The Employee Engagement Secret (it’s in a song!)

I couldn’t wait any longer.

It was school summer holidays and I had to do it.

I sat my son on the sofa, quickly closed the curtains, carefully took the DVD out of the case, placed it into the player, pressed play and together we watched, Bugsy Malone.

Yeah – the perfect moment (for who I’m not too sure)

The pedal cars and ice cream guns prompted many questions (as well dad knowing the words to every song – that surprised me too!)

Still, we made it to the end of the film and that’s when I found it.

I found the secret to employee engagement….

As I joyfully joined in with the finale chorus I heard the magic words;

“You give a little love and it all comes back to you. You’re gonna be remembered for the things that you say and do”

That was it!

The secret to engaging people at work was in the song;

“If you treat people well at work, they’ll be motivated to do the right thing by you and customers will remember the great brand experience you deliver.”

I’d heard these words so many times before but I was never truly listening.

I am now.

Since I found the Engagement Secret I’ve heard it again in a song by the New Radicals, “You get what you give”

The secret’s out there and if you hear it, please share it.

Filed under: Brand Experience, Employee Experience, Uncategorized, brand experience, Customer experience, employee engagement, Employee Experience

Is the tone right?

In today’s economic climate being seen to over invest in employee experiences can do more harm than good.

Employees are more likely to question the value of an experience even though the intention was to genuinely increase their engagement with the organisation – it’s a real challenge the get the tone right for employee experiences.

So, how do get the tone right in tough times?

Here are a few simple principles I find useful to keep front of mind

• care – show your people you really care for them, make them feel valued, design with people in mind
• easy – if it’s easy to understand and act upon it shows you’ve thought about the previous principle!
• authentic – be real and honest, transparency is respected
• creative – try new things, don’t hide behind fear, be bold, think differently
• simple – be clear on the big idea, the core, stick to it

Sure, it’s easy enough to default all messages to the BAU (Business as usual) channels and focus on message effectiveness and efficiency but people still want to be surprised and delighted by the organisation they work for. People still want to feel an emotional connection to the brand they belong – why should the experiences slow down and stop?

I don’t believe they should.

What do you think?

Filed under: Uncategorized, employee communication, employee engagement

Do you poken?

This is poken – it’s very cool!

I love the idea of an easy link between my online and offline world but would rather have a poken embedded in my mobile than carry around another gadget in my pocket.

A mobile interface would also enable me to keep my poken up-to-date through my mobile internet which is so much easier than having to connect to a fixed internet connection.

I can really see this taking off as a nifty gizmo for the conference and exhibitions market.

Nice work.

Filed under: Uncategorized, gizmo, innovation, mobile, mobile internet, poken

The truth shall set us free

In the left corner is Social Graces and in the right corner, The Truth.

As the bell rings for the first round an elephant walks into the ring and sits squarley in the middle – it looks around. 

Social graces leaves his corner but can’t see beyond the half tonne beast. Still, he jibs and dances, left foot, right foot, he throws a comment here and a comment there.

He never mentions the elephant.

The crowd are open mouthed, unable to move, silently staring at an African elephant sitting in the middle of the ring.

Still, Social Graces does not say a thing.

The Truth walks confidently from his corner directly towards Social Graces, looks him squarley between the eyes and says, “There’s an elephant in the middle of the ring.”

Social graces is floored.

The crowd go wild.

The truth shall set us free…

 

Filed under: Uncategorized

Our working lives are changing

I came across an article about Vodafone empowering West Berkshire Council employees to work flexibly.

Apart from the obvious benefits of lower costs to run an organisation and increased employee satisfaction from better life work balance, I love the idea employees no longer have to ‘follow’ the corporation because the corporation can now ‘follow’ the employee.

So the days of relocating your home, family and life to bring your skills and experiences to an organisation might be numbered?

With flexible working it’s not that far fetched for me to live by the sea and work for an organisation located inland?

I love the idea of flexible working but my parents struggle with the concept, my grandparents think it’s simply wrong but my kids, well they see it as the way things are.

I wonder if I should start looking for that seaside house just yet?

Hmmm – just a thought.

Filed under: Uncategorized, 'employee satisfaction', vodafone

Efficiency runs deep

The impact of the global economic situation dawned on me this week.  I’m having more conversations around creating experiences (live and online)  which focus on delivering useful and effective experiences for the audience/user. Audiences expect  communications to be real, down to earth and by no means opulent. I remember less than a year ago delivering events with 3D imagery, grand sets and non stop big experiences, one after another – those days have gone. I’m doing more for less and making what I’ve got, work harder – it’s quite simply, a turn of events! There’s something quite refreshing about cutting through the crap.

Filed under: Uncategorized, "communications channel", employee communication, events, experiences, internal communication

Intranets enable competitiveness

I’m a comms guy at heart and having the opportunity to broaden my horizon to include the intranet is a welcomed road to walk. I’ve been researching, listening, learning, meeting, discussing  and dreaming all things intranet for a while now, so I thought I’d share what I’ve discovered…

The purpose of an intranet is to enable employees to spend the least amount of time getting tasks done. This makes sense – if an intranet allows employees to be effective and efficient they can spend more time on the customer.

Enterprise 2.0 – this is very interesting! There’s a general perceived need around ‘social media’ in organisations. I say ‘perceived’ because a large amount of intranet users are not social media savvy. They’re not convinced of it or understand its benefits and why they should get involved. Assuming the technology is in place, the cultural change of convincing employees to experiment with new ways of working and then wholeheartedly adopt these new ways is a big area of focus. The shift is inevitable, exciting and it’s just a matter of time.

My conclusion (to date) is the intranet is both a tool and a communications channel that has come of age.

For an organisation to be competitive it needs to be agile, adaptive and focus on the customer. If those responsible for the intranet truly embrace the role it can play in enabling these behaviours, they will add a huge amount of value to the organisation.

You’ve got to just throw yourself in there or simply be left behind!

If you’ve got further insights, case studies, etc to share please send them across, ’cause I am a sponge!

Filed under: Uncategorized, "communications channel", "social media in organisations", internal communication, intranet

Hello world!

Blog  to come soon…

Filed under: Uncategorized