Have you ever dreaded going into work on Monday? Do you struggle to find a data collection method that measures how well or happy your employees are?
(We can’t see you, but we’re pretty sure you’re vigorously nodding your head.)
Nearly 76 percent of U.S. respondents felt the same way — stating that they felt “really bad” blues on the Sunday before a new workweek, according to a global poll by Monster, a platform that connects people to career opportunities.
Although the feeling of anxiety leading up to a new workweek is common — and even accepted — in America, it’s not that way everywhere.
Less than half of the rest of the world (45 percent) had those same “Sunday Night Blues.”
So, what are we missing here? Simply put, a sense of purpose at work.
Interestingly enough, a sense of purpose at work isn’t derived from our job responsibilities, title, or salary. It’s the result of knowing our greater sense of purpose in life. If your employees don’t have a sense of purpose in life, how can they have one at work?
How Do You Know If Your Employee’s Have Purpose at Work?
This is a great question!
Until now, most wellness tools (Health Risk Assessments and Wellness Assessments) leave HR leaders not knowing if employees have found a purpose at work or in life. To solve this, we launched the Flourishing Index™ — a new way to understand if your employees are flourishing. Using a validated flourishing assessment, (a short 12-question survey,), our mobile app pulses assessment questions to employees continually throughout the year. Learn more about the Flourishing Index in our eBook Flourishing Summary: a new way to measure employee well-being.
These 12 questions provide HR leaders with population-level insight into what the SHINE Program (Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health defines as the six domains of Human Flourishing. Guess what? One of the six domains is “Meaning and Purpose!”
(Above: Flourishing Assessment Questions)
Through the survey, employers now have a continual data collection method that gives you a deep understanding of whether your employees have found purpose at work!
Three Ideas to Help Employees Find Purpose at Work
The Flourishing Index unlocks the ability to continually measure your population’s understanding of life purpose. Measuring this over time allows you to see the results of a targeted well-being program aimed at this issue. Using The Flourishing Index you also have the ability to segment areas of your population that need the most support with the Flourishing domain of “Meaning and Purpose.” Here are a few ideas that you may think about deploying.
1. Intrinsic Coaching Programs: Promote coaching programs that are focused on understating values and life purpose to the segment of your population that needs it the most.
2. Activate a Wellness Champion: Do you have a wellness champion who relates to the population segments that you’re trying to help? If so, share your flourishing analytics with them and instruct them to focus conversations around life purpose and values.
3. Ask an Executive For Help: Is there an all-company communication coming up? Or, communication is given by an executive that will reach the population segment that you have identified? Share your findings with the executive and ask them to spend time talking about the importance of understanding life values to find purpose at work.
A New Way To Measure Employee Well-being
This year, we launched The Flourishing Index to help HR leaders measure employee well-being and Human Performance. We leverage that data to help organizations better understand, predict, and positively influence employee behavior.
To learn more about the new ways we’re helping people and organizations thrive, Flourishing Index.