We're not saving the world here

You only have to look around at the number of people in World Youth Day in Sydney this week (apparently 140,000 yesterday) to recognise how many of us are seeking meaning and community in our lives.

I was reading an article on happiness yesterday, which got me wondering as to how most people find meaning in the work they do. But if you're not working for Médecins Sans Frontières or the WWF, but just a corporate Joe/Jane, how do you derive personal meaning from your job? Particularly if you aren't financially supporting a family?

If you studied Mr Maslow like me then you know too that after money comes meaning.

Just as more and more consumers these days are demanding values as well as value (thank you, Kat Thomas), once we’ve paid our bills more and more of us are looking for meaning in our work lives. And if you offer it to employees, it’s a great way that you can retain them – beyond money – and win out in the ‘war for talent’.

I once asked a friend of mine who runs his own consultancy as to what difference his job makes. He said: ‘I support 20 families through the organisation I run.” Rather than being about how his advice and assistance saves or makes money for other companies, his response about how he makes a difference was much more personal, much more human and much more direct.

So how do companies do it? Well, Ogilvy PR, an old employer of mine, has a program called ‘So Inspired’ whereby they offer employees and extra day of leave to go our and help in a charity or community project. An internal committee seeks out projects for employees to work on collectively, or you can nominate your own project and go it alone. The last year I worked with them we helped clean up the grounds at a women’s shelter. Ogilvy also has an ‘employee value proposition’, based around the somewhat nebulous mission of ‘helping employees be the best they can be’ through the values of ‘learn and grow, ‘partnership and ‘one step ahead’.

Of course, most of us are looking for meaning more than one day a year. I know I took meaning by the difference I could make to more junior staff, in helping them learn and in helping them enjoy their job. Again, my experience of what was meaningful was much more direct.

My belief is money can be a brilliant thing in how it can help people learn, expand their horizons and help others. Bill Gates is an example of someone who is doing amazing, altruistic things with his cash. On a smaller level, my trip last year to northern Asia allowed me to see first hand how others much less fortunate than myself live, and I think (I hope!) it made me more empathetic, worldly and generous. I also had the time of my life (read: meaning.)

If you want to keep people in their job, particularly younger, single, non-loyal Gen Y workers in this skills-short economy, you need to offer more than money. You need to offer people the ability to make a difference in some way – and usually to another human being. You also need to provide individual recognition for their efforts. You also need to provide people with the wider big picture as to how what they do is beneficial, be it in a creative or never-been-done-before way.

Has anyone got any other suggestions on how else this can be done? How you do find meaning in your work day?

Now after writing all of the above, I've just googled it. And of course someone from the Beeb has already written on it. If you are interested in this topic, it might prove, well, meaningful.