The Why's and How's of Investing in Meaningful Work

Many of us are still bound by the shackles of the belief that work is a compilation of mundane tasks that need to be done to earn enough cash for a house built entirely out of Supreme bricks. However, this traditional view of labour is extremely obsolete. Recent empirical research in the Human Resource field has portrayed an intriguing phenomenon: work is perceived as way more than a paycheque. People perceive work as a means of acquiring cash and, most importantly, as a medium to satisfy higher-level notions, such as identity consolidation, self-actualisation, life satisfaction, self-development, et cetera.?

Therefore, a shift towards a more ontological significance of work means that companies and organisations must adapt and create a working environment that facilitates meaningfulness in their employees' work. However, this is no easy task, and an abundance of resources must be committed to achieving such a feat.

Thus, how much is it worth investing in meaningful work, and how can organisations execute it??

The psychological benefits of meaningful work?

Recent psychological evidence has demonstrated that meaningful work is significantly crucial to employees' psyche. For example, employees with meaningful work often reported greater intrinsic motivation, greater job and life satisfaction, greater perceived meaning in life, as well as greater levels of positive well-being and positive emotions. Those who find work meaningful also reported significantly lesser anxiety and depression and zero signs of burnout. In this context, meaningful work acts as an efficient buffer against the negative impacts of work-related stress, thus enabling employees to maintain a relatively stable and positive mental state throughout their careers. Ultimately, this will lead to greater work engagement and commitment, job performance, lower absenteeism, and lower turnover rates.?

So, how do all of these benefits translate into countable profits?

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Harvard Business Review estimates that annually, highly meaningful work could help organisations generate an annual addition of $9078 per worker and help enterprise companies save an average of $6.43 million in annual turnover-related costs for every 10,000 workers. Research by IBM during 2017 also demonstrates that organisations in the top 25% for creating an environment that facilitates meaningful work and positive employee experience report approximately three times the return on assets and approximately double the return on sales compared to those in the bottom quartile.?

In addition, meaningful work could also help companies prevent significant losses due to poor employee health and absenteeism. Statistics by the CDC estimate that absenteeism in the United States costs employers $225.8 billion annually in terms of productivity lost, around $1.685 per employee. Research by EuroFound also portrays a cost of absenteeism of approximately $470 billion in the European Union. Furthermore, a monthly productivity loss of up to $395 per employee is also anticipated if employees are depressed. The good news is that such devastating losses could be negated by fostering meaning in employees' work. Thus, by investing in resources to forge a meaningful working environment, organisations and companies could potentially save and earn from the tens of thousands up to millions of dollars per year.?

So, is meaningful work worth the hassle? Definitely. However, the real question is, how can organisations instil meaning into their employees' work??

The CARMA Model

By utilising theoretical and empirical predictors of meaningful work, Steger has proposed a five-factor model that leaders and organisations could follow to foster a meaningful working environment: Clarity, Authenticity, Respect, Mattering, and Autonomy.?

Clarity: having a clear Vision and Mission

The first step in cultivating a meaningful working environment is to establish a clear Vision and Mission statement shared across all levels in an organisation. This is crucial, as the organisation's purpose is a primary driver of meaningful work. By having a clear organisational Vision and Mission, employees know that their work has inherent meaning – that they are working for a cause, fighting to be a part of something bigger.?

Authenticity: leaders as Mother Teresa and role models

To foster meaningful work in employees, leaders must also behave ethically and honestly. This doesn't mean that managers and executives must be a saint like Mother Teresa to bring out the best in their employees, and however, they must treat their employees as people rather than mere "Bitcoin digging machines." As quoted from Steger's (2016) study: "If leaders want their workers to bring the depths of dedication, commitment, engagement, and performance that are associated with meaningful work, they cannot repay employee efforts with unethical behaviour, cynical manipulations, and disingenuous relationships."

Furthermore, leaders should also be role models towards employees and act by the organisation's values and mission statements. If the leader doesn't even follow and believe in his organisation's mission, employees would soon follow suit, acting in contradicting ways and gradually losing faith in its purpose, ultimately finding themselves bound by Sisyphus's shackles.?

Respect: building a positive working environment

This element was built based on empirical evidence citing working environments as a significant predictor of job satisfaction and meaningful work. Respect requires employers to establish an enjoyable, positive, and supportive working environment for their employees. To do so, company leaders should start treating employees with respect and interacting with them in a supportive and positive manner. Doing so would then lay the foundations of a supportive, enabling, and fun working culture and environment, which could be further enhanced via many engagement and team-building activities.?

Mattering: the significance of expressing acknowledgement?

For work to be meaningful, employees must perceive that their hard work and efforts impact the larger playing field. A severance of the connection between effort and results would ultimately lead to work being perceived as absurd, alienating, and demeaning. The scary thing is that it is reasonably easy to suck out the meaning from an individual's work. Continuously ignore their efforts, and Voilà, you got yourself a depressed and unmotivated employee. The good news is that instilling meaning is just as easy as sucking it out of an employee's work. Managers and executives must continuously show recognition, appreciation, and gratitude towards their employees' work. A small gift, buying food, or a simple "thank you" could do wonders. To instil a strong sense of meaning, leaders must also convey to each employee how they matter in the bigger picture - how their hard work and efforts contribute to the organisation's health and mission.

Autonomy: the freedom for creativity and self-expression

For work to be perceived as meaningful, employees must believe that their ideas and innovation have made an impact. Thus, it is recommended that organisations should grant their employees a certain degree of authority and freedom for creativity and personalisation in their work by providing them opportunities for self-direction, trial, and error, innovation, and idea interchange. An overly draconian working process and policy would inhibit employees from taking ownership over their work, eventually leading to perceptions of meaningless labour.?

Conclusion?

It is of utmost significance that organisations put people before profit. Creating a humanitarian and meaningful working environment is not cheap and easy. However, the CARMA model could act as an efficient starting point, and the return on investments of meaningful work is bound to be astonishing, as a meaningful working environment does not just help companies secure profits. It enables the world to facilitate a better future.?