We are big advocates of the idea of employee engagement and the associated movement to create more workplaces where employees want to give their best each day.
In the words of engagement advocate David Macleod, “This is about how we create the conditions in which employees offer more of their capability and potential”
Much of the research conducted exploring the concept is highly persuasive in demonstrating the mutual benefits inherent in engagement – nurturing and supporting happy, involved, purposeful employees increases effectiveness and productivity (which in turn helps motivate and further engage employees).
Supporting employee thriving
It’s therefore really exciting seeing a global organisation the scale of Microsoft committed to pushing the concept even further.
More than just engagement, they are seeking to nurture and support employee thriving.
Thriving is the sense of being:
“energized and empowered to do meaningful work. This is the new core aspiration we have for our employees, one that challenges us to push ourselves every day so every employee can feel they’re pursuing that sense of purpose.”
Their approach resonates with us.
The pillars they identify as critical to thriving closely parallel some of the things we consistently see as important in creating Transformational ‘leadership organisations’ among our clients.
They point to the importance of strong culture and shared values in helping employees to thrive and how an organisation needs to be a village with a sense of community. Successful organisations are good at framing business problems as collective rather than individual challenges and this in turn supports employees to thrive.
But they particularly underline the importance of purpose as the driving force behind working with energy and commitment. As we comment in our article on purpose – “working purposefully can feel very different to working reactively. It makes work a source of fulfilment, happiness and joy. Not all the time. Not every moment. But if we can step back from our work, however hard it may be, and say “I know why I do this” then the underlying feeling is one that creates resilience and energy rather than sapping it.”
Vitally they take a data driven approach to creating an organisation driven by thriving individuals. Unlocking the potential of people starts with understanding and with gaining deep insights about Mental Fitness and motivations.
We hope more and more companies will join Microsoft in taking engagement to the next level by putting thriving at the heart of their organisational strategy.
Want to take this further?
Do you want to see your employees thrive and create a leadership organisation? Do you want to grow the potential of your organisation’s capability?
If your organisation is aiming to be in the vanguard of putting Mental Fitness at the heart of organisational development and you’d like help to gain a deeper understanding of your employees, we’d love to talk.
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