1. HR departments outsourcing employee engagement activities to external event management firms seems to be a new phenomenon. Do you see any reasons for this new trend?
Outsourcing any kind of service is the future since people don’t have the time or energy even though they might have the inclination. HR functions like employee engagement being outsourced isn’t incredible.
We’re providing them a platform and making the execution part easier. Like any other event, an employee engagement initiative too gets broken down to a task list/check list and the process is similar. What really changes is the objectives and the audience. Agency like ours makes it easier for corporates to make it interesting and relevant.
E.g. If there’s a team-building initiative, a firm like ours can get in a celebrity like Harsha Bhogle who’s of great value as he draws analogies from the nation’s favourite sports team – the Indian Cricket team.
2. What value creation are you able to do for an organization in this regard? What is the level of involvement as an external vendor?
Our involvement starts right from the stage where the client briefs us and tells us the objectives. Once we understand the company values and do the audience/participant analysis, we strategize on the kind of employee initiative that can be taken. We serve as the think-tank and provide them with the most suitable options. Also, since we’re in the creative space, we are constantly able to provide out of the box solutions and thus, create a point of differentiation.
One of the interesting and innovative things that we just did recently was “What’s Cooking”, a cooking contest for the entire Marketing Team of HSBC Mumbai. This was a team-building event wherein we had ten teams which were allotted different dishes that they’d to prepare within stipulated time. The final output of all teams was then to be tasted by the head chef of the venue. The idea here was to get people to do something which many have seen but a few have attempted as that would increase the ‘desire to attempt’ factor.
3. Employee engagement was not even on the agenda for organizations the last financial year due to the slowdown. Are you anticipating any major promising changes in this regard this financial year? What are the sectors for which employee engagement will be a priority?
I do see organizations coming forward for employee engagement initiatives. Some of them are reactive in their approach and ask for just fill-in-the-gap task like procuring a specific resource e.g. bringing in a speaker etc. While some adopt a more structured, organized and proactive approach. Financial services is one of the leading sectors when we speak of employee engagement.
4. Organizations have gone the whole nine yards to engage their employees through various measures. So what is truly different now? Anything out of the box, truly unheard of activities that you are doing or have done for client organizations?
We are seeing financial services companies trying to move out of the run-of-the-mill efforts and innovate. Some of them are in fact resorting to having a lot of movie and IPL screenings in multiplexes for their employees.
The key to having effective initiatives is to treat employees like end-clients/consumers. If you do that, a lot can be achieved since many of those consumer engagement initiatives can be replicated for the employees too. How many firms even pause and think what really interests their employees and customize the initiatives to suit their preferences? Today, organizations need to look beyond just giving the monetary incentives and growth opportunities. They need to create an emotional hook for the employee.
E.g. How many firms that sponsor cricket have their brand ambassador come to the office and talk to the employees. If any of the firms that have Sachin Tendulkar as their ambassador bring him in & have him meet workforce, it would have such a great impact. Just to have someone like Tendulkar share a sense of pride for being the brand ambassador of that company would create a great sense of belonging/company loyalty within the employees.
5. As a service provider, what are the bottlenecks and issues that you face while planning and organizing employee engagement initiatives?
Biggest bottleneck is the approach and the attitude of organizations. It’s more reactive than proactive. We don’t talk of employee delight, the “going the extra mile” attitude is missing. You need to give an individual touch to employees. Needless to say it’s easier said than done esp. in the case of large companies where logistics might pose a challenge. However, if you develop unit heads and have them represent the company ethics/values which flow top-down then the goal is not as hard to achieve. Tata is the best example in this.
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