Workers Lack Purpose & Employers Lack Awareness

Some newly released research indicates that workers are not only feeling unfulfilled on the job, but they also overwhelmingly share the belief that the senior leadership at their companies are out-of-touch on these issues. 

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The survey - which was a joint effort between creative marketing company Strawberry Frog and data insights leader Dynata - was conducted via a sample that is representative of the country’s population at large.

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According to their analysis, about 3 in 4 workers are disengaging from their role as a result of working conditions, which can be problematic and cause employees to 'check out' in cases where the job is over demanding and can cause employees to 'check out' in cases where the job is or under demanding, as well. Further, unmet expectations can introduce a wedge in the employer/employee relationship often regardless of whether those expectations are the employer or the employee’s. 

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Of course, at low levels of engagement, climbing turnover costs aren’t the only factor affecting bottom lines nationwide, with lost productivity and efficiency that’s attributable directly to employee disengagement likely amounting in the billions annually.

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Beyond the value of talent lost and the expense of replacing it, however, the central tragedy of engagement-related loss is that many times, even when employees do become fed up to the point that they choose to seek employment elsewhere, there is a strong likelihood that their motivations for doing so will be lost entirely on those in positions of power who created the very conditions that have lead to the employee’s ultimate departure. 

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In fact, only about 1 in 4 employees thinks that management has a sufficient understanding of what leads them to look for a new job or stay the course in the first place, whereas most managers believe that the opposite is true - that senior leadership has a solid read on what makes employees motivated in their work and/or want to take on all the effort, risk, and uncertainty that comes with finding a new job.

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According to an executive with one of the survey partners, the hassle that comes with finding a new place of employment is often the primary root that is holding many workers to their current jobs, while management exist in what he dubbed a “thriving bubble” where they pretend the company mission is clear and employees feel some sort of collective purpose in pursuit of it despite little evidence in support of this perspective.

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As the research and analysis made clear, purpose and meaning were two of the factors that were most closely correlated with strengthened employee loyalty - more so even than factors like day-to-day on-the-job experience or total compensation.

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While the pandemic caused workers across markets and industries to reassess how work fits in within the larger context of their lives as a whole, the survey seems to show that the biggest barrier preventing workers from finding more of the purpose and desire for meaning they seek within their work is leadership that is tone deaf, preoccupied, and unaware of how their efforts to create common purpose are falling flat.

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You can read more about this topic here.