In these stressful, surreal times, it’s And if this wasn’t enough, individual purpose understandable for CEOs to fixate on urgent benefits organizations, too. Purpose can be an corporate priorities at the expense of more important contributor to employee experience, intangible, personal considerations. How important which in turn is linked to higher levels of employee is getting your people to think about their “purpose engagement, stronger organizational commitment, in life” right now when you’re worried about their and increased feelings of well-being. People who well-being—not to mention corporate survival? find their individual purpose congruent with their jobs tend to get more meaning from their roles, It’s more important than you think. During times of making them more productive and more likely to crisis, individual purpose can be a guidepost that outperform their peers. Our own research finds a helps people face up to uncertainties and navigate positive correlation between the purposefulness of employees and their company’s EBITDA4 them better, and thus mitigate the damaging effects margin. of long-term stress. People who have a strong sense of purpose tend to be more resilient and exhibit Against this backdrop, CEOs and other senior 1 better recovery from negative events. Indeed, our executives should pay more attention to individual research conducted during the pandemic finds that purpose as companies return to operations and when comparing people who say they are “living begin feeling their way into the subsequent phases their purpose” at work with those who say they of the “next normal.” aren’t, the former report levels of well-being that are five times higher than the latter. Moreover, those in It’s a sure bet your employees will be doing just the former group are four times more likely to report that. People seek psychological fulfillment from higher engagement levels.2 work, and, as the crisis recedes and companies ramp up new ways of working, some people will Purposeful people also live longer and healthier experience friction, and even dissonance, around 3 issues of purpose. Workplace interactions that lives. One longitudinal study found that a single standard deviation increase in purpose decreased felt meaningful and energizing face-to-face, for the risk of dying over the next decade by 15 percent— example, may feel much less so over a video call. a finding that held regardless of the age at which Meanwhile, other employees will be looking to people identified their purpose. Similarly, the Rush see if their companies’ actions during the crisis Memory and Aging project, which began in 1997, matched their companies’ high-minded words finds that when comparing patients who say they beforehand—and basing their career plans on have a sense of purpose with those who say they the answer. And at companies where employees don’t, the former are: excelled during the crisis, business leaders will want to find ways to recapture, and sustain, the sense of — 2.5 times more likely to be free of dementia organizational energy, urgency, and speed—without the accompanying fear and stress. — 22 percent less likely to exhibit risk factors for stroke In this article, we explore the organization’s role in individual purpose by highlighting results from an — 52 percent less likely to have experienced a ongoing research project into the intersection of stroke organizational purpose and individual purpose, and 1 Stacey M. Schaefer et al., “Purpose in life predicts better emotional recovery from negative stimuli,” PLoS One, Volume 8, Number 11, 2013, ncbi. nlm.gov. 2 See Jonathan Emmett, Gunnar Schrah, Matt Schrimper, and Alexandra Wood, “COVID-19 and the employee experience: How leaders can seize the moment,” June 2020, McKinsey.com. 3 See Patrick L. Hill and Nicholas A. Turiano, “Purpose in life as a predictor of mortality across adulthood,” Psychological Science, Volume 25, Number 7, pp. 1482–6, May 8, 2014, journals.sagepub.com. 4 Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. 134 What now? Ten actions to emerge stronger in the next normal September 2020