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Help Your Employees Find Purpose – Or Watch Them Leave
Article

Help Your Employees Find Purpose – Or Watch Them Leave

Naina Dhingra, Andrew Sama, Bill Schaninger and Matt Schrimper
McKinsey, 2021
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Applicable
  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

A McKinsey study found that most people feel their work defines their purpose – and they need to feel purpose at work. However, while top executives derive ample purpose from their careers, many workers don’t. McKinsey’s Naina Dhingra, Andrew Sama, Bill Schaninger and Matt Schrimper outline the choice facing leaders: Address your employees’ need to feel that you value them and their work or face ongoing turnover. The authors suggest ways to help your employees thrive within your firm by sharing its sense of purpose.

Summary

Fully 85% of executives derive purpose from their career, but only 15% of frontline workers find meaning in their work.

Executives are nearly eight times more likely than other employees to find their day-to-day work rewarding – and nearly three times more likely to rely on work as a source of their personal sense of purpose.

Leaders who want valued employees to stay must address this “purpose hierarchy gap.” For your workers, this makes the difference between feeling appreciated and feeling like a hamster on a treadmill.

Leaders can fill this gap by defining and strengthening their organization’s purpose.

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About the Authors

McKinsey & Company staff members conducted this study and reported its results, as written by partner Naina Dhingra, senior partner Bill Schaninger, firm alumnus Andrew Samo and New Jersey consultant Matt Schrimper.

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