Why purposefulness is vital to employee happiness

People are worried about climate change, global food shortages, the energy crisis and war and want to do what they can to make a difference, and want employers to do the same

There are many academic studies about the creation of job satisfaction and while most research finds that financial rewards are important, the real retention factors are mostly to do with all the things that probably fit under the heading of organisational culture.

But the world is changing and people want more meaning or purpose in their jobs. They want to know how their roles add value to the company and, increasingly, to the world.

A look at some of the biggest global brands’ mission statements shows how important the bigger world difference is becoming – getting employees brought into the purposefulness of the company they work for.

A few examples or mission statements:

BBC: To enrich people’s lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain.
Walmart: We aim to build a better world – helping people live better and renew the planet while building thriving, resilient communities.
Asana: To help humanity thrive by enabling all teams to work together effortlessly.
3M: To improve every life through innovative giving in education, community and the environment.

A big driver to this need for purposefulness is a greater awareness of what’s happening in the world. People are especially concerned about climate change, global food shortages, the energy crisis and war and want to do they can, individually, to make a difference.

In their personal lives, people might do what they can in terms of charitable giving, volunteering and recycling to help tackle climate change. But how does their work add or detract from those personal efforts?

Aligning work and personal beliefs

Of course there are vocational jobs such as healthcare for example, where the purposefulness is really clear.

But it’s not just about work – everything about a job needs to be aligned, including a pension, whether it’s being invested in a way that’s not only helping employees with their financial future but is also helping move the world forward. Is it being used for good or bad?

Maybe a company is really clear about its greater purpose and might be talking publicly how well it’s doing on sustainability and maybe it has gone as far as becoming a certified B Corporation. But the workplace pension could be at odds with this greater purpose, inadvertently helping to finance tonnes of carbon emissions every year through the companies it’s invested in.

Cushon research shows that a 84% of employees are worried about climate change and nearly 69% are concerned that their pension could be investing in businesses that are contributing to climate change and they are calling for action. Nearly 40% of employees want their employer to move their workplace pension to a provider that is making a positive impact on climate.

Sustainability

Although climate change is the biggest challenge the world is currently facing, sustainability is a much wider issue. Employees, arguably the biggest stakeholder to consider, want their pension savings to be better aligned with their personal values and want them to make a difference. This could be in terms of improving animal welfare, dealing with poverty and homelessness, tackling biodiversity loss or ending plastic pollution.

Everyone is waking up to the fact that investing responsibly doesn’t have to mean sacrificing returns. It’s possible for pension investments to do good in the world and achieve good investment returns – it doesn’t have to be a trade-off.

In fact, those businesses that are transitioning to a new, more sustainable world are the profit makers of the future. They are at the forefront of new technologies.

To state the obvious, pension investments are about investing in and for the future and the world is moving to a new way of living. Sustainable investing is not only aligning to organisational and individual employee values, it’s about looking after your employees’ futures.