Today, a company’s success is closely tied to employee satisfaction. Human resources management therefore requires substantial organisation on the part of leadership. Working in good conditions is a major issue that benefits both employees and employers.
First, it should be noted that fulfilment refers to a feeling. It is the sense of “feeling good in one’s own skin”, of being deeply happy and experiencing positive emotions at heart. Fulfilment is therefore not a concept that aligns with the success criteria offered by a company, such as holding a senior position, getting promoted or becoming wealthy.
Fulfilment is a personal feeling, one that can only be experienced individually. Each person can therefore try to assess whether they are fulfilled at work. And the answer will differ from one individual to another, even if both people perform the same job side by side. Professional fulfilment thus refers to being happy in one’s work, to feeling good in what one does.
As professional fulfilment is a personal sensation, an intrinsic feeling, there are no fixed criteria for defining it. However, everyone can test the idea by asking themselves the following questions about how they feel when working: “Am I happy to go to work every morning?”, “Do I feel stressed or bored when I do my job?”, “Am I happy doing this job every day?” Someone who answers yes to these questions is professionally fulfilled.
Conversely, someone who is not happy in their job will be more likely to say things like: “I don’t really understand the meaning of my work.”, “Professional routine bores me.”, “I get stressed when it’s time to go to the office.”, “I’m not cut out for this job.” Professional fulfilment therefore exists when it is possible to easily align our work with our values and goals. In other words, when our work comes closer to our vision of well-being and also helps us achieve our personal objectives.
To thrive at work, there are “recipes”.
The first factor in professional fulfilment is personal effectiveness, meaning knowing our skills and our limits. Intrinsic effectiveness depends on our organisation, our working method, as well as the tools we use and how well we know them. We therefore need to seek this effectiveness within ourselves and rely on the right tools to carry out our mission more successfully.
The other important element contributing to fulfilment is meaning. Yes, it is crucial to find meaning in the work we do in order to flourish both personally and professionally. Finding “meaning” in our work means asking ourselves – and above all knowing – why we get up every day to do this job.
Finally, interest also contributes to professional fulfilment. But beware: interest is distinct from meaning. We may indeed find meaning in our work while being utterly bored by it. The best way to find interest in our work is to look at it from a broader perspective: the tasks we perform are part of a larger whole. And without this part, other activities (involving other people) could not be carried out and, ultimately, the very existence of the company could be called into question. For example, if stock inventory is not carried out, how can you be sure that the company has enough resources to produce or sell?
So, if we know what we are capable of achieving, if we know our work environment well, if we welcome each new working day positively instead of seeing it as a burden, and if we understand the importance of the task we perform each day in the chain, then there is a strong chance that we are on the path to workplace fulfilment!
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