Daemon Group Blog

When it comes to employee engagement, can we cope with another challenge?

Posted on 12. Apr, 2010 by nat cagilaba in Employer Branding

The first challenge is to unravel what is meant by ‘employee engagement’ and how we can apply that to the people we work with. According to the oracle that is Wikipedia “‘an engaged employee’ is one who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about, his or her work, and thus will act in a way that furthers their organisation’s interests”. What this looks like will vary from person to person which can make it difficult to tell how engaged an employee is.

The traditional measurement is the employee engagement survey, with the score eagerly awaited at the most senior level to find out how their organisation compares with that of their peers. But once you’ve found out where your employer sits in the pecking order, how do you translate this valuable information into tangible actions that will produce beneficial results?

We already know that everyone is different and what engages one has the potential to disengage another. The recent example of ABC staff being asked  to express their vision for the broadcaster’s future by building it using  Lego is a case in point. Someone, somewhere, must have thought it was a good idea and, depending on the success criteria, it may well be.

It’s important to map out the metrics by which any project is measured. Introducing levels of employee engagement allows each individual to choose the degree of involvement that is right for them:

Sometimes it’s the little things that have the greatest impact on engagement. There’s nothing like a common goal to bring people together and the BRW Corporate Triathlon is one that has gripped Daemon Group for the last few weeks.

The two teams entered from Daemon Group bring together people from different divisions with varying abilities. While on the day it will be a team effort, the training has been a personal challenge that has brought more than one of our brand values to life (energetic, committed and courageous). It has also allowed the whole company to participate:

• Informed
  The whole company has lived through the aches and pains of training, along with the mirth that comes in the retelling of efforts made or lack thereof.
• Involved
  The competitors are not alone in achieving personal bests. They have their fellow workers supporting their efforts, offering advice and the loan of some gear as well as their voices on the day to cheer everyone on.
• Advocate
  If what your employees say about you is the embodiment of your employer brand, then the activity on Twitter and Facebook is certainly testament to the levels of engagement across the company.

This is one of the activities that works for us. Every organisation is unique, which means the initiatives to create engagement will be too.  It’s about bringing your internal values to life and giving your employees the opportunity to make their own choices about how they engage with your business and each other.

Further reading:

Wikipedia – Employee engagement

The Australian: Motivation, nothing that a bit of plasticine and Lego can’t fix by Emma Tom

BRW Corporate Triathlon

Facebook: Daemon Force One and Daemon Jnr – BRW Triathlon Squad

Tags: ABC, BRW corporate triathlon, Daemon Group, daemon within, employee engagement, engagement, engagement survey, EVP, Facebook, Lego, Nat Cagilaba, triathlon, twitter, vision and values, Wikipedia