Workplace Pride: HR’s Best Bet Amid the Great Resignation

HR leaders are being buried under mountains of opinions and data about the causes of the Great Resignation. But if you look carefully at all the different reasons people say they’re choosing to quit, you’ll find one bright, shining, common denominator: If those employees had workplace pride — if they were simply proud of the work they’re doing and proud of the companies they work for — many if not most of them would never have taken that final step out the door. 

Workplace pride really does have that great of an impact on employee engagement and company culture.

It’s Not About the Money. So What Is It About?

The 2021 Talent Index, a survey of 5,000 employed adults in the U.S. and U.K., found that the four most common reasons people are choosing to leave are to work for companies that offer:

• Better career path opportunities
• Broader, more holistic, or “total-person” wellness benefits
• More support for the work-life balance they’ve found during the pandemic 
• A long-term commitment to their post-pandemic return-to-work policies — a vision they can trust, despite being happy with the current policies

“In other words,” says WorkProud co-founder and CEO Michael Levy, “employees generally aren’t leaving for better pay. They’re leaving because they want to work for a company they can feel great about, a company that understands that what employers call the ‘business experience’ is really a ‘people experience.’”

It’s About Workplace Pride. But What Is That, Anyway?

Workplace pride is the combination of two factors: pride in one’s work and pride in one’s company. Through our recent study, which surveyed over 1,000 full-time U.S. employees, we learned that when an employee is proud of their work and proud of their company, they believe:

1. The work they do is extremely important
2. They are making a uniquely special contribution
3. They can see the direct results of how their work makes a difference for the company and its customers

Workplace Pride: It’s Culture-Driven but Requires a Unified Employee Experience

WorkProud’s research found that company pride is primarily driven by a corporate culture that intentionally strives to create workplace pride. But it doesn’t happen only from the best of intentions. A culture of workplace pride is only possible with a unified employee experience that carries those intentions forward. 

That’s because when you seamlessly deliver a unified employee experience, you can align all of your people programs — everything from recognition to innovation to inclusion — with your business vision. And that is critical to creating a culture of workplace pride.

It’s a tall order. But the alternative is to continue throwing money down the drain with disparate, unaligned human capital programs. Look at the cost of voluntary turnover, which is often the result of broken, inefficient patchworks of human capital management software. Voluntary turnover alone is costing U.S. businesses a trillion dollars a year, according to Gallup. And we agree with Gallup’s assessment that “the most astounding part is that most of this damage is self-inflicted.”

It’s self-inflicted because companies fail to align all of their human capital programs under a unified employee experience platform that helps achieve proven business outcomes including reduced turnover; an inspired, digital employee experience; and improved engagement and recognition. It also empowers a workforce of people who are proud of their work and proud of their companies, and as a result are more engaged, more productive, and more likely to stay with you for the long haul.

So, What Are You Going to Do?

For starters, you shouldn’t wait. Creating a culture of workplace pride, driven by a unified employee experience, might be HR’s best bet for turning the tide on the turnover tsunami and moving HR into a more strategic role in your organization. But where should you start?

A good first step is to audit your existing employee experience. Is it delivering the level of engagement you want? Look at human capital levers that can influence engagement and help build a culture of workplace pride, such as recognition, change management, learning transfer, and internal marketing campaigns.

You can also review all of the pieces of your HCM ecosystem to assess whether they deliver a unified employee experience — or a hodge-podge of programs that make it more difficult for people to do their work and connect with your organization’s purpose.

Whatever route you choose to go, you don’t need to go it alone. 

The WorkProud platform aligns a full array of human capital programs with each client’s business vision. It seamlessly delivers a unified employee experience and the outcomes that a unified employee experience promises, like workplace pride.

Yes, you can start building a culture of workplace pride now. Contact us using the form below.