Almost every organisation has a purpose, the aim is to unify people and provide greater meaning to the work they do.
It’s also a very powerful motivator, according to the Harvard Business Review 9 out 10 people would be willing to sacrifice 23% of their lifetime earnings to have more meaning at work. This is staggering.
Dan Pink, author of Drive, goes a step further, he calls out three things to truly motivate people to do their best work. Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.
The common thread between these is that it unlocks and reinforces the intrinsic motivation to do your best work.
Where do we start?
Bringing purpose to life is the key, posters on the wall or being tucked away on your intranet aren’t enough. According to PWC, Millennials, the most purpose-driven generation yet, want to hear stories about how purpose comes to life, directly from their leaders.
It’s the social connection between people that reinforces and strengthens the meaning, so find customer stories and share them in team meetings and town halls.
The power of purpose goes even deeper. Rutgers University say two thirds of Millennials look for employers where they can make a positive contribution in the world so leading with purpose can get you more engaged people from day one. They go to say that once they are with you they are 5 times more likely to stay when they have a strong sense of connection to purpose.
Once you have created an environment where your people are intrinsically motivated you must set up the system of work to support it.
Think of the system of work like a garden. The plants need the right soil, water and sunlight to grow, if some of these elements are out of balance, plants won’t grow, but get all of them right and they will reach their full potential. This is no different with the eco-system your people work in everyday.
One part of the system of work are KPI’s and rewards. In contact centres, metrics play a big role in aligning people to purpose, and when they out of whack the gap between what your teams are here to do and what they actually do becomes really obvious.
According to a study by Bain & Co employees and teams truly inspired by purpose are 225% more productive than those that aren’t. They go on to say that 79% of leaders say purpose is critical to success, yet only 32% align rewards and performance measures to purpose.
Organisational purpose is important, but it’s even more important that your contact centre teams understand their own purpose. Get your team together and ask each person to explore what truly motivates them to work, and then align their goals at work to this. It also acts as a powerful motivator to overcome setbacks and challenges.
The gauntlet has been thrown down, to provide purpose-driven work places with meaningful work that keep people engaged and able to bring their best self to work.