How Employers can Stem the Costly Great Resignation: Build Employee Fulfillment Through Peer Coaching

By Aaron Hurst, CEO and co-founder, Imperative and author, The Purpose Economy

The ‘great resignation’ is growing. About 4.4 million people quit their jobs in September, comprising 3% of the workforce -- the most ever recorded. Even if some seasonal hiring ends up stemming the tide, the big picture remains clear: workers are looking for something new.

This is costing employers. The “brain drain” of employee departures translates to financial drain as well. It can cost up to 200% of annual salary to replace a single employee.

What’s causing people to want a career change? For its 2021 Trust Barometer, Edelman surveyed people who were leaving or looking to leave their jobs. The biggest driving force, at 59%, involves “values.” And within that category, the top reason people gave is that they “want a job that’s more personally fulfilling.”

To me, this comes as no surprise. Having studied and worked on employee fulfillment since I founded the Taproot Foundation for pro bono work in 2001, I’ve long seen how fulfillment often remains elusive. It’s little wonder that McKinsey found only 15% of frontline managers and frontline employees feel they’re fulfilling their purpose at work.

The solution to this problem does not come from the C-suite. A joint report by Imperative, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP) explained: “While the organization plays a critical role in providing the right environment for a fulfilling employee experience, it’s the employees who shape how to make work more meaningful for themselves. Indeed, an astounding 82% of employees agree that it is primarily their own responsibility, and 42% say that they are their own greatest barrier to finding fulfillment at work.”

The keys to work fulfillment

My work and research by others in the field have shown me that for the vast majority of people, there are three keys to finding fulfillment at work.

The first is having meaningful relationships among co-workers. In our 2019 Workforce Purpose Index, Imperative found that there is only a 1% chance people will feel unfulfilled at work if they have meaningful relationships with colleagues. As Shasta Nelson explains in her book The Business of Friendship, these kinds of connections are based on positivity, consistency and vulnerability. They allow people space to explore their struggles, listen actively to one another, and help each other. Working from home during the pandemic, many people have lost an opportunity to build the kinds of friendships they otherwise might have.

The second key to fulfillment is having time for reflection. No job itself is meaningful. It is the act of reflection that creates the meaning. People need moments to process their experience and take stock of what they’ve achieved. Unfortunately, with hectic days, high stress levels, and an average of over 2 hours per day on social media, people are not creating the space they need for reflection.

Finally, people need tools to help them discover what gives them a sense of purpose. Our surveys at Imperative have found that if you have self-awareness about what brings you fulfillment, there’s a 63% chance you’ll be fulfilled. But if you don't, there’s only a 17% chance. That’s why participants in Imperative peer coaching start with a purpose assessment, which consists of answering a few questions that point to their “purpose drivers.”

Peer coaching provides a path

By establishing peer coaching, organizations allow employees to experience all three of these keys to fulfillment. I’ve seen this through our work at Imperative, where we match peers across a company for regular, guided conversations to align their work with what fulfills them. At the end of each conversation, each peer leaves having made a specific commitment to take a concrete action before the next conversation that will help them make their work more fulfilling.

Peer coaching can be done virtually and across the silos of a business. Colleagues meet up in pairs for an hour every two weeks, and switch partners after several months, developing a diverse support network and increasing their belonging. This allows companies to derive benefits whether they are in the office, hybrid or remote.

The results are immediate. At Zillow for example, 97% of participants reported their conversations were “helpful,” “very helpful,” or even “breakthrough.” At Boston Scientific, that figure was 99%. The conversations directly impact the well-being of the participants - increasing their positivity of their emotions by 2.4 times.

Within three months, 62% of people who had low fulfillment, those at greatest risk of turnover, see a significant boost in fulfillment. And, 89% say they built a meaningful, sustainable relationship - something that is rare in the current workplace.

No matter what lies ahead for the hybrid work era, the need for fulfillment is unlikely to go away. The more an organization does to help them find that fulfillment inside the company, the more everyone will stand to gain.

Aaron Hurst is CEO and co-founder of Imperative and author of The Purpose Economy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.