The Future of Work: How Significance Drives Employee Engagement

We have all heard the age-old saying, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life,” especially when we are first beginning our career paths. It sounds easier said than done, doesn’t it?

For those who have their “dream job,” some of the common threads between them include:

• Expressing love for what they do
• Feeling empowered in their role
• Having a greater purpose
• Having a sense of accomplishment
• Expressing that they know they are helping others
• General happiness
• Personal engagement
• A sense of belonging

As you may notice from those common threads, income is not listed. Neither is working remotely or any other numerical statistic that seems to populate news sources when talking about employee retention.

These positions are also not what we often think of as glamorous. The individuals that fall into those aforementioned categories are not commonly highly paid and they often do not hold prestigious titles. Many who note that they fall into these categories include nurses, teachers, janitors, general contractors, and many in entry-level jobs.

The one element that every person has in common is the feeling they associate with working at their job.

As business leaders, we often think that retaining the most talented employees is about offering the most competitive compensation and benefits or real prominent titles. While giving employees competitive salaries is indisputably one important element in today’s economy, according to this study and many others, it is not the most important factor by far.

How do employees find their “dream job” in today’s world? And how do you as an employer foster an environment where employees want to stay and feel they are part of one of those eight categories listed above?