A recent survey by Deloitte finds that ⅔ millennials across the globe plan to leave their current position by 2020. The chief reason for this is the opportunities for growth within that company simply are not there. Fair enough, right?
The second most common reason for millennials to jump ship, however, is what Deloitte has termed “the purpose gap.” This gap exists between what the employer is offering, and what the employee wants out of their career.
When we think of why people leave jobs, the first reason that typically comes to mind is compensation. But that’s not necessarily what the purpose gap is signifying. Instead, this new wave of employees might feel disconnected from what their employer is doing to make a positive contribution to the global community. They yearn to understand what their company does uniquely well, and how it benefits both their employees and customers.
Millennial employees want to feel personally invested in their employer’s mission. Who knew?
Business Insider, who also studied Deloitte’s research, captured this perfectly:
The important business outcomes that millennials feel their organizations are neglecting include: improving the skills, income, and satisfaction levels of employees; creating jobs; and providing services and goods that make a positive difference in people’s lives.
Enterprises that struggle to attract and retain millennial talent, then, need to be critical of their offerings. The question remains: why is your organization special?
Start With Why
We’ve been reading a lot about the importance of defining a purpose lately, and one idea we keep coming back to is Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why.”
Very, very few people or organizations know why they do what they do. And by “why” I don’t mean “to make a profit.” That’s a result. It’s always a result. By “why,” I mean: What’s your purpose? What’s your cause? What’s your belief? Why does your organization exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care?
The reason this is so important for businesses, according to Simon, is that people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
With the incoming workforce, having a cool product or service isn’t enough. The “so what” factor is what’s really going to attract that talent.
Your why should be at the centre of everything you do. The what and how will automatically follow if you can clearly define the reason your organization exists.
Looking Inward
Well then, what’s PostBeyond’s reason for existing?
So glad you asked!
In an effort to fully articulate our values, we asked team members why they love coming into work every day. And I have to admit, it caught me really off guard when it was my turn.
“I like coming into work because I love the people I work with.”
…Okay, but that could be true for any company. Why do I love working for PostBeyond every day?
Although more inarticulate than I had hoped, I ended up saying “work doesn’t have to suck. I like that our mission is centered around changing popular perceptions of what ‘work’ is.” After asking each of our team members why they care about PostBeyond, we all had similar answers: we want to help organizations adapt to the changing world of work.
If that sounds lofty, that’s fully intentional. The why doesn’t need to relate to your product or service, and in fact, the best purpose statements seldom refer to the tactical elements of your company at all.
Simon Sinek used Apple as an example to demonstrate a powerful why. It goes something like this:
Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly. We just happen to make great computers.
It’s certainly more compelling than “we’re a computer company,” right?
Your why should be the driving force behind your company’s offerings. It should permeate everything you do, and inspire your employees.
The How & What
If you have a clearly defined purpose, your how and what will naturally follow. This is the easier part!
We’ve moved away from defining ourselves by our product, because we think that what our product actually represents is so much more meaningful than how it functions. What PostBeyond means for changing enterprise communications is more powerful than saying “we’re an internal communications platform.”
When we think of how our customers use our product, there are no two that use it the exact same way. And that’s a pretty incredible thing! They see the transformative potential it has that can be applied to their workplace and they run with it. They aren’t strictly interested in what our platform does or the features it has, they’re interested in what it means in terms of the broader picture.
Simon was right, people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. And this doesn’t just apply to customers – it applies to talent, too.
Demonstrating Your Why to the Public
We think one of the best ways to share your why is through content. And no, we don’t mean paraphrasing “we value innovation and excellence” as a blog post over and over again.
Your content should function as a reflection of your purpose. It should in some way or another help your employees understand why you’re doing what you’re doing, and resonate with them on a deep level of familiarity. You want them to consume this content and think “yeah, I get this.” It will help align everyone and ensure that your purpose isn’t reduced to words in a mission statement.
Since the PostBeyond team believes in helping enterprises adapt to the changing future of work, our content reflects anything and everything that resembles it. That might have been a bit confusing, so I’ll try and break it down further:
Our why is “we believe in helping companies adapt to the future of work.” That’s our core, and that’s what motivates us.
We use content to keep all of our team on the same page. Our blog is the voice of our company, so most of the content there is written with the intention to challenge how enterprises communicate.
We share articles around Future of Work trends, examples of companies that we think are doing an awesome job embracing new ideas, customer stories – you name it. We have tons of content going around that relate to our why. Even if it’s a scathing article titled “Employees Should Never Be Happy and Companies Should Only Care About Profit”, we absorb it. It helps us remember why we care about the changing workplace.
We’ve outlined this topic before, but a centralized content library is a huge help in keeping everyone on the same page. It’s probably not surprising that we use our own platform to distribute content to our employees, who can then choose to share it outwardly if they’d like.
The result here is twofold: we’re strengthening our own internal communications efforts by ensuring that everyone values the same things, and we’re showcasing our why to potential customers or hires outwardly.
We encourage you to dig deep here and find your company’s why. Ask what keeps your team coming in day after day. Find out what motivates them, and rally them behind that cause through content.
Do you have a clearly defined purpose? How are you getting your why out there to the public?
I think millennials are onto something! What I found interesting about this post is that purpose can exist in many different forms, not just around social responsibility. I had never considered that PostBeyond’s purpose was “helping companies adapt to the future of work” but it makes sense now that I read what you’ve described.