Purpose-driven work isn’t just for non-profits - it’s key to business success. Explore how HR can boost meaning and performance across every level of an organisation
Tucked away in a quiet corner of Brooklyn, New York, Greyston Bakery has turned the idea of business on its head. Rather than hiring people to make its brownies, the company says it makes brownies to provide work for local people. It’s a mission that caught the attention of Ben & Jerry’s, who now buy all of their ice cream’s brownie pieces from Greyston.
This story provides a powerful reminder for HR leaders of the importance of purpose. Because whether you’re making desserts, loading trucks or processing mortgage applications, if we can connect work to something bigger, then we provide employees with a sense of purpose.
“Today’s employees look for significance and meaning in their work, so your purpose can’t only be a slogan that you put on posters and company mugs,” says Matt Poepsel, vice-president and godfather of talent optimisation at The Predictive Index. “If people are just going through the motions doing their work, they’re not bringing their true energy and they’re not performing at their best.
Gallup defines purpose, development, and a caring manager as key drivers of employee engagement. In a recent study, Gallup found that only 31% of US workers are actively engaged with work, revealing a huge opportunity to improve both employee satisfaction and business success. Furthermore, the study determines that 70% of the variance in team engagement is determined solely by the manager or team leader.
Understanding why our employees show up – and what inherent traits drive their behaviour – helps leaders and managers to communicate purpose in a way that helps people to feel valued and understood. A recent survey by The Predictive Index found that almost half (46%) of workers think that their boss only sometimes or rarely understands their contributions.
One easy way that HR teams can drive this sense of purpose is sharing success stories – if the company makes a big sale, or the finance team improves processing times, then make the time to share this success and recognise the people who helped the organisation deliver its purpose. Recognition should be appropriate to the individual – while some people might love being called out in a group meeting, less extroverted personalities might respond better to a personal email from a manager.
It's worth remembering that jobs can be purposeful even if we’re not all saving lives or planting trees. Our view of purpose is often unrealistically grandiose, says Poepsel. “Purpose is really easy to find if you’re working for Doctors Without Borders and you’re saving lives, but if you’re working in finance or retail then it can be harder to find.”
Take a financial services employee processing invoices. On the surface, their work might feel without real purpose. But if those invoices enable the business to help a young family buy their first home, suddenly that perspective shift makes their work matter deeply. “How long does it take to recognise that work, to remind someone how their work fits into our purpose?” he asks. “That’s something fast and free that managers can do every day.”
Some organisations will need to coach their managers to look for and recognise these moments of purpose. It’s important that people understand how they’re helping individual employees to connect to the organisation’s purpose, Poepsel says: “Often, our conversations about purpose are too lofty, and don’t relate to what’s actually happening day-to-day in the business.”
HR teams can build regular storytelling and recognition activities – whether that’s a newsletter, a few minutes in each staff meeting, or a ‘staff hero of the month’ award. Sharing and celebrating stories bring purpose to life and show how different parts of the business and different types of people all contribute to purpose in action. It’s often easy to recognise employees with strengths and responsibilities that mirror our own, but building a strategy that recognises and celebrates the different things that make us ‘tick’ will help boost both engagement and loyalty.
Encouraging employees to consider the wider community can be a powerful way to create a sense of purpose. For example, finance software company Daycos gives employees time and funding to support local community projects – whether it’s a grocery run for community centres or volunteering in local gardens and parks. This has created what Poepsel sees as a flywheel of impact, loyalty and consumer trust.
Despite widespread recognition of the importance of purpose at work, many companies struggle to put the idea of purpose into action. Gartner found that while purpose-driven organisations report up to 43% higher employee engagement, only 31% of employees agree that their companies provide initiatives that drive purpose. With The Predictive Index’s own research revealing that 91% of HR and business leaders say clear mission and vision give organisations a competitive edge - there is significant room for improvement.
Poepsel believes that while we teach business leaders everything about business strategy, operations and finance, we don’t do enough to teach leaders about the human aspects of work. “It’s so tempting to relegate purpose to a nice-to-have addition, but we have to rehumanise work,” he says. “We have to recognise that the rise of AI and people feeling threatened about their work makes it even more important to connect with them as individuals with a unique set of personality traits and motivations - and help people feel that they’re part of something bigger than themselves.”
Building a business case for purpose initiatives can be tough when budgets are tight, but HR teams should consider that ignoring purpose doesn’t save money – it just diverts it to the wrong places. “You’re already spending that money, badly,” says Poepsel. “You’re spending money on absenteeism, employee turnover, the cost of unproductive and disengaged employees. Investing in purpose means you’re going to spend less on the repercussions of ignoring it in the future.”
Once purpose is something that’s part of the organisation – not owned by the senior leadership – employees are more likely to feel a sense of shared ownership in that culture and purpose. “That’s when things really start to change,” says Poepsel. “All of a sudden that energy is available to us, and we can use that to solve tactical problems. People share innovative ideas because they have advocacy and ownership, because we have given them a voice and made them integral to our purpose.”
In other words, the key to successfully embedding purpose into any organisation is not really about how purpose is shown – but how it is democratised. “Someone is still sending out invoices and loading trucks in those businesses with great purpose,” says Poepsel. “The difference is that they know exactly how that task contributes to planting trees or feeding the community or helping people find new homes.”
Here, we take a closer look at the key questions that emerged around meaning and purpose in modern business. These engaging insights shed light on how organisations can create more engaged, motivated teams and drive lasting impact.
It starts by showing how each role is integral, sharing stories about different teams and involving every department in communications. Use consistent rituals like newsletters or town halls to spotlight how each group drives the mission forward. Encouraging shout-outs and nominations encourages people to scan the environment looking for purpose in action, and that’s when purpose becomes a part of the culture.
Start by shifting the frame. Purpose isn’t a cost centre – it’s a risk mitigator. You’re investing in energy, because when people aren’t connected to purpose their energy is wasted and disengagement is expensive. The good news is that a lot of purpose work is very low cost. Collecting and sharing authentic stories doesn’t require new funding, just commitment.
Hands down it’s storytelling. We already have amazing things happening every day – moments where an employee went above and beyond, and their contribution made a difference. Sharing that is the mechanism by which people start to feel emotionally invested in the mission. It shows people that they matter.
If someone in the loading bay thinks ‘I’m just moving boxes’ that’s a problem – not because their job isn’t meaningful but because no one has helped them see how it links to the bigger picture. The way around this is consistent visibility – maybe in April you showcase warehousing, maybe May is finance or customer support. Show people how each part of the business is integral to the whole and advances the company’s impact.
Empathetic leadership is essential in distributed teams. Learn how leaders can build trust and boost performance through intentional communication, active listening and genuine human engagement
Empathetic leadership, and the self-awareness it requires, is no longer optional. It’s a strategic imperative for organisations navigating distributed teams amid rising expectations about how leaders show up and make decisions.
As businesses adapt to evolving work models, leaders must recognise that the ability to see the world through someone else’s eyes isn’t just about emotional intelligence. It’s about driving performance through trust, connection and engagement.
The idea is that to truly do their best work, people need to feel a sense of belonging and connection to their colleagues, leaders, the organisation and its mission. This not only improves business outcomes. It also boosts employee engagement and, ultimately, retention. Foundational to all of this is trust.
Claire Williams, chief people and operations officer at HR software provider Ciphr, puts it plainly: “Empathy is all about engendering trust with your people. And there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that if people have high trust, it leads to increased psychological safety, which in turn encourages discretionary effort. This results in higher performance and, ultimately, higher growth.”
Empathy also plays a critical role in safeguarding employee wellbeing as a foundational element of long-term organisational resilience. According to Patricia Huska, chief people officer at American Express Global Business Travel:
“Leaders must buy into the concept that how you drive business outcomes is as important as achieving them. Personal connections are critical—and that will never change.”
So, what does leading with empathy look like in practice, especially in a distributed setting? Three core principles stand out.
In physically disconnected environments, trust and connection don’t always evolve organically. They must be intentionally cultivated. This includes recognising cultural nuances across global teams, from communication styles to attitudes toward authority and collaboration.
“Taking the time to chat and get to know what makes people tick - their motivations, interests, everyday challenges or life events - is crucial,” says Huska. “It takes effort, but you can build very strong connections virtually.”
Daily micro-actions - asking about someone’s weekend, showing up prepared, or making space for informal conversation - often matter more than grand gestures. They also include subtle personal adjustments to better align with someone’s behavioural preferences or communication style.
Andrew Dawson, chief people officer at ophthalmic equipment manufacturer BVI Medical, reinforces this idea: “You have to tailor your interactions to the person and take time with them. You can’t go into meetings unprepared or distracted—it signals a lack of genuine interest.”
Active listening is about more than hearing - it’s about decoding meaning, emotion, and subtext. In remote settings where physical cues are muted or missing, leaders must double down on their attention to detail.
“Ask how they are and just listen,” says Dawson. “Is there something in their tone? Are they disengaged or doodling off-screen? If things don’t seem right, ask – don’t assume.”
Huska emphasises that active listening is not a communications tactic, it’s a leadership discipline: “Interrupting, dominating conversations, or half-listening while multi-tasking sends the message: Your voice doesn’t matter. That kind of behaviour erodes trust fast.”
Empathetic leadership also means being transparent—about business priorities, team performance, and even personal challenges. This kind of vulnerability helps humanise leaders and invites reciprocal openness from employees.
“If I’m having a tough day, I’ll go to my team and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got a challenge. Can you help me navigate it?’” says Williams. “They usually have great perspectives that help me grow as a leader - and we get better outcomes together.”
Transparency doesn’t mean oversharing. It means leading with authenticity and courage, recognising that people engage more deeply when they understand both the business context and the person leading them.
Distributed workforces are here to stay, and so is the imperative for empathetic leadership. The leaders who succeed in this environment will be those who treat trust-building as a daily discipline, listen with genuine intent, and communicate with both candour and care.
Empathy, done right, does more than create connection - it creates competitive advantage.
AI is reshaping how we work, blending human ingenuity with machine efficiency to unlock new possibilities. Workers across roles, generations and industries are wrestling with what this means for their future. But are people cautious of technology taking over or curious about how it might transform their jobs?
Workplace flexibility is no longer a perk - it’s a business necessity. But how do HR leaders keep remote employees engaged and connected?
Return-to-office mandates are making a comeback in 2025 - emboldened by corporate giants like Amazon and JPMorgan — but for many organisations, flexibility has long since become the norm.
Research shows that flexible workers are just as productive while enjoying higher retention rates, while Raconteur’s research reveals that nearly half (46%) of remote workers would immediately look for a new job if required to return to the office full-time.
We spoke to three HR leaders who have adopted hybrid or remote models, to understand how organisations can keep employees engaged and connected, when face-to-face connections are fewer.
Engineering is an industry with lots of opportunities and not as many skilled people. That means we need to be very aware of people’s expectations of work, especially younger generation Z workers.
We offer hybrid working so people work three days in the office and two days wherever they please, and flexible hours. We ask people to be available between 10am and 4pm, but they can pick their own start and finish time that works for them.
Because everyone is in the office for part of the week, it makes it easier to build that sense of belonging and community. We also invest a lot of time – four or five weeks – in onboarding so that people understand the culture and feel a part of our community.
There’s a monthly all-hands meeting where we put down our tools and listen to important updates from across the business. We invite people from different teams to present, and if someone isn’t in the office they attend via Teams and we’re careful to ensure everyone is involved.
We’ll also have a weekly resource call in individual offices, and that’s a chance to share news about social events like football matches or charity updates. Our London office recently had a cultural week where people brought in food from their specific culture, and everyone shared a meal – simple things like this help to build connections and engagement.
This approach to work is going to become the norm as Gen Z becomes a bigger part of the workforce. Younger people want to be treated as individuals and our challenge as HR teams is how to account for that expectation, while also maintaining our culture and identity.
Our HR policies give people space to build work around picking up the kids and being at home, but with the caveat that it’s really important for teams to meet in person, whether that’s coming to the office or meeting up with your team once a month.
We have an in-house team that helps people arrange meetups, they’ll book venues and arrange food and make sure the equipment works. We’ve also recently leased new offices in London and Manchester that provide a nice space where people can come together to work.
Of course, many of our people work remotely a lot of the time so we need to invest time in other ways to build engagement and connection. It doesn’t have to be expensive, like we send everyone a small gift on their work anniversary each year, as a way of recognising their contribution.
We also operate charity programmes like Give a Little, where anyone can ask us to donate £500 to a charity they’re involved with, or our annual Walkathon. Teams of employees and associates compete every May to walk the most steps, and raise money for our chosen charities, it gets quite competitive and drives a lot of engagement.
It's not easy to quantify connection, but we’re trying to build tools that map out engagement and identify where gaps exist. We look at things like engagement on Slack, or internal blog posts, and we use QR codes to track who’s at events. At the moment, we find it hard to read much into it at an individual level, but it provides useful insight into trends.
Many of our people are associates who might work with multiple clients, so it’s important for me to ensure they’re engaged with us, they understand we’re here to support them. Contracting can be a lonely work, so we want to provide people with a safe space where they feel they belong.
A lot of this is done digitally – we have numerous forums that run on WhatsApp where we chat about hot topics. We have forums that share new opportunities, and general chat – it doesn’t have to be about work, it might be someone is changing their vehicle and wants some advice.
I find this type of collaborative communication drives more engagement than the top down communication I’ve seen in other businesses.
Since Covid, I have a lot more people asking to work a certain number of days each week. We fully endorse that sort of fractional working. I’ve just had a client looking for three full-time consultants, but we provided four people, because two of them are part-time and effectively make up one person. It’s nice to have flexibility that is also predictable.
That said, I’d always want to have the conversation with workers, too – there are still lots of people who like coming into the office, who want that connection and like to work alongside a team. It’s critical that employees have a voice, so you should look at polls and pulse checks, but also direct and open communication with their line managers and with HR.
As an HR leader, we need to train and support our managers in this new model of working. Do our managers have the skills and understanding they need to engage with remote and hybrid workers? Are they able to guide and manage them effectively, or do they have ingrained ideas about their productivity or integrity?
If they have a bias about people working remotely, they might not be the people you need for your future organisation, because this way of working is here to stay.