No one wants to feel like they are stagnating in their jobs. Most employees want the opportunity to learn and grow at work, every day. Employers need to build continuous learning and growth into every employee’s job.
Shopify, a multinational e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, lives by the motto: “Build for the long-term. Thrive on change. Be a constant learner.” In 2018, the company introduced two parallel career tracks, an individual contributor track and a manager track, to foster an environment on continuous learning. This framework allowed Shopify to adapt career paths to each employee’s strengths and life circumstances.
The framework has proven to be a big success, thus far. In comparison to other e-commerce and technology companies, Shopify has significantly higher employee advocacy, as reported by Glassdoor. AndIn our experience, these actions can go a long way in making work purposeful, resulting in higher levels of workforce productivity, more loyal employees and much lower employee attrition.
Today’s satisfied but unengaged worker is someone else’s future employee. To remain committed to their employer, employees must believe:In differentiating themselves, companies should focus less on providing greater pay, flexibility, and benefits, which will increasingly become standard practice. Instead, they should turn their attention to improving the intrinsic value of work itself. If they do, they will discover that purposeful work is the new secret weapon to winning the war for talent.
Stop the shirt and tie
…or super-easy and well-paid.