Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER JANUARY 2020 20 FEATURES RECRUITMENT Attracting, retaining with purpose Employers that work toward positive cultural and societal change see positive effects on employee trust, satisfaction and brand reputation By Chris Brown W hen it comes to at- tracting and retaining top talent, employers need to understand what em- ployees really want from their employer. Without a greater sense of pur- pose, it's difficult for this new co- hort to connect with their work and their company. Today's em- ployees want to feel as though they are contributing to something greater than themselves, and one way to guarantee this is to be part of an organization that can, and will, bring about positive change. Unfortunately, the drive to implement cultural or societal change has often fallen to the way- side as businesses remain focused on the bottom line. But purpose and profit are not exclusive. How a company acts and implements purpose can have positive effects on employee trust, satisfaction, brand reputation and, yes, even the bottom line. A 2015 report, The Business Case for Purpose, from the Har- vard Business Review and EY re- vealed that executives who treat purpose as a core driver of strat- egy and decision-making report a greater ability to drive successful innovation and transformational change and deliver consistent rev- enue growth within their organi- zation. Executives that prioritize purpose-driven work said they had experienced growth of up to 10 per cent or more over the past three years, a number that indicates the significance that purpose has on a company's bottom line. For many employers, purpose is their "north star," helping them navigate through uncertainty in the face of tough competition for talent and a volatile landscape. Purpose guides long-term strategy and decision-making, encourages fresh thinking, and unites employ- ees around a common and aspira- tional goal. Purpose is hard to pin down be- cause it is an intangible concept, and often there is little consisten- cy in how it is measured. How- ever, if employers provide more opportunities for fulfilling work, invest in their workforce through upskilling and embed purpose as a core pillar of their organizational strategy, they will be able to cre- ate deeper levels of engagement with both current and prospec- tive talent. Here are a few reasons why business leaders who successfully harness the power of purpose to drive performance and profitabil- ity enjoy a distinct competitive ad- vantage when recruiting new, and retaining current, talent. Purpose can be a key motivator Although the age gap between mil- lennials and gen Z can be as wide as 20 years in some instances, one factor unites these generations — a desire for more purposeful work. But what constitutes "purposeful" work can vary by individual and is driven by finding a meaningful connection to the rest of the world through work. Attracting and retaining gen Z, a cohort that accounts for 20 per cent of Canada's workforce, will require leaders to understand what makes them tick. ese em- ployees are increasingly incentiv- ized to find work that matters to them, and purpose is the key to unlocking how to engage with candidates, get them interested in jobs and improve employee engagement and retention. As much as 89 per cent of ex- ecutives believe that providing a strong sense of collective purpose drives employee satisfaction, ac- cording to the Business Case for Purpose; so why is it an often- underutilized tool? Companies need to identify what matters to employees and provide them with clarity about how those val- ues and their personal contribu- tion fit into the larger organiza- tion's goals and priorities. To continue keeping employees engaged, it's about leveraging the power of their personal social net- works to magnify the employer's brand presence and further en- hancing the employer's reputation as a purpose-driven employer. Establish an employee advocacy program where employees are en- couraged to share their authentic stories and experiences at work as they relate to brand purpose. Employee advocacy is one way to help recruiting teams easily share compelling content — both about their employer and other topics — with their networks and expand their candidate pools. Finding purpose through learning In addition, millennials and gen Z seek learning and growth op- portunities because they recog- nize the value of upskilling given the rapid pace of technological change. This cohort is accus- tomed to continuous learning and perceives it as a necessity in order to keep pace with innovation and automation. To accommodate the demand for more learning opportunities, 98 per cent of Canadian HR lead- ers expect gen Z professionals to want to learn on their own terms in a fully self-directed and inde- pendent approach, according to LinkedIn's 2018 Generational Learning Study. Creating a workplace culture of continuous learning requires transformational change com- pany-wide, which can feel like a daunting task. But business lead- ers can begin the process by iden- tifying what kind of environment they currently offer and assessing whether it's time to re-evaluate their approach. One way that companies can create an employee experience that expands professional growth and leads to a more engaged, motivated and loyal workforce is to harness the power of automa- tion and implement tools that enable independent learning, remote working or easier team collaboration. Embedding purpose as part of corporate strategy Many companies turn to pur- pose as a short-term marketing tactic, but it isn't something to be achieved — rather, it is the reason why employers are in the business. Canadians have a particularly strong appetite and growing ex- pectation for organizations to act with purpose. And employers are identifying new ways to appeal to professionals and set an example for the way corporate Canada treats employees. A cursory scan of the top com- panies where Canadians want to work indicates that these busi- nesses are effectively implement- ing purpose-driven operatives within their organization, such as building inclusive and diverse teams. ese employers treat pur- pose as a core driver of strategy and decision-making to identify where they want to be strategically, based on what they want to achieve. For those in a position to influ- ence hiring, talent management or employee experience, the purpose movement cannot be ignored. Identifying the values and critical behaviours that best embody an organization's purpose is the first step in increasing an employer's appeal to highly skilled workers and top talent. Chris Brown is director of talent solu- tions Canada at LinkedIn in Toronto. Credit: 0-Rawpixel.com (Shutterstock) allowing for more claims activity to support employees through their mental health journey, says Ventin, "that spend is still far, far less than what they are currently spending on other paramedical or practitioners or specialists. So, for example, a psychology or psychotherapy spend in our book of business is still about five to seven per cent of your total spend in professional services. And mas- sage therapy would still be in the high 20 per cent. So, there's still a long way to go for you to say that there's parity in that spend." On the financial education side, that benefit is growing partly because employers are realizing that financial understanding and literacy actually help with health, too, "because a lot of stress-relat- ed issues are exacerbated by poor financial planning and worry," says Gerbrecht. "Some of the carriers have started to make direct connec- tions between the two and sug- gesting that you can make your population healthier by making them more robust from an un- derstanding of personal finance." Also gaining popularity is vir- tual medical care, offered by 19 per cent of employers, according to Aon, with 34 per cent consider- ing it in the future. It's about quick care, it's about remote care, but it's also about more convenient ways of deliver- ing medicine to support productiv- ity, too, he says. ere are regional differences, however, as virtual medical visits in British Columbia, for example, can be charged to the provincial medical plan, but that's not available in all provinces. Employers need to be sensitive to or aware of the fact that Can- ada's government health system is very different from that of the United States, so the billing side is not the same, says Ventin. "If you go see your doctor and you are a resident of the province you live in, that cost is borne by our tax dollars, not by a private plan. So, to offer virtual care is something that a lot of employers are interested in doing; they just have to allocate their budgets ap- propriately because we do have some government assistance in this area, which is a very differ- ent approach from [that of ] our neighbours to the south. It's a dif- ferent business model." Dent says she hasn't had many clients asking about virtual care, but, eventually, it will become more popular in the marketplace. "It's more the carriers promoting a new feature that they're offering." 'Budget appropriately' for virtual medical care BENEFITS < pg. 2 Identifying the values and critical behaviours that best embody an organization's purpose is the first step in increasing an employer's appeal.

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