By Dr Lindsay McMillan

“Thank god it’s Monday” is a phrase that is not often heard from workers, with 72 percent of Australian workers found to be searching for more purpose and meaning in their work.

According to our recent piece of research, employers have lost focus on their most important asset – their workers – and are failing to foster a sense of purpose in individual roles.

This is a significant problem with a Gallup Poll showing that a ten per cent improvement in a workers' connection with the mission or purpose of their organisation would result in:

  • an 8.1% decrease in turnover
  • a 4.4% increase in profitability
  • a 12.7% reduction in safety incidents

And not to mention the increased healthiness of the workplace as a whole.

However, in the increasingly fast paced business landscape, the goals of employee retention through fostering growth and connection are frequently swept aside in an ill-fated bid to blindly chase profit.

What these companies forget is that the opportunity costs of losing valuable and skilful employees pose significant obstacles to their ability to maximise their potential performance as a business.

Firms have the opportunity to deliver real workplace reform for their employees and need to start seeing the benefit in developing and retaining valuable and skilful workers.

Our new report recommends a step-by-step process to avoid this situation and provide a more fulfilling workplace for employers and employees by building a culture of purpose and meaning

A business that focuses solely on the bottom line will miss the bigger picture and will lose their most valuable employees to companies that understand the importance of creating a meaningful and fulfilling work environment.

Fostering growth and connection to an organisation has become a must in the modern workplace.