Compensation and benefits no longer are enough for individual employees to stay engaged. Today’s successful workplace requires something deeper: purpose.

Purpose is important because it helps employees feel a sense of meaning, fulfillment, and motivation in their jobs, says Joshua Evans, Managing Director with Far Flung Creative, a Houston-based business incubation consultant: “Purpose comes when a company can help its employees ‘find your why’ and tie that to the company’s mission.” Evans was one of the top-rated speakers at the recent Food Shippers Annual Conference in Orlando.

“When employees have a clear sense of purpose in their lives and careers, they are likely to be more engaged, productive, and committed to their work and organization,” he says. In fact, according to Gallup, 71% of employees are disengaged at work. Only 29% of employees are engaged and another 24% are actively disengaged.

“This is important because companies it’s shown that the companies with high engagement had 22% higher profitability, 10% higher customer rating, 28% less theft, and 48% fewer safety incidents,” says Evans. All of these areas are particularly important to companies in the food and beverage industry.

Everyone starts their role with a deeper sense of purpose and fulfillment, but it can become overshadowed by the day-to-day minutia, such as unread emails, virtual meetings, the KPIs, and the office politics, continues Evans: “We lose sight of why we cared so much about our jobs in the first place.”

“We Are Facing a Crisis of Purpose”

It’s not surprising that most food companies among FSA membership rank talent recruitment and retention as one of their top three biggest challenges today.

“But bribing employees with more money, perks and benefits doesn’t work anymore,” says Evans. “They’re looking for something deeper. “Recent studies have shown that the ways to most effectively attract and retain quality talent is to bring them a deeper sense of purpose in the work that they do.” With an engaged workforce focused on a higher level of purpose, significant improvements can be made in retention and recruitment, innovation, productivity, profitability, organizational culture, and client satisfaction.

Evans notes that individual benefits of purpose include increased authenticity, collaboration, happiness, mental health, conflict reduction, and overall individual fulfillment.

Related Articles:

• Storytelling: Attract & Retain Top Supply Chain Talent
• Navigating the Labor Shortage by Understanding Generational Differences
• Workforce of the Future: Diversity & Inclusion
• Supreme Court Decision: Workforce Disruption Due to COVID Mandates

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