Stephanie Quillen |
If you’ve been in the HR space long enough, you’ve pored over engagement scores, retention rates, turnover trends, skills gaps, learning completions. But behind all those numbers is something harder to quantify and arguably more important: occupational identity.
It’s not exactly a term that rolls off the tongue. But it points to something core about work and how people relate to it. And while we’ve built entire dashboards around talent development, we’ve largely left this piece out.
That’s a problem.
For a deeper look at the role of coaching in workforce development — including how it strengthens occupational identity, boosts completion rates, and helps employees align learning with long-term goals — explore our Compass article on coaching.
Occupational identity — how someone defines themselves through the work they do — influences nearly every outcome we’re trying to drive: engagement, trust, performance, retention, internal mobility. And in a moment where so many employees are rethinking their careers, worrying if AI will take away their jobs, or simply going through the motions, we need better ways to understand what connects people to their work and what doesn’t. It’s time we recognized occupational identity as a critical missing metric.
How to think about occupational identity
In short, occupational identity is the internal answer to the question: What does this job mean to me and why does it matter?
People have all sorts of reactions to this question. On one hand, you have people like my dad, who worked in a factory for the majority of his life. For him, work was about providing for our family, and he did that well. He didn’t necessarily expect his work to be more than that — and that’s valid.
My own experience with work has been very different. After a major change in my personal life, I realized how deeply I’d defined myself by my job and how much I needed my work to align with something more meaningful. That experience changed how I approach my career and how I think about building teams, culture, and development strategies.
Occupational identity exists on a spectrum. Some people have a neutral relationship with work. Others are actively disconnected or in the wrong role. Others find deep purpose in what they do. For us HR leaders, there is tremendous value in recognizing this spectrum exists, like an invisible radio wave with varying frequency, in the experience of every employee.
If we can become attuned to it, we might start asking: Where is this employee in their occupational identity journey, and what do they need to grow?
Because when employees get what they need to grow and hone their sense of occupational identity, it’s incredibly powerful. Julius M., a Guild learner at Charter, puts it: “I’ve always wanted to be that person who loved my job, and I never understood that. I was like, a job is a job — I never understood linking a passion to a job until now.”
That’s occupational identity buzzing at a higher frequency in real time. And when it happens, everything changes.
Occupational identity can drive (or sink) performance
The thing about strong occupational identity that HR leaders aren’t talking about? It drives performance. In my experience, people who are connected to their work are more likely to:
Be engaged and productive
Stay with a company longer
Trust leadership
Adapt during change
See and seize development opportunities
We often treat things like retention, engagement, or learning participation as isolated metrics. But occupational identity helps explain why those metrics move (or don’t). It’s the connective tissue.
On the flip side, when people feel disconnected from their work, the risks are familiar: lower productivity, misalignment with team goals, higher burnout, and greater turnover. According to a 2025 Gallup study, only 31% of employees are engaged. It’s worth asking what’s underneath that number — and what’s missing in the employee experience that might explain it.
We often treat things like retention, engagement, or learning participation as isolated metrics. But occupational identity helps explain why those metrics move (or don’t). It’s the connective tissue.
Gallup’s research on wellbeing provides a useful clue. It found that when employees experience high levels of wellbeing, including a strong sense of purpose through their work, they’re more productive, more resilient to stress, and less likely to leave. In fact, thriving employees are 32% more likely to stay, experience 41% lower absenteeism, and deliver 27% higher performance. Meanwhile, those struggling in their sense of meaning at work report significantly higher burnout and turnover rates.
That’s why occupational identity matters. When it’s weak or absent, your performance metrics won’t move, no matter how many programs you stack on top.
How to spot (and strengthen) occupational identity in your workforce
If occupational identity is the deeper reason people stay, grow, and engage at work, it’s time to start tuning in. And no, you don’t need a new dashboard tile called “O.I.” to do it.
Start by listening for it in the signals already present in your people data.
Look to your engagement surveys.
You don’t need to label it “occupational identity,” but you can ask questions that surface meaning, motivation, and alignment. For example:
Do you feel proud of the work you do?
Does your job align with your personal values or goals?
Do you see a future for yourself here?
Can you connect your day-to-day work to the company’s mission?
What kind of work makes you feel most fulfilled? (Open-ended questions like this can reveal the most powerful insights.)
Over time, these responses will help you understand where occupational identity is forming, and where it might be fraying.
Look to the systems that help shape it.
Occupational identity doesn’t form in isolation. It’s shaped by the programs, conversations, and experiences employees encounter throughout their journey with your company. That includes:
Learning and development (L&D): Programs designed for career growth help employees build both skills and a sense of who they are professionally.
Education benefits: Access alone can be a signal of trust and belief in an employee’s potential, often before they even enroll.
Coaching: Reflective 1:1 conversations give employees space to clarify their goals, values, and sense of direction. Coaching can be a strategic lever for strengthening occupational identity.
Culture: Everyday messages about what’s valued, recognized, or rewarded can either reinforce or disconnect someone from their identity at work.
Career pathways: When employees can see what’s possible, and see themselves in those possibilities, they’re more likely to invest in their development and growth.
When these systems work together, they do more than support performance; they help employees build meaning, purpose, and confidence in their roles.
Guild learner Nathaniel B. from Tyson articulates this well: “I mean, [this program] has been just amazing for me, and it's given me that confidence that I need to pursue my career dreams at a higher level.”
You can’t assign someone a sense of purpose. But you can build the conditions for it to emerge.
Why it matters
Occupational identity helps explain what other metrics can’t. It gives us a lens to connect development, engagement, and culture into something more coherent and more human. And it gives employees something deeper to hold onto than a job description or an inventory of skills.
It’s a win-win to create the kind of work environments where employees can hone this sort of connection to their jobs. We don’t need to turn “occupational identity” into another buzzword in our space (lord knows there are plenty), but we’d all benefit from becoming more attuned to its presence among the talent in our companies — and doing what we can to strengthen and nurture it.
Because at the end of the day, it’s not just about the work people do. It’s about how they see themselves in it, and whether they believe it’s taking them somewhere that matters.
