Purpose Driven Employee Engagement Case Study

Purpose-driven Employee Engagement: A KPMG Case Study

According to a Calling Brands survey, working with an organization having a well-defined purpose is more important to employees than its work culture, the scope of promotion, and job responsibilities. In other words, this factor is the second most important factor following pay and benefits. Another study by Net Impact shows that about half of the modern workforce would prefer 15% pay cut for working with an organization driven by an inspiring purpose.

Considering that today’s workforce looks for more than what is available in paychecks, KPMG—the world renowned professional service company—has recently undertaken an initiative to inspire its high-morale talent pool. With this, the firm

However, it was found to be more confusing. Soon, the team working on the initiative realized that their very objective was to fill their people with optimism, pride, and commitment. So, they reset their focus to build an emotional connection with them by encouraging them to reveal why their work mattered.

• Cutting the message clutter: The team working with the initiative was flooded with messages and information. To address the issue, it therefore decided to give prominence to its purpose messaging by appointing a third-party creative cum communication group.

• Taking care of morale problems in some groups: It was found that employees whose leaders showed more enthusiasm for this higher purpose initiative were more motivated, engaged, and committed than others. In other words, employees whose managers did not uphold the initiative indeed witnessed a significant decline in the main engagement indicators.

The Path

In-depth research and scores of interviews led to a new purpose statement, which was: Inspire Confidence, Empower Change. Thereafter, it embarked on to inspire its people to consider their work from a whole new perspective. And this initiative began with a simple question: what they do at the organization? The answer came from a video as “We Shape History!”

Colorful posters containing messages like “We Champion Democracy” were put up all across offices. Roles were also reframed to make people feel that they were not only professionals performing audits but a part of the profession that assisted thousands of US families in taking well-informed decisions on investing all their life savings.

A special application was also developed to enable their people to create and share digital posters. Naming it as ‘the 10,000 Stories Challenge’, the team asked about 27,000 employees and partners to create posters as teams or individuals. Going the extra mile, employees were also provided with an incentive in the form of two additional paid days off by the year-end if the company met its goal of 10,000 stories by Thanksgiving.

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