I work for a purpose - what are the elements that make the work meaningful?
How to build a positive workplace image? And how do you keep people motivated and create a sense of meaning in their work?
To give too straightforward and simple answers to these questions would be naive. We live in a complex world and the factors that influence the employee experience are also complex.
Work satisfaction, work motivation and employee experience are influenced by a wide range of factors at individual, job, work community and organisational levels.
The employee experience is influenced both by daily events at the workplace and the "daily work experience" they create, and by the longer-term experience of developing one's skills, tasks and career in this particular job and in this particular work community.
Key factors that influence employee experience include good leadership, opportunities for development and empowerment, the experience of fairness, fair pay, a supportive and psychologically safe work community, and perceived importance of the goals and objectives of the organisation.
All of these combine to create or devour a person's experience of the meaningfulness and significance of work. Indeed, the experience of meaning and significance of one's work is a key factor influencing one's motivation and employee experience - whether I do work that is worth doing and whether I do it in a work environment that values my work. Without an experience of meaningfulness and intrinsic motivation, a person is like a car without petrol. Motivation is the petrol that makes you go, but without petrol, travelling is quite difficult.
"Without the experience of meaningful work and intrinsic motivation, a person is like a car without petrol. "
What is the experience of meaningful work?
In her "meaning map", New Zealander Marjolein Lips-Wiersma has highlighted four key factors that give rise to the experience of meaningful work.
Authenticity. This means being able to be your authentic self in your work and workplace. Authenticity also means being able to work according to your own values. Also linked to this theme is the idea of psychological safety in one's work and community, which has been much discussed recently.
Realising their potential. This involves the idea of putting one's own skills to good use in a sufficiently broad sense, but also the opportunity to develop and grow one's own skills. Meaningful and relevant work is one of the main things people expect and want from their jobs.
Cohesion. The work community and the people around you play a very important role in creating a sense of meaningfulness at work. Even meaningful work can easily become unbearable in a dysfunctional work community.
Serving others. By definition, work is done for other people. It is therefore important to see who benefits from your work and who you are serving. However, in today's working life, there is often too much distance between production and need.
Do you recognise these factors in your own work? And how could you add elements of meaningfulness to the work of your subordinates, colleagues, superiors or clients? I recommend remembering the importance of the four V's in leadership: care, empower, communicate and refer.
Care about the people around you. Be human to human. Appreciate your own work and the work of others, and appreciate the people behind the work.
Mandate. Give freedom and empowerment. Empower people to make decisions and work in the best way for themselves.
Message. Remember to communicate the goals and objectives you are promoting in your work. Remember to answer; not just the what and how questions, but also the why questions.
Lead the way with your own example. It is difficult to motivate and inspire others if you are not motivated by your own work. So dig out your own personal sources of motivation from your work - then you can truly lead the motivation of others.
Let's use these guidelines to create a more meaningful working life together.
The author Jaakko Sahimaa is an organisational psychologist whose mission is to make Finnish working life more meaningful and rewarding for individuals, organisations and society. Sahimaa works at HRM Partners and leads Meaningful Work Finland. Sahimaa works as a psychologist at Terveystalo. www.jaakkosahimaa.fi
Sahimaa, together with fellow authors Tapio Aaltonen and Pirjo Ahonen, is writing the book Johda Merkitystä, which will be published in February 2020.The book is the first book in Finnish on how leaders and managers can create meaningfulness for individuals, teams and the organisation as a whole.