For decades, businesses have driven teams to succeed with robust compensation packages and workplace perks. However, this is slowly starting to change. Employees no longer want to simply collect paychecks – they want purpose. Millennial workers are spearheading this shift, with almost 90 percent citing growth as their primary professional goal, according to recent survey data from Gallup.

If you’re looking to meaningfully improve team output and boost the bottom line, you must accept this new reality and rearrange your team to make it more purpose-driven. To get started, review these guidelines:

Articulate your Impact
Most companies provide products or services that do good in the world. Unfortunately, many fail to recognize this positive impact and communicate it to the employees that made it possible. With this in mind, consider articulating your organization’s larger impact for your team members, Harvard Business Review suggested. Instead of urging them to build better software or offer more innovative consulting strategies, encourage them to craft quality code and develop organizational blueprints in service of end users. This will inspire your staff and ultimately improve team effectiveness.

Modern team members want to find their purpose in the workplace.

Spur Innovation

Though essential to some extent, hard-line corporate policies often stifle team members and drive down rates of employee engagement. Plus, such restrictions sometimes devolve ambitious projects into exercises in following pre-established workflows. This approach doesn’t work for anyone involved, especially team members, many of whom leave work frustrated and uninspired. Instead of accepting this unsustainable approach, work purpose into the process by encouraging innovation. Many organizations already do.

For instance, Google has its 70/20/10 model, Business Insider reported. Team members at the tech giant devote 70 percent of their time working to core company projects, 20 percent to tangential tasks and spend the remaining 10 percent on private projects. This method has work swimmingly for Google, helping produce some of its most successful products and services.

Once you’re implemented these changes and given your team members real purpose, evaluate your overall team effectiveness with the Corporate Learning Institute’s Team Assess Survey. This comprehensive evaluation addresses multiple subject areas, including team type, team output, team effectivenessteam leadershipteam infrastructure, individual contributions and organizational support.

Want to learn more about the Team Assess Survey? Contact us via email or call 1-800-203-6734 to learn more.