Does My Work Matter?

Hiring the right person is undeniably important and can be a tricky, lengthy, and expensive process. Retaining that right person is thus even more important and is becoming more and more difficult.

While there are many who work - and tolerate less than ideal conditions - purely out of economic necessity, a large and growing segment of the working population understands they have options and choices. While this has become increasingly true of young people, it also is a growing trend among workers of greater experience as well. There is well-documented concern that the “Great Resignation,” now seen as a national movement, is hampering economic recovery. From tech giants to the local restaurant, employers are struggling first with how to hire, and then how to retain, a sufficient number of qualified employees.

Yes, wages, salary, benefits matter. They are no longer enough. Silicon Valley’s largest companies, with their storied gourmet cafeterias and everything from dry cleaners to daycare onsite, are discovering even extravagant perks are not enough.

Every employee, regardless of their job title or circumstance, wants to know three things: Does my work matter? Do I have an opportunity to learn and grow? Am I supported by others? Increasingly, if the answer to these questions is “No,” or even “I don’t know,” employees are willing to move on.

It is leadership that builds “yes” answers to these three questions. And while the quality of an organization’s leadership, and the culture they create, have always mattered, they are now clearly sources of competitive advantage - or disadvantage.

DOES MY WORK MATTER?

Many years ago, after I had dropped out of law school and needed to pay the rent, I took a job as a receptionist at a nine[1]person real estate firm. I answered the phones, directed calls, and typed correspondence. It was a classic “dead-end” job, and they could have hired many, many people to do what I did. One day a new client walked in the front door and told me he had chosen this particular firm because of the way I had interacted with him on the phone. It was a revelation to me - that I had made a difference - and gave me renewed motivation. My work had mattered to someone.

Some years later, at the beginning of my corporate career, I hired a dozen temporary workers for a mundane task: checking paper bills against paper invoices. They worked in a windowless room. It was tedious, boring work. It was also very important work - ultimately all that checking saved the organization millions of dollars.

Early on, I gathered this group of temp workers together. I explained why we needed them to do this work, what we did with their work, and what the organization gained from their work. I thanked them for doing this work, acknowledged the tiresome nature of the work, and encouraged them to do their work with quality because the outcome mattered. Every week I would gather them again and tell them the results of their work - the errors they had collectively found and how much money we had saved. We celebrated when someone found a mistake and we responded quickly when workers had questions or needed help.

We are all human and we all want to know that someone notices the work we do. If we stopped doing it tomorrow, would anyone care? If we, did it poorly, would anyone care? If we left and someone else were hired to do the same work, would anyone care?

At another level, we each want to know that our work is relevant. Does my work contribute to something else? Is the organization better off because of my work? Is anyone else relying on my work?

Perhaps because these questions are so fundamental, organizations of all kinds routinely ignore them. We either assume people already know the answers or that the answers don’t matter. Both are mistakes with real consequence. Failing to answer simple questions can have profound impact. It’s not just that people leave out of frustration. Even if they stay, they are not producing their best work. Good work takes motivation and motivation comes from a sense of purpose and value.

Wherever a leader is - on a factory floor, in a restaurant’s kitchen, in a sea of cubicles or looking at a screen full of Zoom windows - the leader’s most important role is to explain why an employee’s work must be done and how it connects to the rest of the organization. All of us, whatever our job or circumstance, want to be acknowledged and appreciated for the work we do. To keep doing that work, to do our best work, we need to know our work matters.

Over the coming two weeks, we’ll explore why Opportunity and Support are so critical to retention.