What does creating a culture to maximize colleagues’ meaning have to do with the Great Resignation?
Everything!
by Suzanne F. Stevens, Conscious Leadership and Social Contribution Cultivator,
Founder, YouMeWe Social Impact Group Inc. Part of the Nobody Wants to Work Series.
According to CBC and likely you, the pandemic has made most of us re-evaluate our priorities. A survey conducted by Angus Reid and the CBC, released in March 2022, suggests that 80 percent of Canadians have reflected on what is important to them in their lives during the pandemic. And just under half said they have since made significant lifestyle changes.
We have experienced a splintering society during the pandemic. Biases, privilege, and power have come out of the shadows and have been thrust into the light. Conscious leaders of SMEs and social enterprises are not standing by. [Check out YouMeWe Amplified Podcast to receive actionable insights into what, why, and how to make a social impact to empower you, your organization’s culture, and your community https://podcast.youmewe.ca/.)
Like YOU, these changemakers want to be part of the solution, not the problem. As leaders, we either get on board or continue to experience why nobody wants to work.
How to attract top talent
We know a demographic shift is upon us, and with the transition comes a change in how the workforce operates, what they value, and how they contribute. In Canada, by 2028, 75 percent of the workforce will be millennials. The cohort will have amplified purchasing power, donor dollars, and investment influence.
Millennials and Gen Zs want to have an impact, and they want it now. Back in the day, boomers and Xers joined an organization, and one of the last criteria they thought about was receiving meaning from work. That is why we see so many service organizations populated with mature people. They want to contribute to society in a meaningful way.
Well, for Millennials and Zers, that’s not going to fly. They want to contribute where they work, while they work, and they want it now.
And if you want to attract top talent, you need to understand that seventy-six percent of Millennials consider a company’s social or environmental contribution before even joining an organization!
So being better or different from competitors is not enough anymore. Being a mission-focused organization will attract, engage, and retain well-aligned colleagues, not to mention customers and collaborators!
I digress.
Businesses need to meet the call. There is an upsurge of social enterprises and socially conscious organizations.
We need businesses to decide how they will meet the conscious demands of their employees, customers, and society. Gen Z and Millennials’voices are growing louder; think Greta Thunberg from Sweden – or Autumn Peltier – Anishinaabe Indigenous rights advocate in Canada.
How to attract and retain Gen Y and Z talent
The trend toward their desire to be employed by conscious organizations is inevitable. Companies have an opportunity to be on the right side
of addressing the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals. Think of the power we have to influence and address what the pandemic and the last two-plus years have exposed. The vulnerable, marginalized, and underrepresented have suffered the most during the pandemic. Now is the time to make your contributions count and take a proactive role in our time’s social, economic, and environmental issues.
AND the bonus?
If employees find more meaning at work, they are more engaged and loyal to the organization. Result? Less employee turnover, less employee onboarding cost, and more productivity. Oh, a culture with increased trust, performance, and happiness.
Now, who wouldn’t want that?
How to create meaning at work?
There are many gaps in communities that the government can’t or won’t fill. With the U.N.’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the need and demand are now. Conscious leaders have an opportunity to create a culture where colleagues feel their contributions count to society.
Finding purpose and meaning is at the highest level of career satisfaction; this is not something SMEs or social purpose organizations can ignore.
So, where to start to create a culture where meaning is maximized?
CARE for the community is a fundamental practice of a conscious leader and preoccupies many of your colleagues’ waking hours.
That powerful question of “What is my purpose?”
How can this job serve it?
Or can it?
Put the brakes on the “great resignation.”
Take the time to understand what your colleagues care about. This is important. Assess how to incorporate what they care about into their work. Even if your organization has a social purpose, it doesn’t mean your mission connects to your colleagues’.
A colleague’s profession may give them meaning, i.e., they work in tech that facilitates clean water distribution to the North, and they are an environmentalist. However, if what your colleagues do doesn’t connect, I encourage creating: “conscious-contribution circles” – where colleagues contribute meaningfully to what they care about.
The one question that will help you discover your (and your colleagues’) purpose
To create a culture of people living their purpose, everyone needs to ask, “not what is my purpose?” but rather, “who do I want to serve?”
The answer to that question will influence if someone can realize their purpose at work or if they join the Great Resignation and pursue their purpose elsewhere.
In the next YouMeWe Infusion, we share how to decide who or what you want to serve and how to create a culture that creates space to serve them or it.
What can you do now to make your contribution count?
Consider whom you want to serve.
Have a candid conversation with each of your team and discover what they value, who do they value, and what would make their job even more fulfilling? (See what I did there?) Ask the question from the perspective that it is fulfilling will expose deeper insight than asking, “Are you fulfilled at work?” Defenses will go up, and so will your resignations.
At YouMeWe Social Impact Group, we grow conscious leaders and their social impact— sustainably. Join the #YouMeWeMovement and Like, share, comment, and subscribe to YouMeWe Infusion to make your contribution count for you, your organization, and your community.
PS do you have a question about growing your social impact?
Let us know in the comments!
