Employees that feel insignificant rarely make a significant contribution. Does your business pay attention to ways to improve your employee and team engagement? Like making employees feel they are making a significant contribution?
More than 100 studies have now found that the most engaged employees — those who report they’re fully invested in their jobs and committed to their employers — are significantly more productive, drive higher customer satisfaction and outperform those who are less engaged.
Related: 10 Ways Personal Development Can Improve Long-Term Success
A Towers Watson global workforce study found that only 20% of employees are truly engaged in their work — heart, and soul. As a student of management for over 40 years, I’m depressed by the fact that so many people find work depressing.
Wow, that is a number that will impact a business in lots of ways, yes?
Engaged employees who are satisfied with their jobs and feel that they’re making a contribution to their organizations and helping customers are more likely to work hard for their company’s success.
It is therefore imperative for organizations to make sure that they achieve and retain high levels of employee engagement.
It’s a disconnect that serves no one well. So what’s the solution? Where is the win-win for employers and employees?
The answer is that great employers must shift the focus from trying to get more out of people, to investing more in them by addressing their needs and bringing the best of themselves to work every day.
We have all heard the importance of developing engaged employees at our workplace, but too often the articles are full of theoretical discussion instead of practical steps to make it happen.
Here are some simple steps to consider when starting your program.
Survey your employees
Establish a benchmark by conducting an employee survey that measures what matters to your employees. When conducting an employee engagement survey, commit to acting on the results or don’t bother spending the time and money conducting the survey.
Survey as part of the planning and six months after launching the program to gauge the success of your initial planning and execution. External vendors can be used to ensure an objective survey is developed that won’t have unintended skewed results.
Builda business case
Build the business case to show the financial benefits. Studies show that companies with strong employee engagement programs had improved financial performance, reduced attrition, and higher employee satisfaction.
Each organization has different engagement drivers, and every organization needs to build its business case.
Offer the latest tools
Hiring similarly motivated teammates is extremely important.
Nothing is more demoralizing than being surrounded by mediocre people. It tells a worker that their employer doesn’t understand or value the work they’re doing.
Offering the best tools is crucial as well. “If you’re forced to work with pick axes and shovels (Java, .NET), you quickly become disillusioned when the other team is operating jackhammers and trucks (Ruby, Python).”
Ask people how they perform when they are not engaged versus when they are engaged and consider the implications for the organization.
Then dig deeper to determine what contributes to that engagement.
Create a vision
Create a mutual vision of what an engaged culture can look like. Ultimately, you want the attitudes of your employees to generate behaviors that contribute to desired business results.
It is key to acknowledge that each department or function may have different engagement drivers, so build in flexibility.
Team engagement … don’t micromanage
We advise managers to only plan for a few weeks in advance. Trying to design a big system upfront is a fool’s game that requires employees to be fortune tellers… and forcing them to be is going to make their discontent.
Don’t micro-manage or check in too frequently.
Build strategic framework
Building from your vision, create a document that is easy to understand and that aligns the organization’s vision, values, and aligns desired behaviors with results.
An example
Hilton Garden Inn operates on the premise that happy employees lead to happy guests. The company has invested heavily in training to give employees a sense of engagement with the brand. Alan Roberts, vice president for brand performance, notes that this is especially important for the vast majority of people working at the 544 Hilton Garden Inns around the world are employees of the various franchisees.
“We need to push engagement through different initiatives to make them feel part of the organization, even though they don’t receive their paycheck from us,” Roberts says. role-play across the different properties. “We want to keep employees happy and on the same track,” Roberts says.
Team environment
Create a strong team environment. Strong employee engagement is dependent on how well employees get along, interact with each other and participate in a team environment
Recognize desired behaviors
Build your recognition programs around desired results — both behaviors and business results. Focus on letting employees devote themselves to their strengths.
A second example
Hampton Hotels is a firm believer in the philosophy of ensuring that the 50,000-odd team members who work at Hampton Hotels properties use their strengths.
“When people are passionate, they can deliver a memorable experience to guests,” says Gina Valenti, vice president of owner services at Hilton Worldwide.
In a bid to help its people do their job better and create connections, Hampton Hotels developed a Website to share content like videos and best practices and also allow individuals to seek support from their peers or share success stories.
Communicate,communicate,and communicate
Employee engagement strategies.
This cannot be over-emphasized. Make sure that communication is consistent and ongoing. Rarely do you over-communicate.
Part of the process
Employees need to feel like they are part of the process, that their thoughts and ideas matter and that they have a voice in how their work is performed
Measure what counts
Metrics are essential for understanding adoption. Engagement metrics must first be aligned with the organizational goals and then embedded into senior leader performance plans.
Build a balanced scorecard that measures business results AND desired behaviors. Incorporate the results into your business planning process and performance plans.
Make managers a priority
If the managers do not buy in, the program is doomed to failure. Spend extra time ensuring they understand and endorse the program.
Leaders need to see that engaged employees can directly tie to their business results and make a difference for them: attrition, productivity, customer satisfaction, etc.
Build engagement into their performance reviews.
Focus on leadership to improve team engagement
Here is where we recommend you put the focus:
The longer term, not short term
The best teams have a longer-term focus based on their vision of their company’s desired future. They link the company’s focus to this desired future. They share their vision actively and discuss it openly with the organization. They do not lose energy in focusing on short-term temporary improvements; they focus on creating sustainable results.
Personal Alignment
The best teams know their own qualities and weak points very well, as well as what they stand for. They act based on clear personal values and include these in their vision. Because of their high level of personal alignment, they explore different opinions with an open mind and feel no need to focus on themselves.
Their focus is always on creating the best company results, in line with these key values. Read more aboutPersonal Alignmenthere.
Focus arouses eagerness
Teams pay special attention to the process of building a shared focus throughout the organization. For them focus is not just setting out tasks and actions. It is about creating shared energy that drives us towards a common end result.
They invite people to take part in defining the focus that is needed to create the desired future, and this builds motivation and commitment.
Releasing smart energy
Great teams are only interested in decisions and actions that will bring us closer to our destination. Even more, they are continuously challenging people to focus on the levers for change that will boost us forward, and not focus on trivial things.
They are allergic to ‘jumping to conclusions without knowing how it will bring us closer to our goal. But they are also allergic to procrastination and risk aversion when the way forward is to ‘experiment – learn – adjust’.
They are persistent in their focus
These leaders stick to the focus, even if results are not forthcoming at first sight. They show confidence and stay focused. This does not mean they will never change course, and will always rigidly keep following the initial plan.
When they see that the vision will not be reached by maintaining the current focus, they are the first to shift focus. But as long as the focus is directing us towards the vision, they will keep this focus.
The bottom line
To be effective in this new era, we as managers need to see our jobs differently. No more just focusing on metrics like clicks, video views, or social media shares.
We must successfully integrate our function with other business functions to create entire brand experiences that serve the customer all the way through their experiences throughout the business.
We can do better. Much better. But first, we need to stop seeing ourselves as crafters of clever brand messages and become creators of positive brand experiences.
There can never be enough focus on continuous improvement on employee engagement, independent of how well the business is doing.
It seems we all are looking to take our success to a new level. This is an excellent time to make a statement with their employee engagement. Changing before you have to is always a good idea.
Once business leaders recognize that employee engagement is directly related to an optimal customer experience and will have an impact on their bottom line, they are more willing to invest in it.
But they should be careful not to spend all their allocated dollars on one-time initiatives but focus more on their employees, making each feel valued.
At the end of the day, how you treat people is what they’ll remember. Employee’ engagement is built each day.
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to innovating your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of a small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Does your business pay attention to ways to improve your employee engagement? Employees that feel insignificant rarely make a significant contribution.
Like making employees feel they are making a significant contribution?
More than 100 studies have now found that the most engaged employees — those who report they’re fully invested in their jobs and committed to their employers — are significantly more productive, drive higher customer satisfaction and outperform those who are less engaged.
Related: 10 Ways Personal Development Can Improve Long-Term Success
A Towers Watson global workforce study found that only 20% of employees are truly engaged in their work — heart, and soul. As a student of management for over 40 years, I’m depressed by the fact that so many people find work depressing. Wow, that is a number that will impact business in lots of ways, yes?
Engaged employees who are satisfied with their jobs and feel that they’re making a contribution to their organizations and helping customers are more likely to work hard for their company’s success. It is therefore imperative for organizations to make sure that they achieve and retain high levels of employee engagement.
It’s a disconnect that serves no one well. So what’s the solution? Where is the win-win for employers and employees? Was it a pip template?
The answer is that great employers must shift the focus from trying to get more out of people, to investing more in them by addressing their needs, and to bring the best of themselves to work every day.
We have all heard the importance of developing engaged employees at our workplace, but too often the articles are full of theoretical discussion instead of practical steps to make it happen.
Here are some simple steps to consider when starting your program.
Survey your employees
Establish a benchmark by conducting an employee survey that measures what matters to your employees. When conducting an employee engagement survey, commit to act on the results or don’t bother spending the time and money conducting the survey.
Survey as part of the planning and six months after launching the program to gauge the success of your initial planning and execution. External vendors can be used to ensure an objective survey is developed that won’t have unintended skewed results.
Build the business case to show the financial benefits. Studies show that companies with strong employee engagement programs had improved financial performance, reduced attrition, and higher employee satisfaction. Each organization has different engagement drivers, and every organization needs to build their business case.
Offer the latest tools
Hiring similarly motivated teammates is extremely important.
Nothing is more demoralizing than being surrounded by mediocre people. It tells a worker that their employer doesn’t understand or value the work they’re doing.
Offering the best tools is crucial as well. “If you’re forced to work with pickaxes and shovels (Java, .NET), you quickly become disillusioned when the other team is operating jackhammers and trucks (Ruby, Python).”
Make it personal
Ask people how they perform when they are not engaged versus when they are engaged and consider the implications for the organization. Then dig deeper to determine what contributes to that engagement.
Create a vision
Create a mutual vision of what an engaged culture can look like. Ultimately, you want the attitudes of your employees to generate behaviors that contribute to desired business results. It is key to acknowledge that each department or function may have different engagement drivers, so build in flexibility.
Don’t micromanage
We advise managers to the only plan for a few weeks in advance. Trying to design a big system upfront is a fool’s game that requires employees to be fortune tellers… and forcing them to be is going to make them discontent.
Don’t micro-manage or check in too frequently.
Build a strategic framework
Building from your vision, create a document that is easy to understand and that aligns the organization vision, values, and aligns desired behaviors with results.
An example
Hilton Garden Inn operates on the premise that happy employees lead to happy guests. The company has invested heavily in training to give employees a sense of engagement with the brand. Alan Roberts, vice president for brand performance, notes that this is especially important since the vast majority of people working at the 544 Hilton Garden Inns around the world are employees of the various franchises.
“We need to push engagement through different initiatives to make them feel part of the organization, even though they don’t receive their paycheck from us,” Roberts says. role-play across the different properties. “We want to keep employees happy and on the same track,” Roberts says.
Team environment
Employee engagement activities.
Create a strong team environment. Strong employee engagement is dependent on how well employees get along, interact with each other and participate in a team environment.
Recognize desired behaviors
Build your recognition programs around desired results — both behaviors and business results. Focus on letting employees devote themselves to their strengths.
A second example
Hampton Hotels is a firm believer of the philosophy on ensuring that the 50,000-odd team members who work at Hampton Hotels properties use their strengths. “When people are passionate, they can deliver a memorable experience to guests,” says Gina Valenti, vice president of owner services at Hilton Worldwide.
In a bid to help its people do their job better and create connections, Hampton Hotels developed a Website to share content like videos and best practices and also allow individuals to seek support from their peers or share success stories.
Communicate,communicate,and communicate
This cannot be overemphasized. Make sure that communication is consistent and ongoing. Rarely do you over communicate?
Part of the process
Employees need to feel like they are part of the process, that their thoughts and ideas matter and that they have a voice in how their work is performed
Measure what counts
Metrics are essential for understanding adoption. Engagement metrics must first be aligned with the organizational goals and then embedded into senior leader performance plans. Build a balanced scorecard that measures business results AND desired behaviors. Incorporate the results into your business planning process and performance plans.
Make managers a priority
If the managers do not buy-in, the program is doomed to failure. Spend extra time ensuring they understand and endorse the program. Leaders need to see that engaged employees can directly tie to their business results and make a difference for them: attrition, productivity, customer satisfaction, etc. Build engagement in their performance reviews.
The bottom line
Once business leaders recognize that employee engagement is directly related to optimal customer experience and will have an impact on their bottom line, they are more willing to invest in it. But they should be careful not to spend all their allocated dollars on one-time initiatives but focus more on their individual employees, making each feel valued.
At the end of the day, how you treat people is what they’ll remember. Employee’ engagement is built each day.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of employee engagement. And put it to good use in adapting to changes in your business environment.
It’s up to you to keep improving your ability to mentor and coach. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, history may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
It’s up to you to keep improving your coaching and experience from all around in your environment.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?
Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
The key is to be part of peoples’ lives. People will always prefer to do business with friends. Has your business ever studied cause marketing and cause marketing examples?
Marketing is often confused with promotion, but it’s more than that. As Peter Drucker put it, “the aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” In truth, marketing is about insights more than anything else.
How were the results? In this article we will give you many cause marketing examples to learn from. You can use them to improve your success rate the next go ‘round.
According to cause-marketing consultant Jocelyn Daw, cause-related marketing (CRM) is a mutually beneficial collaboration between a corporation and a nonprofit.
In 1983, the term “cause-related marketing” was coined by American Express in a campaign to restore the Statue of Liberty. It can be argued that cause marketing started in the 1960s or the 1970s. Some say it started in the 1960s with the Jerry Lewis Telethon and Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Note that cause marketing is distinct from corporate philanthropy. This is because the corporate dollars involved are not outright gifts to a nonprofit organization. They are not treated as tax-deductible charitable contributions.
Nonetheless, nonprofits usually benefit from increased fundraising and exposure.
Likewise, corporations that are socially involved potentially benefit from increased brand loyalty and employee morale. Studies have shown that for products of similar quality, consumers will consider the company’s image and reputation when choosing a brand.
Causes brings over 140 million people together to form the world’s largest giving community. The belief that everyone has something to give is at the core of what we do. People just need a little inspiration, and to know that whoever they are, there is something meaningful they can do.
-Joe Green, Causes.com
In the increasingly competitive market for consumer attention, brands have to work harder than ever to break through the clutter. They must strike a chord with their audiences.
But in an environment where consumers are constantly bombarded with advertising, why work harder? Our answer? Because you can work smarter to make your marketing message stand out?
Take your marketing message a step further by aligning your brand in an authentic way with a nonprofit. A nonprofit that your consumers can relate to.
Cause marketing or cause related marketing involves the cooperative efforts of a for-profit business and a nonprofit organization for mutual benefit.
Here are useful cause marketing strategy elements to bring donors, a company or organization, and a cause together.
Cause marketing examples … point-of-sale
This occurs when a cashier asks you for a donation or encouraging advertisements are displayed at the register.
March of Dimes and Kmart have a successful point-of-sale campaign by asking customers to donate during checking out.
Purchase or action triggered donation
A consumer buys a product and a donation is made to a cause. On World AIDS day, Starbucks donates 5 cents for every beverage purchased.
Licensing
A company pays to use a nonprofit’s brand on its product. (RED)™ is an example that works with iconic brands and organizations.
Here developed (RED)-branded products and services, when purchased, trigger corporate giving to the Global Fund.
Message promotion
In this case, a company puts its resource to promoting a cause-forward message.
Ben & Jerry’s Scoop it Forward campaign created a partnership with Target and VolunteerMatch. Using a tasty way to raise funds and awareness, Ben and Jerrys is thanking volunteers.
It is letting people know where they can sign up to volunteer.
Employee engagement
This is a case where a company uses employee volunteers for social good.
When Home Depot’s employees volunteer for local Habitat for Humanity projects, they are participating in an employee engagement campaign.
Digital programs
Using the web and social media based services to promote and collect donations.
During a three-month period, American Express offered to contribute 1 cent for each card transaction and $1 for each new card issued.
They backed the offer with a substantial media campaign. The effort raised $1.7 million to restore the Statue of Libertyand Ellis Island. The results?
They moved the needle for Amex’s business and gave birth to the field of cause marketing. As a result, the number of new cardholders grew by 45 percent, and card usage increased by 28 percent.
This campaign represented a creative Partnership betweenIllinois Law Enforcement, Dunkin Donuts & Special Olympics
A key question to discuss in a cause marketing promotion are the influential assets.
What do you have that will make a promotion a success? Well, Dunkin Donuts had 150 busy stores in Illinois. Illinois Law Enforcement had people-power. They had thousands of officers to support a fundraiser.
Both Dunkin and Illinois law officers were committed to finding a way to support the Special Olympics.
Someone had the idea to combine the two and put the cops on roof! Genius!
More creativity is just what we need in cause marketing. They could have just put donation boxes at the store registers and called it a day.
Instead, they chose a creative fundraiser that put the donation box on top of a roof where customers would take notice. The result?
Cop on a Rooftop raised $300k in the most recent year and has endured for 11 years. Donuts and cops really do make an awesome partnership.
Johnson and Johnson Future of Nursing Campaign
The Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing’s Future, a public-awareness campaign was launched by Johnson & Johnson in 2002. Its goal was to address the nursing shortage in the U.S. by recruiting new nurses and nurse faculty.
A secondary goal was to help to retain nurses currently in the profession.
To prepare soon-to-be nurses for the challenges of the workplace, Johnson & Johnson recently developed Your Future in Nursing. This was a training program that combines the interactivity of video computer gaming with real-life nursing scenarios.
New and future nurses can practice responding to scenarios in a risk-free and relaxed virtual environment.
This permitted developing communication skills that are such a critical part of the transition from classroom to bedside.
Boston Strong Tee
This campaign represented PartnersNick Reynolds, Chris Dobens, Ink for the People and One Fund Boston.
There are two reasons this represents an excellent campaign example. First, it raised a boatload of money for the One Fund. This fund was set up for the victims of the Boston Marathon Bombing.
Nick and Chris had hoped to sell a couple hundred shirts. Instead they sold over 59,000 tees and raised nearly one million dollars. Impressive, yes?
Second, what Nick and Chris did with Milwaukee-based Ink for the People is the shape of cause marketing to come.
Do-gooders like Nick and Chris are Halopreneurs. That is, they are small time operators that leverage a business platform — usually temporarily — to raise money for good causes.
Whirlpool transformed its previously little-known commitment to provide a range and refrigerator for each Habitat home built in the U.S.. It helped them be a major driver of brand loyalty by employing a multimedia campaign featuring Reba McEntire.
What’s more, they did all cause marketers a favor by measuring and sharing the impressive results.
1,000 Playgrounds in 1,000 Days
The Home Depot and KaBOOM took employee volunteerism to new heights with this national three-year program.
It build great places for kids to play within walking distance of their homes.
Further cause marketing ideas
Impact-focused alliances
While the one-company-one-nonprofit partnership structure is alive and well, the emergence of wider strategic alliances is of note.
With a focus on creating lasting, quantifiable social impact, prospective partners are inviting more players to the solutions table. The goal was to attack an issue from all sides.
The Safeway Foundation and the Entertainment Industry Foundation launched a joint cause marketing program calledHunger Is.
While the campaign execution was traditional, on the back end, an advisory committee made up of nonprofits like Share Our Strength, Feeding America and Food Research and Action Center.
All are helping this alliance distribute funds raised via projects focused primarily on increasing school breakfasts.
The bottom line
We’ve been speaking about cause marketing in terms of a long commitment. Most successful cause marketing campaigns aren’t one-offs, but rather sustained, mutually-beneficial partnerships.
Collaboration between a business and a non-profit. This will be a less daunting proposition if you’ve done your homework and found a cause that syncs well with your brand image.
It’s possible to run a one-off cause marketing campaign. But you need to be clear what your goal is.
Are you trying to make a difference in the world? Are you trying to sell more product? Are you trying to improve your brand image?
These are each valid goals, but keep in mind that consumers are placing more and more emphasis on a business’ desire to do good, not turn a profit.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of word of mouth marketing created by remarkable customer service. And put it to good use.
It’s up to you to keep improving your creative marketing strategies. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
