

As the Washington Post reported in late 2020, many of the country’s 50 biggest companies earned profits even as a majority of them laid off employees. However, a year after the roundtable’s statement, in the midst of the pandemic, most big companies didn’t seem to have departed much from business as usual, or to have changed their policies to benefit employees–or any stakeholders other than investors. Instead, they pledged to deliver for all stakeholders, including employees and communities.

Gone were the days when companies would prioritize profits above all else, the executives vowed.

In 2019, the Business Roundtable, a group of CEOs from America’s biggest companies, issued a formal statement on “The Purpose of a Corporation” in which it pledged a commitment to a multi-stakeholder view of business. They talk glowingly about purpose in their internal and external communications, but when it comes to specific decisions and policies, including those that bear on workplace conditions, companies act in ways that seem far from enlightened. Unfortunately, few purpose-driven companies actually deliver. Like Starbucks, you must “inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.”
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You must instead purport, as Ford Motor Company does, to “build a better world, where every person is free to move and pursue their dreams.” It’s no longer enough to sell coffee. It’s no longer enough to build and sell cars. Recognizing how much both customers and employees value a sense of purpose, many companies have developed and promoted inspiring purpose or mission statements. A recent McKinsey survey of employees found that 89% desired a sense of purpose at work. There is abundant research to show that employees of all ages want jobs that are not merely interesting and reasonably compensated, but meaningful and purposeful. People have looked at their jobs and thought: I want meaning and purpose in the work that I do, and I am not finding it here. The pandemic has been a time of deep personal introspection and reassessment, and it has caused people to see how precious and fragile their lives are. Yes, many people are quitting their jobs for better offers or opportunities elsewhere–but others are leaving because they are experiencing a crisis of meaning. While these are welcome, they fail to acknowledge much deeper reasons for the Great Resignation, as it is being called–reasons that go to the root of what it is to be human.Ī better description of this phenomenon would be a “Great Rethink” in which we are all rethinking our relationship to work and how it fits into our lives.
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In their anxiety over how to retain and attract employees, many companies are adopting quick-fix solutions like raising salaries and improving benefits.
