World-Class Organizations Drive Employee Fulfillment, Not Just Engagement

Not all organizations are created equal. As companies try to advance employee wellbeing while navigating industry constraints and legacy systems, many chief human resource officers (CHROs) find their hands tied and their organizations at risk of being left behind.

I have deep empathy for these leaders — they don't have the resources or strategic power to move the needle or think beyond the basics when it comes to their employees’ needs. The “old ways” these companies follow — whether because of their industry, history, or simply the priorities they hold — will not afford their people leaders the opportunity to create modern, holistic experiences for their employees.

But for people leaders in organizations that are open to modernizing, for those less encumbered, for those who know they're going to be a leading employer in the knowledge and creativity worker talent market…

To you, I say: It may not always be easy to execute the best people-conscious strategies or to position your function at the forefront of business growth, but it’s your duty — and it will pay off. 

Employee Engagement vs. Employee Fulfillment

For the last decade, the North Star success metric for people leaders has been employee engagement. An organization with high employee engagement does a good job including employees in something bigger. Whether it’s a holistic mission, project, or products and services, they're generally doing a decent job connecting employees to the work they are doing. 

However, if engagement is your measure of success, you're in danger of relying on a surface-level understanding, and using a vanity metric to prove it. You may be entirely missing what matters. Modern CPOs need to drive the organization to measure and manage a richer picture: employee fulfillment. 

Employee fulfillment is achieved when employees feel they are doing the best work of their life; they're building lifelong skills and connections; they may be working hard and sprinting, but it is towards a bigger personal or professional purpose. It’s a deeper measure of organizational health than employee engagement.

A good friendship is much like engagement. You enjoy your friend’s company. You have fun when you meet, regardless of the frequency, and generally walk away from interactions with an elevated mood or sense of connection. 

Employee fulfillment, however, is more than a good friendship; it’s transformative. A friendship that fills your cup and is deep and energizing. It takes a lot of energy to be present in these relationships, but from them you gain a powerful sense of fulfillment.

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Welcome to the new employment paradigm.

Getting the Essentials Right

Essentials refer to the fundamental resources and services that meet an individual's basic needs, such as food, shelter, healthcare, and security. Aligning these essentials with our core values ensures that we prioritize the well-being and dignity of every person. As Lattice CPO Cara Brennan Alamano pointed out, authentic values are the lynchpin of any organization, and alignment between what a company says they care about and how employees experience their employment is fundamental for employee fulfillment. 

As CPO at Greenhouse, I’m dedicated to leading our people strategy and fostering a dynamic and inclusive workplace culture. Part of my role in bringing company values to life is making sure we have philosophies around talent, compensation, and performance that align to our values and to our higher purpose for our employees. 

For example, if I want an organization of top performers but pay bottom-percentile salaries, I have no chance at promoting employee fulfillment because my employees are struggling with a basic cognitive dissonance. Getting the essentials right means having the appropriate set of strategies, fair processes, and systems so that employee needs are met. Once needs are met, employees are better positioned to do great work. 

Supporting the Whole Person

Once you've got the right essentials in place, the next step is ensuring your benefits are holistic. If employees are not thriving outside of work, they can’t thrive inside of work. An employee struggling with financial instability or who needs time to manage distressing personal situations cannot give their full brain to work. 

This is why I believe one of the most important duties I have as a CPO is to continually move the needle on employment benefits, whether it be generous leave policies, education and resources on topics such as financial literacy, access to tools for young parents and families, or access to fertility and age-inclusive treatment for menopause and low testosterone. Organizations focused on fulfillment have a critical business need to foster open conversations as well, ensuring whole-person needs are a topic in the workplace.  

Organizations also need to reassure employees that they don’t have to “leave themselves at the door” when they walk into work. A commitment to organizational awareness and consciousness is a key part of ensuring the environment is conducive for fulfillment. 

I do not mean that organizations need to take a definitive stand on every social issue, but rather, the modern CPO who strives for fulfillment needs to understand the new calibration between employers and employees, one of deeper appreciation of the complex human experience.

Thinking About a New Employment Paradigm 

Lattice employees are called Latticians — this impactful nomenclature is a step towards employee fulfillment: when employees believe they are part of something bigger, they build an ownership mentality that’s critical for driving business results and creating spaces where employees can see seismic shifts in their growth and development.

For employees to realize a fulfilled work life, they need to know their work is respected, regardless of their title or seniority. I find it helpful to categorize levels within the organization into three buckets: experts, managers, and executives, instead of the individual contributor and manager buckets commonly used today. 

Experts are the employees closest to the action. Our job as people leaders is to create an environment for them to do good work, and find mechanisms to incorporate ‘expert’ feedback more closely into our operating model. The expert voice is often discounted or gets lost in lots of noise (such as intra-managerial and executive meetings where folks vie for attention), but in an organization focused on fulfillment, executives and managers are set up with the right culture, processes, and feedback loops to ensure employees are heard. 

Modern CPOs at world-class organizations recognize that employee satisfaction stems from being part of something greater and from feeling fundamentally transformed by their work experiences. They innovate beyond traditional boundaries, ensuring organizational values align with employee experiences, supporting the whole person, and facilitating a workplace culture that embraces both professional and personal growth and support. 

By redefining relationships and expectations within the workplace, these CPOs are not just contributing to the success of their organizations but are also setting new standards for what it means to be truly fulfilled at work. This paradigm shift, from engagement to fulfillment, challenges organizations to rethink how they interact with their most valuable asset — their people — ensuring that they not only succeed in their roles but thrive in every aspect of their lives.