Business

Daily Buzz: Find Purpose Beyond the Paycheck

Figure out how your work can serve others, not just yourself. Also: Why you should hire someone outside of your industry.

What does your job mean to you? If your only answer is “it pays the bills,” then a change might be in order. Your job should give you a sense of purpose, says author and researcher Tom Rath in Business Insider.

“In place of the notion that we work primarily for pay, we need to start thinking about how we work to create improvement in other people’s lives,” he says.

To find purpose at work, change your mindset. Think about how your daily efforts can be more than just a job and how your work contributes to society. From there, reorient your efforts in a way that serves your organization and the world. If we don’t work for something more than money, it might have an effect on our health and well-being, Rath argues.

“Having studied this topic myself throughout much of my career, I am convinced that bad jobs are shortening human life expectancy,” Rath says. “According to some research, a poor-quality job could be even more detrimental for key biomarkers of health than unemployment.”

Just don’t wait for your organization to give you purpose.

“Figuring out how you can make a greater contribution through your work has to be driven by you,” Rath says. “Organizations are primarily held accountable for near-term financial results. Most organizations do not (yet) have a comparable mandate to foster employee well-being.”

Embrace Unlikely Candidates

Ready to hire a new employee? Don’t just look at candidates in your industry, writes Jennifer Risi in Quartz.

“Having team members who bring a fresh perspective about the industry enable you to look beyond the industry and see work from a different angle,” she says. “Today, my team is collaborating in ways I never thought possible to fill in gaps I never knew existed.”

Don’t just look at industry experience, seek out candidates who express a passion and desire to learn something new, Risi says.

Other Links of Note

If you’re looking to learn something new about the nonprofit sphere, listen to these 27 nonprofit podcasts in 2020, suggests Tatiana Morand on the Wild Apricot blog.

Want to get more clicks? You probably need to go deeper into SEO than you are right now, writes Joe Williams on the Content Marketing Institute blog.

Establishing social media guidelines gives your employees the information to make the right choices, writes Katie Sehl on the Hootsuite blog.

(Zbynek Pospisil/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Michael Hickey

By Michael Hickey

Michael Hickey is a contributor to Associations Now. MORE

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