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When Jennifer Wallace set out to study why some young people perform well in high-pressure environments and others don’t, she came upon the concept of mattering.
“It’s an umbrella term that captures feelings of belonging, connection and mastery,” she said. “These are all important things for our kids to feel.”
But that need doesn’t stop at adolescence. Wallace’s research, which the journalist and former 60 Minutes staffer details in an upcoming book, showed that mattering is a vital factor in workplace success.
“Mattering increases job satisfaction, motivation and retention,” she told WorkProud CEO Michael Levy at the WorkProud Webinar. “Mattering motivates people. It provides a healthy kind of fuel as opposed to a dirty fuel like criticism or fear. That might get you to a short-term goal, but at some point that dirty fuel is going to clog up that person’s engine.”
Looking around the working world, Wallace said, “We are seeing a real deficit in mattering.”
At Twitter, for example, “Elon Musk was firing people by locking them out of their work email accounts. That is a surefire way of telling people you don’t matter, you are simply a cog in the machine. People who devoted their lives to Twitter were simply locked out of it. It’s not just a low level of mattering – it’s anti-mattering. You are being told you do not matter here.”
That message harms people and their families: ”If the adults in children’s lives spend 8 to 10 hours a day in an environment where they are made to feel that they don’t matter,” she said, “it is very hard to be the first responder to someone else’s concerns.”
And research, Wallace asserted, shows that disregarding the concept harms the company.
“Mattering isn’t just important for employee flourishing,” she said. “It’s also important for retention and for the bottom line.”
So where to start? First, Wallace said, recognize the components of mattering. They include feeling like a visible, significant colleague whose contributions are valued and recognized.
Wallace crafted a scale for employees to assess that for themselves. She suggests they rate how much:
Human resources departments can use that self-assessment, Wallace said, “to see who might be unhappy and prone to leave.”
Among management’s evaluations: “Does that employee feel valued by their colleagues?” she said. Are they shown where they are adding value? People are energized and motivated when they see how they connect to the larger whole.”
Companies can get to work to show their employees that they matter. “To roll out mattering in the workplace is possible and necessary, and you can be systematic about it,” she said. “You could create principles that show we are a company that recognizes employees.”
That can be as simple as noting everyone’s birthday, or making a point just to say thank you.
“It’s pretty intuitive,” Wallace said. “You don’t need a PhD to show people that they matter.
“That’s what I love about it – it’s actionable. You want somebody to feel like they belong, recognize their work, thank them for it, tell them explicitly how much you value them, how important they are, how much they’d be missed if they weren’t here.”
A key component of mattering, she stressed, is recognition – which is a key part of the WorkProud program to build a company culture of pride and success.
“Recognizing somebody’s work and thanking them for it and being grateful out loud is the glue of relationships,” Wallace said. “Being grateful to someone for their work means you value them. And by expressing it to somebody, you show them you’re a good relationship partner.”
Wallace’s book, Never Enough: When Achievement Pressure Becomes Toxic – and What We Can Do About It, will be published in August. You can learn more about the Mattering Movement here.
The book, like the Mattering Movement itself, is aimed both at strengthening families and improving workplaces.
“I think the mattering framework works for all relationships,” Wallace said. “The same framework you bring to your children and your family you can bring to your office.”
WorkProud presents a monthly webinar, hosted by CEO Michael Levy and featuring experts on workplace issues from around the country. It’s always free, and there’s usually a great giveaway just for taking part. Watch for details about upcoming sessions in our monthly newsletter. If you don’t already subscribe, sign up here.
WorkProud is committed to helping its clients create a unified approach to the employee experience by helping them build cultures of workplace pride. Trusted by millions of users at some of the world’s most recognized employer brands, WorkProud delivers a comprehensive approach to building company cultures that inspire people to be Proud of their Work and Proud of their Company.
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