was reported by those who answered “yes” to the same question; 55 percent of these workers intend to stay put. By way of comparison, only 20 percent of workers who believe their job may make the world a worse place intend to remain in their current job for more than six months.
A clear sense of mission correlates to every key performance indicator (KPI’s) that companies care about. What can you do? This study illustrates how important is is to be transparent and take the time to connect the dots between the company’s mission and every day work. You should do this not just out of sentiment, but to keep your talent game strong and competitive.
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