Work with Purpose and Meaning

By Octavio Ballesta

The life expectancy of a company was around 70 years in the time of the forties in the twentieth century. This expectancy drops dramatically in 2016 to barely 15 years. In certain professional disciplines, knowledge doubles every 2 years.

For companies entrenched in traditional management approaches, it will be impossible to productively process and use the new knowledge that unfolds daily in today’s frenetic market and business environment. Such circumstances create opportunities for more agile, perceptive and flexible companies to build a strong and sustainable competitive edge through the unmatched ability to transform knowledge of their markets, their competitors, their customers, and their production processes into new and better products and services, adding business value that sets them apart from others.

In 2025, many of today’s professional roles will have disappeared, others will metamorphose into more complex roles, and a few others will be displaced through the unique role cognitive machines with artificial intelligence play.

Clearly the nature of work will change substantially in the knowledge economy.

Managing Talent in the Knowledge Economy

Many HR managers and professionals are not yet fully aware of the impact of a new business order on their companies’ competitiveness, employee engagement and profitability in business operations.

The digital revolution brings us the possibility of implementing collaborative work environments that are leveraged by state-of-the-art technology, inspired by emotionally intelligent leaders, enriched by diversity and inclusion policies and empowered by the managerial vision favouring innovation as the main driver for business competitiveness.

We are talking about a new business model, one where flexibility and agility have endowed it with the unique ability to continually reinvent, to anticipate, and if that isn’t possible, adapt to a frenzied and incessantly changing market conditions.

A good professional’s career in a VUCA world is not shaped by an obsessive desire to put all his weight behind growing and staying in a company in which he has faith, nor is it tied to rigid and linear development plans that are so common in companies still predicting the future as a logical continuation of the present.

It is the individuals themselves who now take care of their professional development, depending on their competencies and according to their needs, while honouring their interests and purpose in life. In this scenario, the leader is a facilitator in the development of its people, and a connector of talent. HR is the right department for providing support and guidance on the training and development opportunities available. The latest technologies are the tools most suited to achieving this purpose.

Here we are talking about developing organizations with heart and soul, where professionals are motivated to act, throw themselves into their role, are inspired by their leaders and committed to their company. This enhances their sense of belonging and sense of achievement, when they feel their professional worth is recognized and they earn respect for their uniqueness as individuals.

Why is it important for work to have purpose and meaning?

It is a given that the work adds economic value, generates sustainable well-being for the individual and his family; this is important to strengthen and promote progress in the social fabric, and it is a major factor for constructively and productively integrating individuals into the social environment they belong and to which they owe something.

Unfortunately, there are still plenty of organizations where people work to barely survive. In many traditional organizations, it is common for work to be just an obligation taken on reluctantly out of necessity to cover the basic needs of the individual and his family. Many people waste their best years in roles where they will have no opportunity for progressing and developing professionally.

When this happens we are in the midst of toxic organizations that erode the motivation to achieve, compromise the individual’s emotional integrity, destroy the dreams of progress of any talented professional, and wipe out any chance of adding value through making new and better things.

When companies with toxic cultures condemn their employees to the grindstone of a miserable working life, they are exposing themselves to a slow but irreversible death. In this regard, HR has a visible and unequivocal responsibility.

Let’s take a look at some actions HR can taken to create roles and jobs that have purpose and meaning in order to counter the progressive destruction of corporate value and sidestep the deterioration of emotional integrity and people.

1. Talent Management: The complete development of any professional in the business field begins with the adoption of good Talent Management practices that enable the expression and development of attitudes (motivation, involvement and engagement), of aptitudes (knowledge , skills and competencies) within in a context (culture, leadership and organizational architecture) appropriate for aligning people’s talent to the company’s strategic goals.
2. Managing by Values: A role with purpose and meaning is built when business values are drivers of strategic alignment and strengthen engagement, pride in belonging and the sense of accomplishment among the company’s human capital. Senior management should be a living example of sticking to and faithfully observing corporate values. Team leaders breathe and feel the values and lever them to inspire their team members to achieve greater performance. HR adopts, communicates, and incorporates these values into their policies and practices.
3.  Diversity and Inclusion: The pride in belonging to the company and the desire to play a relevant role in achieving the company’s operational, market and business goals grow when the company culture and attitude of managers and leaders encourage the realization of such inclusive and diverse work collaborative environments as the markets served by a company well aware of the value of their people.
4. Welfare and Engagement Management: In any organization aware of the value and respect that people deserve, HR designs, builds and implements work-life balance plans, professional development opportunities, reward and recognition systems and salary policies which inspire people to give the best of themselves, trust their managers  and follow leaders who they truly admire and respect.
5. Reward and Recognition Systems: This is about enhancing intrinsic motivation for the emotional part of the total salary and used for deploying effective talent management with competitive advantage. The annual or semi-annual performance review is substituted by continuous feedback mechanisms, where outstanding contribution by both high performance teams and their members are recognized promptly and generously.
6. High Potential Talent: In highly dynamic sectors of the business ecosystem, a company’s competitiveness and survivability is defined by the ability to attract, motivate and develop high potential talent whose productivity, inventiveness and resourcefulness are definitely superior to the average person’s. Here it is crucial to go beyond the obsolete salary bands criterion, excessive attachment to the specifics of a rigid job profile, and the hypocritical internal equity assumptions that level out the company’s human capital to the lowest common denominator.
7. Employer Brand: Converting the company into a talent magnet must be a key goal of the HR function focused on achieving satisfaction and engagement of their human capital. Promoting the image of the company as a great place to work requires HR input through different social media. Similarly this is enhanced with the full backing of the management board and it is nurtured by inputs from satisfied, dedicated and engaged employees who feel the organization is truly theirs and who enthusiastically adopt the role of excellent ambassadors of the corporate brand.