Career, Community and Cause: The Trifecta for a Successful Workforce
In a recent Harvard Business Review article, the authors discuss a biannual survey at Facebook, which asks employees what matters most to them. The survey results point to three areas vital to employee satisfaction: Career, Community and Cause. The authors state that in past generations, a company could build its entire culture around any one of these aspects. Today, however, employees increasingly expect to be satisfied – even fulfilled – in all three areas.
While achieving this goal can only happen over time and with substantial, organization-wide commitment, there is a simple and effective way to create a culture that supports employees on all three levels. Creating leadership development programs with a social impact focus is an innovative way to enrich an established career while building a sense of community and purpose among your executives.
Career: Leaders are hired into their positions because of their expertise, experience and education. So how do you continually promote learning and growth among those who are already experts in their field? Creating opportunities for leaders to work with and learn from their social sector peers exposes them to new perspectives, fresh ideas and innovative approaches to problem solving that can inspire their own career progression.
Community: Bringing together employees from all backgrounds and areas of the company to work on strategically relevant projects with potential for substantial social impact creates a true sense of belonging and connection among team members.
Cause: Even in great organizations, employees can get lost in day-to-day tasks, projects and deadlines. Integrating a social impact component into professional development initiatives clearly demonstrates that the organization is committed to creating social as well as business impact.
Many factors go into enabling a culture of true fulfillment in these three areas. Building a leadership development program that incorporates social innovation and impact goes a long way to telling your employees, “We believe in you. You belong here. You can make a difference.”
