Creating a culture of significance isn’t just a nicety. It drives retention, performance and wellbeing outcomes. A leadership expert shares a practical framework to help leaders and managers create workplaces where everyone feels noticed, affirmed and needed. 

Most leaders and organisations are well-versed with the importance of purpose and recognition in the workplace. An ongoing challenge in 2026 is ensuring these efforts continue to land.

Data from SEEK’s 2025 Workplace Happiness Index, which surveyed over 3000 Australian workers between April and June 2025, reveals only 58 per cent of employees on average felt valued for the work they did. 

In its most recent global state of the workplace report, Gallup found over half (65 per cent) of Australian employees are disengaged and two in five (42 per cent) have intent to leave. 

“People feel more invisible or ignored in work but it’s not because of programs, perks or pay. We’re not facing a disengagement crisis,” says Dr Zach Mercurio, a researcher in meaningful work, speaker and author of The Power of Mattering. “We’re facing a ‘mattering deficit’…[because]  we’re having lower-quality interactions on an everyday basis in the workplace.” 

Mercurio has worked with organisations such as Marriott International and Delta Air Lines to cultivate cultures of significance which enable wellbeing and performance. 

His research demonstrates that the experience of mattering at work – feeling significant to those around you – is critical to enhancing performance, discretionary effort and business outcomes. 

“It’s almost impossible for anything to matter to a person who doesn’t first believe that they matter. There is no outcome or performance – monetary or otherwise – that is not mediated through human energy.” 

He found employees who believe they matter are more motivated, productive and less likely to leave. At a time when burnout is rife, workplaces are divided and trust in leaders is plummeting, employees’ sense of mattering should be treated as a business-critical priority, according to Mercurio. 

More than feeling ‘valued’

To feel like they matter, people generally need to experience two things: feeling valued by those around them and adding value to those around them.

Mercurio breaks these down into a three-part framework:

• Noticing: seeing and hearing others in a detailed manner
• Affirming: showing people how their unique gifts make a difference
• Needing: showing people they’re relied on and indispensable

These don’t happen via large, formal processes, but through small, consistent behaviours, says Mercurio.

5 ways to help create a culture of significance

The most effective leaders make their teams feel seen, heard and valued in every interaction. Below are five ways HR practitioners can coach leaders and managers to do this effectively.

1. Know and name people’s four unique gifts

For employees to feel like they matter, they need to understand how they make an unique impact on others around them, says Mercurio. 

Leaders can help affirm their team’s significance by providing feedback that goes beyond a generic ‘Good work’. 

According to Mercurio, every individual brings at least four unique gifts to the table, as shown in the diagram below:

Source: Zach Mercurio

Meaningful feedback that recognises an employee’s unique gift might look something like, “I remembered you were nervous about the presentation with the client. I was really impressed with the narrative of the pitch and how you linked it back to the client’s goals” (noticing language that names their unique strength). Then, sharing how their gift made a specific difference could look like, “That will go a long way in helping us get their approval on the project as they could clearly see how well we understand their objectives”.

Affirming someone’s unique gifts doesn’t equate to avoiding criticism. It works hand in hand with addressing performance gaps by laying the groundwork of trust required for people to truly understand how they can improve.

Read how this organisation is rethinking performance.

2. Weave relationship-building into existing interactions

Leaders and managers are often juggling multiple things at once, which isn’t always conducive to seeing and hearing others in a meaningful way, says Mercurio.

What leaders can do is recalibrate the interactions they already have – one-on-one meetings, team WIPs, the few minutes before a virtual meeting kicks off – to connect more deeply, he says.

The leaders Mercurio has worked with who do this effectively have a thought-out process for observing and sharing the details of people’s work, rather than leaving it up to intuition. 

He recalls a manager who oversaw a large team in a distribution centre. She had trouble remembering the details of her team, so every Friday she wrote down just one thing she had noticed about each team member that week, such as a particular issue they were having at work, a piece of equipment she had promised to get fixed or a personal detail they’d shared with her. 

On Monday, she would revisit her notebook and schedule a three-minute check-in with each team member, beginning with something specific like, “I remembered last week you were nervous about that meeting. How did it go?”.

“It’s hard for people to care if they don’t feel cared for, and noticing is a way that we show people they’re cared for,” says Mercurio.

“A lot of organisations try to fill the mattering deficit through programs – employee recognition platforms, perks or even benefit structures – but those are symbols of value” – Zach Mercurio, author of The Power of Mattering

3. Ask exploratory questions

When managers rush through the workday, their interactions can become transactional, even if inadvertently. 

“If most leaders call their direct reports out of the blue right now, their direct reports would [likely] feel some version of fear, anger or anxiety,” says Mercurio. 

“It’s [typically] not a sign that people are bad leaders. It’s a sign they’re probably asking more evaluative questions.”

Evaluative language may look like:

• What’s the status of that task? 
• Will you have it ready for roll-out next week?
• What did you get done today?

To combat this, leaders and managers can consider adding more exploratory questions to their repertoire. These invite understanding and help facilitate psychological safety. For instance:

• How have you been finding that task?
• I noticed this timeline hasn’t been updated since last fortnight. Are there any challenges I can help with?
• What’s been working well on that project? 

“If I asked you, ‘Are you going to get that story done by Friday?’ You’re not going to say, ‘No, actually, I’m really struggling right now’. When people ask us evaluative questions, we tend to give self-protective answers,” says Mercurio.

4. Check in on energy levels

Another way to help employees feel seen is monitoring energy levels. 

A common practice to do this is by using a traffic light system: green means they’re in the flow, yellow means they’re present but have a few things they’re concerned about, red means they’re under stress. 

“The goal is not to psychoanalyse their colors or change the color. It’s simply awareness,” says Mercurio. 

He cites a hospital that implemented a check-in system at the beginning of their nursing huddles. As a result of this ten-minute exercise, researchers of the study found higher patient satisfaction, higher employee morale and improved safety outcomes. 

Managers and leaders can encourage similar practices at the beginnings of their weekly team meetings to not only better connect, but identify wellbeing risks.

Learn how to support and empower leaders and employees by adopting a coaching mindset. AHRI’s short course helps HR professionals encourage collaboration and create an engaged work environment.

5. Tell stories of significance

Feeling indispensable is critical for employees to feel like they matter. The key for leaders and managers is showing employees exactly how they’re needed. 

One way to do this is by collecting and telling clear, specific stories of the impact a piece of work made.

For example, a supervisor Mecurio worked with who was responsible for a maintenance team in a national park would take pictures of projects the team worked on, and at the end of each week, he emailed them with the attached pictures as a reminder of the vital work they did.

“Research by Adam Grant has shown just seeing how your work makes a difference to one person can increase motivation upwards of 400 per cent, so these aren’t just skills that nice leaders [practice],” he says. “These are important skills to maintain and sustain the energy needed to do the work itself.”

As investors push for progress and AI accelerates, Mecurio’s advice to organisations is to start simple.

“Every leader in your organisation should be able to ask their people, ‘When you feel that you matter to me, what am I doing?’ Write those things down and do more of those things. 

“A lot of organisations try to fill the mattering deficit through programs – employee recognition platforms, perks or even benefit structures – but those are symbols of value. Valuing someone is a behavior; people value people.”