Archive for Employee Engagement
How One Company Identified Internal Drivers of Innovation
Posted by: | CommentsThe latest edition of Business Week carried a story about how Amdocs, a $3 billion company that provides software and services for most of the world’s leading service providers, including AT&T, Sprint Nextel and Vodafone, developed hundreds of innovative ideas at a sort of company boot camp. This is employee engagement at its best — when a company involves employees in creating the products and services that will move the company forward. Hundreds of employees applied for the 75 spots, with participants selected on the basis of creativity, originality, and diversity, according to the article.
Ideas can come from anywhere
This is the second camp organized by the company’s chief scientist Tal Givoly, so you can imagine that in anticipation of another opportunity to be part of the action, employees were gearing up long before the event to compete for a spot. Ideas can come from anywhere. So savvy companies will look for internal drivers of innovation as well as tapping external experts. “The first day consisted solely of a variety of wacky, mind-expanding activities,” said Paul Sloane, the facilitator and author of the Business Week article. The “wacky” is what’s important. Too often companies will establish criteria before letting the ideas fly. When participants in such creative sessions are told the budget in advance it sucks the air out of room. Even the wackiest idea may have a gold nugget waiting to be plumbed.
To read how Amdocs sorted through the ideas to get to their gold nuggets, go to the Business Week article: “Inside a Corporate Innovation Camp.” Amdocs also started a blog earlier this year to engage customers as well as employees. Smart.
White Castle Boss Goes Undercover and Learns Employee Engagement Works
Posted by: | CommentsI was finally persuaded by a friend to watch the new hit show “Undercover Boss.” This reality show confirmed that a CEO can learn a lot about how to make the company better by engaging with employees. For those who haven’t seen the new show on CBS, a CEO goes undercover as an employee in his own company to see for himself how things are working. Dave Rife, owner of the White Castle hamburger chain, was this past Sunday’s undercover snoop.
11 Tips to Improve Employee Motivation, Employee Satisfaction & Employee Retention
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Praise promotes employee motivation
The idea for this article came from a conversation I just had with a friend who works for one of the largest companies and best-known brands in the world. Yet the company sucks at employee motivation. If they haven’t got it figured out, then heaven’s knows many other companies are still in the dark, too, about what kinds of things motivate employees and that lead to employee satisfaction and retention. He gave me a couple of examples that were almost laughable.
Make More Money Through Employee Engagement
Posted by: | CommentsYet another study finds that effective employee engagement drives financial performance. So let’s keep hammering home that two-way communication with employees is key to a company’s success. It isn’t just something touch-feely that can be dispensed with when times are bad. Shouldn’t employees just be happy they have a job? No. Engaging your employees during a recession and making them part of the solution can be a measurable competitive advantage. Benefits consulting firm Watson Wyatt (now Towers Watson) makes the case in its study, “Capitalizing on Effective Communication: How Courage, Innovation and Discipline Drive Business Results in Challenging Times”. Here is what they learned.
