How to Create More Meaningful Work

How Engaged Are Your Employees in their Work?
When we assess organizational culture, the results are clear. Engaged employees are significantly more productive and effective than their unengaged counterparts. There is no doubt that employee engagement is critical to organizational health and business success. And the key is to coach employees on how to create more meaningful work.

A significant aspect of employee engagement is whether or not employees see their work as meaningful. When they do, their job attitudes and performance improve substantially.

Meaningful Work
To create meaning, employees need an inspiring corporate vision that resonates personally and professionally to give their work purpose beyond cashing a paycheck. When employees passionately believe in what they do for the company and what the company stands for, they look forward to coming to work and to contributing to the vision.

How Do You Create More Meaningful Work?
To increase employee engagement, you need to take meaningful employee engagement actions.  One of the most effective is to give employees a sense of meaningful work.   To accomplish this, leaders must work with their teams to link what they do to what matters most to them.

Here are steps you can take to put meaningful work into practice.

1. Create Resonance
   Meet individually or as a team to discover which source of meaning resonates the most from areas such as the impact on society, customers, the company, team, or the individual’s personal success. Be as clear and specific as you can.
   
   
2. Create a Clear Line of Sight
   Insert and communicate meaning into everyday work. For instance, if the impact on customers is what matters most to your team, share positive customer feedback at your weekly meeting. When employees can see and articulate the relationship between what they do on a day-to-day basis and what creates meaning for them, their level of discretionary effort, advocacy, and intent to stay all increase.
   
   
3. Create Mission Moments
   Provide consistent and frequent opportunities for team members to observe firsthand the impact of their work on others. For example, to showcase an impact on society, invite members of the served community to attend a meeting to describe the positive impact the work has had on their wellbeing. For an impact on customers, see that every employee regardless of level or role has an opportunity to have some direct customer interaction.
   
   You get the idea.  Appreciate and make the more meaningful work visible.

The Bottom Line
Creating more meaningful work has benefits for both leaders and workers. Leaders have a more committed, engaged workforce, and workers go the extra mile and want to stay onboard.

To learn more about how to engage and retain your top talent, download 3 Must-Have Ingredients of High Performing Teams for New Managers