Connecting Employees to Corporate Purpose

 

The author Isak Dinesen said that "to be a person is to have a story to tell.” Much like people, companies also have a story to tell that is often rooted in the concept of purpose including what value the company provides, what it stands for, and the beliefs that shape decision-making and action. Identifying and telling those stories has become increasingly important to corporate leaders as they strive to connect meaningfully with employees, customers, regulators, and other stakeholders. From sessions about the role of business at this year’s World Economic Forum to CEO Indra Nooyl promising Performance with Purpose for PepsiCo, purpose has taken center stage. And rightly so. An increasing body of research shows robust links between a clear, strategically coherent purpose and corporate success indicators related to financial performance, brand and culture. Research by Burston-Marsteller in conjunction with Swiss business school IMD showed that a strong and well communicated corporate purpose can explain up to 17% of the variation in economy-wide financial performance. While corporate leaders embrace purpose and believe it’s making a difference for their company, employees aren’t so sure. A 2013 Deloitte Survey shows a significant gap between executives and employees. Executives tend to feel more strongly that their company has a strong sense of purpose and can easily explain it to others compared to employees. Why the gap between leaders and employees? It may be that leaders more clearly see themselves and their role within the corporate purpose and story. Most corporate purposing happens with the C-suite leadership from CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, and Vice Presidents of business units. These leaders are well-positioned to consider (and on the hook for) the broader vision of their firm. Leadership buy-in is also critical to the success of a newly defined purpose and what it can become for a company – from a lens for product and service innovation to the cornerstone of brand and marketing strategies to the compelling story that attracts and energizes employees and potential new hires. However, unless executives ensure purpose becomes part of the employee experience, companies won’t realize these significant business outcomes – or worse a corporate purpose may start to feel hollow or inauthentic. In my work with Saatchi & Saatchi S’ corporate purpose practice, I’ve found that the most effective approaches are those that acknowledge that companies and their individual employees have stories to tell. The best way to connect and engage someone with the corporate story may often be to start with the personal one instead. This is an approach we’ve been using with clients as well as within our global Saatchi & Saatchi network. Based on our proprietary framework rooted in research of high-performing teams in the sports and corporate arenas, we have developed cascading levels of network, agency and employee purposes that paint the bigger picture and help each of us to see how our personal aspirations and values fit within it. It looks something like this. Global leadership developed our overall Saatchi & Saatchi purpose…

 

Via facilitated sessions with agency leadership, we developed our Saatchi & Saatchi S purpose…

 

And then via facilitated sessions with employees, we each developed our own personal purpose. While my purpose is still a work in progress, here’s a bit of it...

From my experience, I’ve found this approach to be a powerful tool to help employees internalize their company’s purpose and write themselves into the story. How does your company define its purpose and connect employees to it? Let me know at kpetrich@saatchis.com.