You've got a plan, you have a strategy implemented to reach
your target and you have the KPI's in place to measure performance. Surely
that's all you need to achieve corporate goals, right? This couldn't be further
from the truth. Without your workforce buying into the concept you might as
well forget reaching even your earliest of benchmarks. Employee engagement to
business plans is absolutely vital to their success or failure, but how do you
get in front of all of your staff to sell them and convince them this is the
best way forward for the company. Live events are the answer. Whether a one off
conference or a complete roadshow you must ensure all staff get the opportunity
to engage with the strategy first hand.
Before you think that a simple tele or video conference will
suffice, think again. You are trying to inspire a new way of thinking that will
more than likely cause changes to employees workload, often in their eyes for
the worst. If you can only spare an hour during a tele/videoconference how can
you really expect them to engage with the plan. You need to commit your time as
management to the agenda and to financially invest in the delivery of the live
event itself. If staff turn up to a poorly
organised, badly delivered event they will not feel the passion and excitement
for the project as a whole. You need them to see that time, effort and planning
has gone into the event so they feel special and a part of something. If they
walk into the conference room and their first reaction is 'Wow' you will be
amazed at how much more information they will retain. It's a feeling, it's a
state of mind and getting the balance right is crucial. You need to go further
than just engaging employees, you need to get an emotional tie in too.
Changing and implementing corporate strategy is a big issue,
we all know that, it happens all of the time in every organisation. But why do
some organisations get it so right and others so badly wrong. Its all about the
presentation to employees at the start of the project, get this wrong and it's
very hard to change mindsets later on. The live event needs to be delivered
professionally, smoothly and be well thought out. This doesn't mean a flash
over the top production of the conference or a top 5 star exclusive location,
far from it, this can actually be counter productive. No, staff want to see and
witness a well considered, well thought out plan, presented to them in an
effective way. This means a good venue with great food and service, this means
a professional conference set, with clear sound, projection and lighting delivered
by professionals, this means all minor points that affect each individuals day
are considered: available parking, travel times to venue, length of each
conference session, the list is endless. You need to stop thinking about the
company for once and consider what will be the important issues to the people
attending this particular event. Get those things right and you will have an
audience ready to absorb and engage emotionally with the corporate vision. Get
emotional engagement and you will maximise employee performance and you stand a
fantastic chance of hitting all of you KPI's.
You may however need a little help along the way.
