6 Ways Employers Can Promote Meaningful Work

Meaningful work is a powerful psychological fuel for the workplace. It’s the feeling that your work counts, helps you grow, is important, and is worth doing. Researchers have found a strong link between having a job that means something to you and caring about your career, being willing to put in extra effort at work, caring about your company, and also being intrinsically motivated to work. 

People who say their jobs are important are less likely to miss work and do a better job objectively and subjectively. However, until now, few studies have looked at specific leadership methods that can make work more meaningful. 

According to a new study, there are six ways employers can promote meaningful work among employees:

1. Talk about the bigger effects of the work.

The study found that the path most strongly linked to meaningful work was discussing how work affects people. People must know the connection between what they do and what happens. Employers should take more time to talk to their employees about this connection. These extra explanations might give employees fresh ideas. They made them feel like they were making a difference in the goal. Leaders can do this in both official and informal ways for their teams.

2. See potential and help it grow.

Potential is another path that connects to meaningful work the most. It’s important for busy workers to feel useful and challenged at work. One easy way to make this path is to talk to each member of your team one-on-one and ask them directly what kinds of projects they want to work on. Then, you can start matching them with possibilities.

3. Build close relationships.

It’s not a secret that having good relationships and meaningful work is important. The researchers were surprised to find that it was important for team members to get to know each other without having to do anything for work. Peer check-ins, lunchtime, after-work social or learning events, and volunteer opportunities were helpful.

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4. Talk about importance and goals when hiring.

Most organizations don’t take advantage of this great chance to connect new hires to the business’s purpose and values, but some do. Some companies tell new employees about their core values and ask people from all over the company to tell a story about each one. New hires should discuss what’s important to them so the company can find ways to incorporate those things into the job. This is another effective way to foster meaningful work among employees

5. Show how to act based on your ideals.

Employees need to see that their leaders do what they say they’ll do and act in a way that matches the organization’s goals. This practice was the one that was most strongly linked to a low intention to leave. This means that workers may leave if they see their leaders going against their principles.

6. Let people work on their own.

Autonomy is a basic psychological need and an important part of your job that makes you want to do it alone. You feel in control of how and when you conduct your job and daily tasks. You have a say in how things work and can take the lead and make decisions about your work. Lack of freedom is also one of the six reasons people get burned out at work.

The study says there are three ways to create autonomy: giving rules and goals a context. Using “leading to support” behaviors and letting workers decide how to reach their goals. Some examples of “leading to support” behaviors are clarifying and adding missing information about goals and tasks, explaining why a policy change was made, and getting people to take the initiative themselves.

The pandemic made many people wonder if they were in the right job. “Lack of meaning” is one of the reason to leave a job or change careers altogether. As companies keep looking for new ways to keep their best employees. Leaders now have a set of steps to improve this important part of their teams’ work.