Most businesses understand the value of knowing “their WHY” and most leaders realize that having a clear purpose ignites passion, sharpens focus, and drives results. But over and over, we see companies leaving their real value on the table.

When we started working with a large financial services company, we discovered they had a strong, inspiring statement of purpose: “Lighting the Way to Financial Well-Being.” This company is passionate about helping clients, teammates, and communities achieve financial confidence, with a personal touch.

But they wanted to know if this passion was resonating with employees. Was it shaping their behaviour? Was it producing results?

To find out, we interviewed employees from different parts of the company and asked each one what “Lighting the Way to Financial Well-Being” meant to them. Did they know this was the company’s purpose? Did they know how to bring it to life in their day-to-day interactions? Was their performance being measured against it?

What we found was a disconnect between the visionary purpose statement and the boots-on-the-ground work. Not everyone knew how to activate the company’s purpose, so very few employees were. And without purpose, employees can feel disillusioned, distracted, bored, replaceable—all the things that eventually lead to looking for a job somewhere else.

Ignite passion and sharpen focus

BIW proposed a recognition strategy that would put our client’s purpose in the spotlight.

The goal was two-fold:

• Fire up their workforce – increase engagement, boost morale, and ultimately reduce turnover.
• Win over customers by truly “Lighting the Way to Financial Well-Being.”

The client saw the value and jumped right in. We named their recognition program myPurpose. We created Purpose Points. We established key recognition behaviours to support their purpose statement—like putting the client first, fostering trust, working with precision, and showing a passion for winning.

Drive results

Just one year after the official launch and in conjunction with other internal strategies, two key business results were already clear.

1. Employees were staying. In the first year, turnover dropped by almost 31%. With turnover costs at about $8,500 per employee, this saved them $10.4 million in the first year alone.
2. Customers were happier. A second, incredibly important result was the astounding jump in customer experience scores. The company had been aiming for a four-point gain in the first three years of the program, which was a massive swing. Within 12 months of the program being in place, they’d already reached that goal – two years early.