Purpose-Driven Hiring and Retention

“We just hired this person less than 6 months ago and they are already leaving.” I recently had lunch with friends who own a technology company, and they were bemoaning the turnover and inevitable long search for a key person on their team. With the Great Resignation, the typical tools to attract and keep employees aren’t working as well. Higher salary, more benefits, WFH flexibility all help, but what is it that keeps a good employee on a team?

Purpose-driven recruiting and retention is another approach. Most people want to have a purpose, and one that aligns with their own values. When we take on a new video project at CM Productions, we seek out the goal for our client, but we share with our production team the greater impact the final product will have on the world. It focuses everyone on how they can contribute to that impact.

If you are hiring, how are you communicating the purpose of the company or job to candidates?  It might be a just bullet-point on the job description, or your mission statement now, but if you frame the purpose into an effective story, you can appeal to the candidate’s values at an emotional level.

Instead of “we exist to resell software to the government” build a story around a turning point in the company, a failure that became a lesson that propelled the company to a new business focus, or how the work you do impacts the community where you operate.

Story Doctors Consulting can help you find those potential stories and build them into a deal-closer for your next round of hiring. Whether you are telling the story at the first interview or preparing for a big kick-off event for your team, or creating a video to recruit more widely, we guide you on tapping into the purpose and the emotion behind the purpose.

Back to my friends, I suggested they ask at the exit interview for this person’s “advice” on what attracted her to the company in the first place and what could they do to attract future team members. Exit interview research is overlooked, use it for your future benefit and it can help you find your deeper purpose.

For more about the performance and perception of purpose-driven companies read the “Strength of Purpose” research done Zeno.