This article examines how organisational purpose and individual purpose interact and fuel each other through the medium of employee experience. The article also highlights ways in which companies can help employees find their purpose and understand how to apply it to their working life.
Purpose can be an important contributor to employee experience, which in turn is linked to higher levels of employee engagement, stronger organisational commitment, and increased feelings of well-being.
The research identifies nine types of individual purpose—activities and beliefs that people find meaningful, such as achievement, caring, tradition, and stability.
These elements fit into three ways in which people approach purpose: free spirits find meaning in situations that they can control, achievers gravitate toward self-improvement, and caregivers find most meaning in caring for others. By understanding these distinctions, leaders can help themselves and their teams develop activities tailored to different personalities and situations.
A leader must constantly think about ways to make purpose part of the conversations with employees during their journey such as recruiting, onboarding, feedback and performance management.
