Decades of psychology research show that humans have a deep-seated desire to find meaning in what they do.

For many, that desire is what draws them to a workplace or a particular job. They want to contribute to something bigger than themselves – by improving lives, supporting communities or protecting the environment.

Nick Barter is a Professor of Management at Griffith University and also the founder of Future Normal, an advisory that helps organisations build long term impact and leave a positive legacy. He says one of the greatest strengths of the NFP sector is that it gives employees the opportunity to contribute to a mission beyond commercial outcomes.

“People want to be connected to something bigger, because we want our lives to mean something,” he says. “We want to feel like what we’re doing matters – that we are contributing somehow to the human story.”

But that sense of purpose in NFP workplaces isn’t always guaranteed. When job demands increase, teams evolve and day-to-day responsibilities become more routine, it’s easy for the bigger picture to fade into the background.

“You can’t assume that because someone joined your organisation because they believed in the purpose, they’ll still feel that connection five years later,” Barter says. “It has to be something you keep talking about and keep making real in the work.”

So how can NFP leaders and HR teams keep that sense of purpose alive for their employees as the day-to-day work becomes familiar? We spoke with Barter about the practical things you can do.

Why purpose is so important

Purpose doesn’t just attract people to the NFP sector – it also helps keep them there. 2025 research by global analytics research firm Gallup found that people who live their purpose at work are more productive, more resilient, and much less likely to go looking for a new job.

The Gallup research found:

• Only 13% of employees with ‘strong work purpose’ report feeling burned out “very often” or “always,” compared with 38% of those with low purpose; and
• 41% of employees with ‘strong work purpose’ report watching for or actively seeking a new job, compared with 68% of those with low purpose.

“Purpose matters because it changes the story people tell themselves about their work,” Barter says. “If I think I’m just processing applications or balancing spreadsheets, that’s one experience of work. If I understand how those things contribute to changing someone’s life, I experience the same work very differently. And that difference matters.”

According to prominent organisational psychologist Adam Grant, leaders have a much greater influence on how connected team members feel to their organisation’s purpose than they might realise. In a landmark 2008 study at a university fundraising call centre, Grant found that simply reminding fundraisers how their work benefited scholarship recipients doubled their productivity.

This ongoing practice of connecting people’s everyday work to their organisation’s mission is what Barter calls “constant gardening”.

“When you impact how people feel about the work, you get more discretionary effort,” he says. “What that means is team members will stay a bit longer if they need to. They will go that little bit further with a customer complaint, or they will smile at that customer with an authenticity that they wouldn’t otherwise. All of those micro acts add up to superior performance.”

“Ultimately, if we give meaning to people’s work, we can improve their wellbeing,” he adds. “That’s the key piece here – a sense of purpose makes us feel good, and at work, that can have positive flow-on effects.”

Like a garden, Barter says, purpose flourishes when it’s tended with care. Here are three ways to do that in your NFP.

1. Keep purpose visible through stories

Storytelling can bring your organisation’s purpose to life, helping employees see the real-world impact of their work and reminding them why what they do matters.

Barter says stories about an organisation’s purpose can be woven into all sorts of everyday moments – from team meetings and staff events to written updates. What’s important is that purpose doesn’t just sit in a document and never get talked about.

“That story could be a client testimonial or a particular experience with a customer, it could be the origin story of the organisation – anything that reminds people of the ‘why’ behind what they do,” he says.

“The purpose statement itself isn’t what makes people feel connected to an organisation – it’s whether they can see and feel that purpose in the work they’re doing every day. If we don’t talk about it, if we don’t ask how the work we’re doing connects to that purpose, eventually it just becomes words on a wall.”

He adds that it shouldn’t just be leaders sharing these stories – all team members should have opportunities to talk about when their work has made a difference.

“The important thing is that when people experience the impact of what they’re doing, they take note of that, they register it,” he says. “If there is time carved out in team meetings for these stories to come up, or questions like, ‘what made your work feel worthwhile this month?’ are asked regularly, then this kind of reflection will naturally start to happen.”

According to Barter, good stories centre on the human experience – or, for environmental organisations, on the wildlife or ecosystems they’re working to protect.

“Stories in the workplace don’t need to be elaborate or overly polished – they just need to be relatable, and come from a personal place,” he says.

“The best stories capture our emotions, they show us how something made you feel. They start with a personal experience and then relate that to the wider story of why the organisation does what it does.”

2. Connect every role to the mission

Another way leaders can keep purpose front and centre is by helping team members see how their individual roles contribute to the bigger picture.

For Barter, this is particularly important for people working behind the scenes, who may not see the impact of their work as directly as those on the frontline.

“It’s important for leaders to reinforce the idea that the work in back-office teams – such as accounting or HR – cascades all the way through to the end goal,” he says.

“Without the ‘constant gardening’ of why the work matters, we can easily slip down the precipice of thinking, ‘I’m just a keyboard junkie’. Everybody working behind that frontline needs to see the impact, and have it in mind.”

Barter suggests defining the “functional purpose” of each role in the team – that is, how the role is connected to the organisation’s mission.

For someone working in finance, for example, that might mean considering how their work helps direct resources towards the people and outcomes it exists to serve.

“Functional purpose is about going beyond simply what the job involves to asking what does this role ultimately serve, and how does it contribute to the outcomes we’re trying to achieve?”

This connection can then be built into the practicalities of the role – from the job description and KPIs to how performance is discussed and reviewed.

“The purpose shouldn’t disappear once someone starts doing the job,” Barter says. “It needs to be part of how we define the role, set expectations and talk about performance. That’s how you keep the connection between the everyday work and the reason the organisation exists.”

For example, one objective in a manager’s role description could be to tell the organisation’s stories in ways that connect their team members with the impact it seeks to achieve. That same objective can then be revisited in performance reviews, keeping the connection between the manager’s day-to-day work and the organisation’s broader mission front of mind.

“When people can see how their work contributes to something bigger – especially through these more formal workplace processes – the job becomes more than a list of tasks,” Barter says. “And that’s when people perform their best.”

3. Involve employees in shaping strategic plans

Research shows that when employees feel heard in decision-making, they’re more likely to take ownership of the outcomes. Giving people a say in how an organisation’s mission is delivered can have a similar effect – helping them feel more connected to the purpose and invested in making it happen.

One way to do this, Barter says, is to involve employees in conversations about what the organisation’s purpose means in practice – and what it asks of them in their day-to-day work – as part of annual strategic planning.

“Rather than simply presenting employees with a finished purpose statement, leaders can ask: ‘Why are we here? Who are we here for? What does that mean for the work we each do?’ Exploring these questions together gives team members a chance to connect the organisation’s purpose with their own experience and help shape how it is put into practice.”

He adds that strategy days can be a particularly useful time to have these conversations, and leaders should encourage a diversity of views – particularly from people who are close to the organisation’s clients and communities.

“People go into strategy days looking at the headline of an organisation’s vision or mission,” he says. “But when setting targets, there should be a conversation about why this particular target, how it helps the mission, and what we are actually asking the frontline workers to do.”

“When people have been part of the conversation, not only are the outcomes of the strategic direction better, the team members also have a much stronger sense of ownership over what comes next. They’re not just implementing someone else’s strategy – they understand why it matters and what their role is in making it happen.”

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Keeping purpose front and centre isn’t about finding new ways to remind people what your organisation does. It’s about creating a workplace where people can see the connection between the work they do every day and the reason the organisation exists.

As Barter says: “Good leaders continually find ways to talk about the importance of the work, right down to translating the organisation’s purpose into the functional purpose of each role and how it contributes to the bigger picture.”

When people can see that their work has meaning and understand the difference it makes, everyone benefits: employees, organisations and ultimately the people and communities they exist to serve.

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