Employee experience is defined as:
“The internalization and interpretation of the interactions that employees have with their organization, as well as the context that underlies those interactions.” – Gartner
Driving employee experience in the virtual is a challenge that business leaders are currently facing. With distributed workforces, and an era of workplace upheaval, it is not surprising that organizations are circling back to traditional approaches to build sustainable and reliable employee experiences.
An example of a traditional approach is building employee experience through purpose.
Purpose can be defined as:
“A person’s sense of resolve or determination”. – Gartner
Purpose provides so many benefits for businesses and employees alike. The concept has been the foundational pillar for many successful companies, such as NASA and NIKE .
In an age of technological revolution and discovery, the understanding of what motivates people, and teams has seemed to be lost in translation. So, let’s go back to basics and drive employee experience for the human brain rather than the robotic corporate one.
How can you implement purpose in your business?
Simon Sinek once said:
“People don’t buy what you do; people buy why you do it.”
This point of view is important to remember whether you are selling a new product or wanting to sell the business to your new employees.
To put it simply, businesses must articulate their “why”. For example, why do people want to work for you? Why do people want to associate with your brand? Why do people want to align their life choices with the way that the business operates?
A fundamental answer. Purpose.
Defining a corporate why and making sure it guides decisions and operations has thus become significant to the way that a company grows and evolves.
Some tips for implementing purpose within your business:
- Look for the “why” within the foundational pillars of your organization.
- Anchor the company purpose in your people’s underlying needs.
- Connect with what you and your team care deeply about.
- Embrace all stakeholders in a declaration of interdependence.
- Consider your business impact on society.
What are the benefits of purpose on employee experience.
Purpose is emotional. It is connecting people to the business, and the business to the people.
As Jugo highlights in our previous article ‘How to reenergize your employees’, it is no secret that employees want to feel valued and connected.
Employees are hungry for purpose. They want to feel like they are making an impact and are getting up in the morning for something that is worth it.
As McKinsey notes, people gain a sense of fulfillment from finding purpose in their work.
In the workplace, the benefits of heightened employee purpose mean:
- An improvement in employee productivity, performance, and engagement.
- An increase in employee retention
- A strong company culture.
Here at Jugo, we champion purpose. As our VP of Sales, Oliver Critchard, states:
So, employee experience and purpose. Let’s talk about it.
3 ways to drive employee experience with purpose.
1. Transform employee journeys with moments that matter.
The employee lifecycle can be different from one company to the next, but the moments that matter within employee experiences and journeys can be consistent across many businesses.
In turn, mapping out where in an employee’s lifecycle they feel more attached to the business can help business leaders identify where they need to provide more support to those who do not yet feel purpose driven.
2. Take a systematic approach to employee experience, starting with a clear north star, or measure for success.
Starting with clear north stars and measures for successes are crucial for ensuring that the employee experience is seamless with purpose.
When the messaging remains consistent and uniformed across senior leadership teams, employees are more likely to feel attached to the company community.
3. Identify the big picture.
As the Janitor at NASA once said, “Well Mr. President, I am helping put man on the moon”.
It was in this example, that purpose within the bigger picture was encapsulated so beautifully. Even a Janitor knew that his job, albeit small in regard, was going to help put man on the moon.
So, when talking about purpose within your business. Talk about purpose within the bigger picture and how it is going to revolutionize the industry that you operate in.
To conclude, driving purpose is critical to helping to create a sustainable virtual employee experience .
Without purpose, employees are unlikely to be engaged and are also unlikely to feel aligned to their role. Within the 21st century digital frontier, it is important for employees to feel excited, and feel like they are making an impact.
Using platforms like Jugo, you can drive purpose in line with employee experience effortlessly. Intrigued to find out how Jugo can do this? Book in a Demo now.
