Closing the gap between promise and reality
Attracting good talent to your organisation is harder now than it’s been for some time, and it won’t be getting easier anytime soon. The industries with which I’m involved, whether as an employee, director or consultant, are all trying to find ways to attract talent. The competition is tough.
Recognising this problem, Deloitte Insights has published an article based on a comprehensive survey it conducted. While the survey is based in the United Kingdom, the findings and lessons are easily applicable and transferrable to the Australian and New Zealand context.
A perceived solution to the talent problem is for organisations to “show genuine commitment towards more than just maximising profits and to demonstrate purpose in the iterations with customers, employees, supply chain partners and the broader communities in which they operate.” How do you know you’ve embedded this into your organisational culture? It’s not easy to measure. But try organisations must.
To help, Deloitte Insights identified five key areas reported to it by employees that highlight the gap between what management thinks it’s doing and what the workforce perceives is being done. This is interesting because too often management operates in an echo chamber that means it’s ignorant of the reality of how messaging and strategy is received. The five purpose gaps are:
- The perception–reality gap—purpose matters to employees but only half see it mirrored in their workplace reality
- The integrity gap—demonstrating purpose starts with genuine concern for workers’ wellbeing
- The attraction–retention gap—purpose determines why workers stay or leave
- The transparency gap—purpose is not seen as being in conflict with profit but transparency about both is needed
- The role model gap—only half the workforce sees leadership behaviour as being inline with purpose
The survey dug deep into these gaps and found there are some lessons organisations can learn and consequently position themselves to better attract talent:
- Lip service is not enough
- Recognise purpose is not static and starts with your employees
- Emphasise purpose in recruitment and maintain it with your long-standing staff, too
- Adopt a “profit with purpose” strategy
- Close the purpose gap in leadership behaviour
The article expands on all of these gaps and lessons and is well worth the time to read. But it does end succinctly, concluding that the best hope organisations can have is to stand out through purpose.
Photograph: jcomp on Freepik.