This is a concern that has grown with the health crisis: employees are looking for meaning in their work and to find some are ready to leave it. A study looks into this desire.
Article written by
Posted
Update
Reading time : 1 min.
This is a massive concern. According to a study conducted by the Audencia business school and Jobs that makesens, a platform that only offers so-called “impact” job offers, no less than 92% of employees wonder about the meaning of their activity. Already, last October, a survey conducted by Factorial with Opinionway said that a third of French people said they had lost all sense of their professional activity since the start of the health crisis. It should be noted that employees who work in the social and solidarity economy sector or in a company committed to a social responsibility approach are less likely than others to deplore the lack of meaning in their work.
But what do employees mean by doing meaningful work? This is the whole point of this study. For 57% of respondents, work that makes sense is work that contributes to the challenges of ecological and/or social transition. Second answer, it is cited by a little more than half of the respondents, it is quite simply a question of feeling useful. The third meaning of meaningful work again concerns the responsible dimension. It is about belonging to an organization with a positive impact on society and/or the planet. 42% of respondents choose this answer.
It is therefore to their company that employees turn to find meaning in their work. Employees are more than half, 58%, and an even higher proportion among the youngest, to ask their company to strengthen its positive impact on society or on the planet. They also ask him to be exemplary in his commitments and also to guarantee them greater flexibility in their working hours. But clearly, it is on the company that they turn to quench their thirst for meaning.
A quest that has led a good proportion to change jobs. According to this survey, 42% of respondents have started a change in their career to overcome this lack of meaning. Some simply took a new position within the same organization, but 40% of those who changed went as far as retraining.