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Podcast Episode 209: Purpose, Not Perks – with Victoria Lewis-Stephens

23rd October 2023

3,697 views

4 min read

This Episode: Purpose, Not Perks – with Victoria Lewis-Stephens

Lucinda is joined by Victoria Lewis-Stevens, MD at United Culture, to discuss the importance of purpose over perks in organisations. They explore how organisations can add greater value during a downturn by focusing on purpose and engaging employees.

Victoria shares her expertise in helping businesses articulate their culture and align it with their purpose, and talks about the role of line managers in driving engagement plus the need for organisations to invest time and effort in supporting and empowering them.

Key Takeaways

While fair pay is important, employees are more engaged and motivated when they connect with the purpose of the organisation. When individuals can align their personal values with the values and purpose of the organisation, it creates a sense of meaning and fulfillment.
Organisations need to clearly define their purpose and ensure that it is communicated in a compelling and meaningful way. This involves telling the story of the organisation’s purpose and helping employees understand how their individual roles contribute to that purpose.
HR professionals should review policies and procedures to ensure they align with the organisation’s purpose. Policies should be seen as frameworks that enable line managers to make decisions that reflect the purpose and values of the organisation, rather than rigid rules that restrict flexibility.
Employees value recognition for their contributions, and this can be as simple as a genuine thank you. Continuous learning and personal development opportunities are also important, and organisations can provide these through various means such as job shadowing, job swaps, or buddying programs.

Best Moments from

This Episode: Purpose, Not Perks – with Victoria Lewis-Stephens

“You tend to get attracted to the brands and to the organisations that are out there talking about the difference they make in the world.”

“I think the secret and the key thing is it doesn’t matter almost what the purpose, what the mission, what the values, what the strategy is of an organisation, it’s how does the individual role connect to that.”

” I think most people if they’re engaged and they’re in the organisation and they feel like their personal values reflect and support an organisation’s purpose, most people are sensible enough to recognize, I can’t have it my own way.”

“I think line managers and leaders are a very underserved community in large organisations with huge roles and huge influence.”

Valuable Resources

Find out more about Actus solutions:

Actus solutions

The HR Uprising Podcast | Apple | Spotify | Stitcher

The HR Uprising LinkedIn Group

HR Uprising Mastermind – https://hruprising.com/mastermind/

www.hruprising.com

Engagement through a positive working culture

Employee Engagement Resources

New Info-book: Rethinking Performance Appraisals

Additional free HR Resources

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About The Guest, `Victoria Lewis-Stephens`

Victoria is passionate about the impact employee and customer engagement can have on driving business growth and performance. She founded United Culture in 2019, prior to this she was managing partner at comms consultancy Instinctif Partners.

At United Culture, Victoria helps some of the most recognisable brands in the world, including Bacardi Ltd, Marriott International, to develop compelling engagement strategies. She specialises in helping businesses engage their people during periods of significant change, turning them into growth drivers and brand advocates.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-lewis-stephens-70277720/

https://www.unitedcultureco.com/

About The Host

Lucinda Carney is a Business Psychologist with 15 years in Senior Corporate L&D roles. Lucinda also has a further 10 as CEO of Actus Software where she worked closely with HR colleagues helping them to solve the same challenges across a huge range of industries. Certainly, it was this breadth of experience that inspired Lucinda to set up the HR Uprising community to facilitate greater collaboration across HR professionals in different sectors, helping them to ‘rise up’ together.

“If you look up, you rise up”

How To Be A Change Superhero – by Lucinda Carney