Company Culture Blog

Purpose Offers Opportunity for High Attrition Industries

Fri, 16 Sep 2022 13:34:00 GMT

With workers leaving behind unfulfilling roles, employers that commit to meaning at work will dominate the market.

In the extraordinary employment reshuffle of the past year and more, people aren’t just leaving jobs. They are leaving industries.

In data from McKinsey , 48% of sampled workers said they would leave their job, not for an industry competitor, but for an entirely different opportunity. The news is sobering for business leaders, even if the economy is heading toward a recession.

No business can succeed if all the best talent walks out the door.

Despite increased economic headwinds, workers still think they might quit their current role. In a July 2022 survey from Great Place To Work® of nearly 4,200 U.S. workers, 55% of workers across seven industries said they are open to leaving their jobs in the next six months.

What industries are at the highest risk for hemorrhaging talent?

According to the same survey, retail and hospitality industries have higher percentages of employees open to leaving their current job (64% and 62% of employees, respectively).

What keeps highly valued employees from leaving the organization? In a word, purpose.

Great Place To Work analyzed the best workplaces across 11 different industries, and meaningful work was a key driver of employee retention in every industry.

The outcome of finding purpose at work? Employees who say their work is more than “just a job” are two to six times more likely to stay with their company long-term.

Employees at the typical health care organization experience the strongest sense of purpose out of the seven industries measured in our July market study, with 62% reporting meaningful work. The typical retail employee has the weakest connection to purpose, with only 38% reporting meaningful work.

Yet, meaningful work isn’t solely dictated by industry.

For employees at the average company on the Fortune Best Workplaces in Retail™ List, 108% more workers report meaningful work than the typical retail workplace, a difference of 41 percentage points. Even compared to the purpose-driven typical workplace in health care, 23% more employees at the Best Workplaces in Retail report meaningful work (17 points more).

What purpose looks like

Purpose has been shown to be a crucial element for retention across geographic areas and age demographics , too. So, what does it look like in practice?

For AbbVie , No. 2 on the Fortune Best Workplaces in BioPharma™ List for large companies, it isn’t any one thing.

“There are many small factors that lead to engaged employees who are passionate about their jobs,” says Tim Richmond, EVP and CHRO at AbbVie. “But there’s one element that should remain constant — staying true to your convictions.”

For AbbVie, those convictions include “supporting well-being, operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives, serving our community, and embracing diversity and inclusion,” Richmond says.

At Wegmans Food Markets , the No. 1 large company on the Best Workplaces in Retail List, connecting employees with purpose starts with a mission board — what Wegmans calls its W board — which is on display at every workplace. The board communicates the company’s values, explaining what employees can do to contribute to the grocery chain’s overall mission, and the measures every employee can help impact.

“It’s truly lived every day,” says Peggy Riley, vice president of employee communications and engagement.

Brand values such as “Always help others” are constantly reinforced during an employee’s tenure. “We talk about everything on the W board very frequently and specifically, and we integrate it into training, into their performance plans, into everything,” Riley says.

It takes effort to ensure the brand’s mission is accessible to every employee. Language must be chosen carefully.

“We work very hard to ensure the W board is relatable to every employee at all levels,” says Riley. “We don’t have big, fancy, complicated words, or equations. Every single employee contributes to our success.”

Meaningful work is vital in every industry, but the benefits are particularly acute in the fields where McKinsey has identified high rates of employee departures, such as retail and manufacturing.

Purpose matters in every industry

In Great Place To Work research, only 38% of employees at an average retail company say their work has meaning. For companies that made the list of Best Workplaces in Retail for 2022, 79% of employees on average said their work was meaningful.

The gap between average and great is large for manufacturing firms, too, with 48% of employees at average companies saying they have meaning at work. For the best? Eighty-three percent.

Yet, no industry can rest easy when it comes to purpose.

Even organizations in health care — an industry with a visible and potent purpose — the average is far outstripped by great organizations. Only 62% of workers at average health care organizations reported meaningful work, compared to 90% at the best.

At KSLD Laser , No. 17 on the Fortune Best Workplaces in Manufacturing & Production™ List for small and medium-sized businesses, demo days offer a chance to show employees the impact of their work.

“Employees can see our products, and hold them, touch them, experience them,” says Amy Hilvers, director of HR for semiconductor laser producer.

The company also connects employees to purpose through its corporate social responsibility program.

“One of our products is a laser flashlight that has a very long beam — very useful to rescue and firefighters,” says Hilvers. “We donated some of our flashlights to firefighters and then received feedback and photos of them using the flashlights in actual rescues.”

Sharing those stories helped workers see how their work was helping to save lives.

Purpose requires context

On its own, purpose is not enough to prevent employee turnover. If an employee loves the mission, but feels underappreciated or even mistreated, they’re still likely to find the nearest exit.

Mission-driven industries like health care have more employees who report meaningful work, but struggle in other areas of workplace culture — such as fair pay and promotions. In health care, only 42% of employees at typical organizations report receiving fair pay for their work. Only 41% report fair promotion practices. At companies on the Fortune Best Workplaces in Health Care™ List , those numbers rise to 78% and 81%, respectively.

Fairness is a point of emphasis for companies like AbbVie.

“We know that there is always more to be done around pay equity,” says Richmond. “As stated in our 2021 ESG report , we conduct an annual pay equity analysis to ensure pay is equitable across genders and ethnicities among United States employees.”

The bottom line is that great workplaces can recruit from any industry. They beat out any average employee experience. For leaders worried about talent flocking to more enticing industries, the data shows that their worry is not misplaced — a great workplace culture can compete with anyone.

Improve employee retention and engagement with the latest insights from our data and research team. Subscribe to the Great Place to Work newsletter and learn how to create a great workplace culture.

How Plante Moran Is Turning DEI Understanding into Action

Tue, 13 Sep 2022 15:29:00 GMT

The company shares two years’ worth of lessons learned around efforts to understand the experience of marginalized employees, and make changes.

After the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in 2020, many business leaders asked tough questions of themselves.

What are we doing to fight racism in our industry and workplace? What is the experience of marginalized employees in our organization?

It was time to double-down on learning and listening, acquiring more data and working to look past assumptions and blind spots. For Plante Moran , No. 30 on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® List the lessons were invaluable.

“One of the biggest lessons that we learned at the time was just how much we still had to learn about each other,” says Hawzien Gebremedhin, diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI) leader for the firm. “That's why we called it ‘The Year of Understanding.’”

The company offered a series of discussions, attended by about a third of employees, that explored the Black experience, the LGTBQ+ experience, allyship in the workplace, and more.

“We come to work with a lot of assumptions on who people are,” says Gebremedhin. “The Year of Understanding showed us that we need to be having deeper conversations with the people that we work with.”

Intent or impact?

There have been many lessons from Plante Moran’s efforts in the last two years to improve DEI — lessons that will be explored by Gebremedhin and Lou Longo, the firm’s DEI Council chair and international consulting practice leader, at the For All™ Summit in Orlando, Florida, Oct. 11-13.

For Longo, one of the big lessons was the difference between intent and impact.

“The importance is the impact of your behavior — how someone feels, what the environment is like,” Longo says. This lesson, made possible by a period of introspection in 2020, was what inspired action, such as how partners at the firm are evaluated on DEI.

“Historically, we’ve had a measure for partners in their annual assessment on diversity, equity and inclusion and culture,” Longo says. “They were combined.”

These assessments matter to partners. They’re tied to bonuses and annual compensation. “What we found is that by putting those two together, partners were often being evaluated based on a cultural impact without any consideration, necessarily, to the DEI impact,” Longo says.

By separating the assessments, Plante Moran expects to see leaders put more emphasis on improving DEI outcomes.

Listening before doing

While business leaders are often people who like to move fast, Gebremedhin sees value in taking a breath before jumping into gear on DEI.

“People are do-ers, and they want to just fix, fix, fix,” she says. However, meaningful change can’t be rushed.

“To not deeply understand the core issues — I believe any solution would be short lived,” Gebremedhin says.

Organizations must eventually turn insights into action, but the learning and listening should never end.

“We are still learning, and we see that as a constant for us,” says Longo.

Moving beyond talk

For organizations that struggle to move from words to action, Gebremedhin recommends finding ways to empower your people.

“Every person throughout the firm has a role to play,” she says. By empowering staff to take responsibility for DEI, the organization fosters accountability, a sense of pride, and a connection to core values.

Plante Moran has operated for decades with a series of 15 core principles that define its values. Changes to the principles are rare.

“It’s things around how we are going to operate, how we’re going to treat each other,” says Longo. “It’s how we make decisions.”

In 2022, the firm added two principles: one on embracing change and the other on its strengthened commitment to DEI progress. The new DEI principle reads:

“It is our intent to uphold the dignity of each staff member. When each person feels there is a place for them at the firm, we become a stronger organization. It is, therefore, the shared responsibility of all staff to acknowledge and embrace differences and contribute to creating a shared sense of belonging among all staff members.”

“That’s one of the ways we build trust with our staff,” says Longo. It helps make leadership accountable.

“It should be a consideration in all things that we do as a firm,” he says. “Not just at the management team level, but truly that everyone in the firm is committed.”

Employee response

How have Plante Moran’s efforts to improve DEI been received?

“It’s been mixed, to be honest,” says Gebremedhin. “People that come from historically marginalized communities are concerned that this is temporary.”

However, she sees the firm’s actions (such as adding its DEI principle) as starting to lessen the skepticism.

“It’s a journey,” she says. “It’s our responsibility to help build the trust.”

There are signs that Plante Moran’s efforts are starting to be successful. Gebremedhin cites the example of one Plante Moran employee who opened up about their gender identity for the first time after working at the firm for seven years. As staff feel increasingly safe to share their full selves at work, the stories are coming in — a signal that DEI efforts are having an impact.

Survey data also paints a picture.

“It’s one of my favorite things to really dig into,” says Gebremedhin about the data Plante Moran gets from its Great Place To Work® Survey . “What is the experience of these specific groups?”

When you look at the data over years, comparing trends and demographics, you start to understand if your workplace works for all employees — or just a few privileged ones.

Join Us

Hear more about Plante Moran’s DEI journey from Hawzien Gebremedhin and Lou Longo at the For All™ Summit in Orlando, Florida on Oct. 11-13.

How Synchrony is Using Data to Increase Workplace Diversity

Wed, 07 Sep 2022 19:47:00 GMT

Numbers can reveal opportunities to ensure every employee has the opportunity to succeed

Business leaders have been touting their commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging for years — but what’s really changed?

After the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020, many business leaders made promises to make meaningful change for underrepresented communities. But action has been slow. That promised future of a workplace with equity and opportunity for every employee is still out of reach.

Beyond words, what makes a difference in the employee experience for workers from diverse backgrounds?

For financial services firm Synchrony , No. 25 on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® List , the answers lie in the data. “Perception is not necessarily reality; it really does take looking at the data,” says Michael Matthews, chief diversity, inclusion, and corporate responsibility officer.

To do that effectively, Synchrony created the Advancing Diverse Talent (ADT) initiative.

“Through a couple of iterations, what we designed was an initiative where we stop everything once a year, pull the data and look at various areas of the company — our representation, our staffing, etc. — and determine how we're doing from a representation perspective,” says Matthews.

By doing that regularly, Synchrony can track progress. Data that is collected in each review period offers a snapshot of the company for that point in time. Comparing cycles reveals trends and patterns.

“It’s really an all-encompassing look,” says Matthews. “We look at how we hire, what we hire for, who we hire, how we develop, how we retain — across the board when it comes to talent.”

The ADT initiative ensures representation and inclusion are treated like any other measurable goal.

“We drive progress as we would any other business priority,” says Claudine Hoverson, SVP and chief talent officer. “We use data to assess where we’re at and where we want to go.”

ADT is a big part of what Synchrony will share with attendees at the Great Place To Work® For All™ Summit in Orlando, Florida, Oct. 11-13. Matthews and Hoverson will join Synchrony EVP and CHRO DJ Casto to discuss what drives DEIB success and offer lessons learned from their progress so far.

The numbers that matter

Most organizations are inundated in employee data — so what are the numbers that have meaning for DEIB?

“Of course, you start out with general representation across the board,” Matthews says.

“At the end of 2021, we were about 46% non-white and almost 60% female because ADT is global,” Matthews reports. Yet, different numbers are needed to understand how the organizations is changing over time.

During the first two years of Synchrony’s ADT initiative (from January 2020 through January 2022), 40% of promotions for the VP level and above have gone to people who are ethnically diverse. Forty-five percent of VP and above role advancements have gone to women.

Matthews stresses that any DEIB data set must be viewed holistically.

“It’s really a journey,” he says. The numbers that matter to your organization today are not necessarily the numbers that will help drive change further down the road.

And numbers require context. Synchrony benchmarks its representation numbers with census and population data in the markets it operates in. “We can’t just base how we’re doing based on what we think,” Matthews says.

Other numbers matter when trying to understand how a process — such as hiring — is or isn’t working to improve diversity.

“We spent a lot of time looking at our recruiting data and our conversion rates,” says Hoverson. The conversion rate represents how likely a candidate is to advance through each stage of the hiring process.

Questions asked include:

Whether or not a diverse candidate is chosen depends on how many candidates were considered and the diversity of the panel interviewing those candidates.

For companies that feel good about their DEIB efforts, Matthews and Hoverson recommend taking a look at the last several years of numbers. For Synchrony, a three-year overview revealed that numbers the team had been proud of were actually stagnant.

“Change takes time,” says Hoverson. “We need to continue to challenge ourselves to change organizational mindsets to instill the behaviors that really promote our culture. If you don’t look at it over time, you don’t get the true story.”

Numbers help leaders

Arming yourself with data leads to productive conversations with executives.

“It’s very easy for us as diversity professionals to go to a leader and say, ‘You need to do better with diversity,’” says Matthews. “They might even say, ‘I agree — but what am I supposed to do with that?’”

By offering numbers, Matthews and Hoverson can tap into executives’ curiosity.

“When we start talking about data, it’s powerful watching the leaders, their minds clicking,” says Matthews.

Leaders start asking questions about where people fell out of the interview process, or why a seemingly diverse slate of candidates didn’t necessarily lead to more diverse hiring.

“We found that they became empowered,” says Matthews of the leaders who engaged deeply with the data.

Numbers by themselves aren’t enough to change an organization. It takes commitment from every person across the whole organization to make real progress on DEIB.

“The CEO said [the ADT program] was a priority and, the entire executive leadership team rallied around it,” says Hoverson.

When Synchrony rolled out its promise to increase diverse representation across the business, every executive leader that reports directly to the CEO signed the commitment, dedicating their time and resources.

The board of directors is also actively involved, asking tough questions and holding roundtables with executive leaders and with diverse talent from within the organization.

“Having leadership at that level, and throughout the organization, embrace and commit really does make a difference,” says Matthews.

Join us

Michael Matthews and Claudine Hoverson will be sharing more about their work to improve DEIB at the For All™ Summit on Oct. 11-13 in Orlando, Florida. Get your tickets to learn from leaders at the best workplaces in the world.