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Discovering Purpose at Work: The Critical Role of L&D

Recent Deloitte research highlights that most Gen Z and Millennial employees seek purpose-driven work. Organisations must align their purpose with employees’ values and support them in discovering their purpose to boost engagement, retention, and performance. L&D professionals play a critical role in facilitating this alignment and fostering a purpose-driven workplace culture.

This article was written by Jackie Clifford and published in Training Zone.

In 2009, Daniel Pink talked about the importance of purpose (alongside autonomy and mastery) in his book ‘Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us’.

Since that time, the idea of purpose at work has gained significant attention.

The so-called ‘Great Resignation’ after the Covid pandemic once again gave consideration to the fact that many individuals believe that they should be dedicating their time to something that matters to them.

And in 2024, a Deloitte report relating to millennials and Gen Z found that:

“Nearly all Gen Zs and millennials want purpose-driven work, and they’re not afraid to turn down work that doesn’t align with their values.”

This raises questions for organisations and for the L&D professionals within them:

What is ‘purpose-driven work’? How can organisations ensure that their purpose aligns with that of their employees?
To what extent should organisations support individuals to discover their purpose?
What are the business benefits of helping employees to find their purpose?

Here are some thoughts and ideas on these questions.

Purpose-driven work

Purpose relates to the reasons for doing something.

Helping employees to see where their work fits into a bigger picture is nothing new.

Over many years organisations have worked, to varying degrees of success, to identify the ‘golden thread’ that runs from the organisational mission and objectives right through to individual objectives.

L&D professionals can support their organisations to ensure that the golden thread is sparkling brightly by taking some of these actions:

Review results of staff surveys which will indicate how much understanding and buy-in current employees have to the organisation’s mission, values and objectives. Where buy-in doesn’t exist, L&D can create interventions to explore why this is the case.
Work with senior leaders and managers across the organisation to ensure that the mission, values and objectives remain current. If they require revision, offer to support cross-organisation discussion to co-create updated versions, as appropriate.
Ensure that any L&D interventions, from induction and on-boarding through to development programmes have the organisational mission, values and objectives as a foundation.
Work with colleagues from HR to support the development of performance management processes which help individuals to identify where their role and activities fit into the bigger picture.
Provide development for line managers so that they can conduct regular and meaningful 1-1s with their team members. These 1-1s should provide the opportunity for individuals to explore their work, what matters to them at work and how well-aligned they feel that their work is to their personal values and purpose.

L&D has a role to play in attracting purpose-aligned candidates

It is clearly preferable to employ individuals whose values and purpose aligns with those of the organisation. Recruitment is such an expensive and resource-intensive process that it is important to attract the right candidates for vacant positions.

L&D can play a part in recruitment by using their knowledge of the organisation to support activities undertaken by their branding and marketing colleagues to ensure that brand messages are clear and transparent about organisational purpose.

“Their activities should be clearly linked back to what the organisation is setting out to achieve.”

They can also potentially contribute to recruitment advertising because they are likely to have awareness of some of the day-to-day experiences of post-holders via conversations during L&D activities.

Read more about the benefits of uncovering and aligning organisational purpose here: On purpose? Finding purpose at work and the role of L&D