3SIXTY recently had the privilege to present our research findings to over 400 business leaders from one of our leading and highly successful long term clients recently. Our corporate research was compiled over 2 years and confirmed a significant insight into what has driven and continues to drive this organisation to achieve sustained success. The results clearly showed that connected, capable and committed PEOPLE, and creating a great PLACE to work have been the foundations to driving ongoing business PERFORMANCE.
In our research, we found the Top 3 Themes which matter the most to employees right now are:
- Having a career that allows people to pursue both their purpose and their passions
- Providing the opportunity to learn from well structured, individually focused training programs, strong role models, and fostering career progression to enhance personal growth
- Giving employees a real sense of belonging, all working together in pursuit of common goals and greater good
These are consistent with, and congruent to, current industry research by Josh Bersin, Gallup and Glassdoor who have highlighted the big industry themes that matter the most to employees right now being Culture, Leadership, Meaningful Work, Training, Career and Work-Life Balance.
Right now the majority of companies have 21st Century internet enabled business processes, mid 20th Century management processes, all built atop 19th Century management principles
This demonstrates that a change in leadership is needed in the 21st Century for the millennial workforce whose expectations are aligned to the above themes. We feel confident that employees from all generations are now looking beyond their pay check to find their real sense of meaning and purpose in their role. No longer can organisations rely on what we term ‘artificial sweeteners’ such as free coffee, food and time out to play video games to keep them engaged in their work and connected to the organisation!
Instead, direct value will be gained from professional development programs focused on growing people personally. Employees expect to have ongoing empowering conversations rather than annual performance appraisals and view their manager as a mentor instead of their boss – who will help them to see beyond their limitations and consistently encourage their talents to evolve in the workplace.
Ultimately, these emerging common themes will positively impact organisation leaders who realise that employees are not just there for a job, they are there to discover how their work will help them to do their best in every part of their life.
If an organisation is serious about achieving sustained business performance, then serious consideration is needed to find meaningful ways to motivate and develop their people. And if an organisation is serious about their people, then they need to apply our latest research findings to make the workplace BETTER!
(Quote from Hamel, G. & Breen, B. 2007, “The Future of Management” Harvard Business School Press)
“After three years of struggling to drive employee engagement and retention, improve leadership, and build a meaningful culture, executives see a need to redesign the organisation itself…”