Purpose, Pay or Perks? What Drives Employee Pride?

Now in its third year, The Caffeine Partnership’s Employee Pride Index, in partnership with data and market research company, Savanta, surveys 1000 UK employees to understand expectations of what they want or need from work and what drives them to feel proud of where they work. The Index uncovers where employee pride comes from, the role of leadership in nurturing pride, and the truth behind employees’ perception of company purpose and values.

It's Caffeine’s point of view that understanding sources of pride is what enables businesses to design and deliver meaningful employee experiences. Employee pride is a powerful proxy for advancing key business imperatives including talent attraction, retention, engagement and ultimately, advocacy. 

Previous Employee Pride Index results revealed that businesses with leaders who are committed to purpose and values, who deliver an outstanding customer experience and an outstanding employee experience are – no surprise – the ones they recommend. 

What is a surprise though, is how few companies do this.  In fact, things are getting worse.  In 2022 only 30% of employees would recommend their employers. We thought that was bad and then, last year, the number dropped significantly, to only 21% of employees in 2023 recommending their employer as a good place to work.

But why is building an outstanding (or even just a decent ) employee experience worth doing in the first place?

As Rebecca Henderson, the John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard Business School, puts it, “Once they’re past a certain financial threshold, many people are as motivated by intrinsic meaning and the sense that they are contributing to something worthwhile as much as they are by financial returns or status”. 

Put simply, leaders need to follow the service profit chain.

First developed at Harvard, the basic principle of the Service Profit Chain theory is based on the fact that customer satisfaction starts with good staffing and treatment of ones own employees. A great employee experience is intrinsically linked to a great customer experience, you can’t have one without the other.  Employees who take pride in their work, will do the right thing for customers, which builds customer loyalty and repeat purchases which drives revenue growth and profits that can then be invested back into employees not only by paying them competitive salaries and bonuses but also by paying for training and development activities. Then those employees feel valued, enjoy their work, want to do well for the customer which leads to greater levels of customer satisfaction and so the chain goes on.

Having satisfied or engaged employees makes good commercial sense too…there are myriad statistics, this perhaps being among the more famous, that demonstrates the importance of having an engaged and motivated workforce in that a 5% increase in employee engagement equates to a 0.7% increase in operating margin¹.  Not only that, but companies can save an average of just under £500,000 annually by reducing their turnover rate by just 1%² .

So what are the stats going to tell us in 2024’s Employee Pride Index? Have UK employers upped their game in the past 12 months resulting in more engaged employees, more likely to recommend their workplace to others?  Or are employees voting with their feet with churn on the rise and a recruitment crisis on the horizon?  Join us online on 17th October from 12PM-12:45PM BST to hear from Louisa Clarke from The Caffeine Partnership and Olly Wright from Savanta as we reveal the findings and discuss the consequences.

 ¹ ‘The Financial Impact of a Positive Employee Experience’, IBM Smarter Workforce Institute 2017
 ² ‘State of the American Workplace’, Gallup 2017, 2023