Sustaining An Employee Engagement Campaign Over Time
This is the final submission in an 11-week series on how to launch an employee engagement program. Last week I spoke about metrics and ROI. In this post, I will discuss the importance of sustaining a long-term employee engagement program.
How does the company sustain its employee engagement program? How long is enough? Is it one year, two years, or three years? Or is it a long-term strategic imperative that never stops?
These are very interesting questions. Through this 11-week series there were several suggestions and ideas that ensure long-term success and sustainability. Some of the key ideas were setting clear long-term objectives, cross-functional supervision and support, setting aside long-term budgets, and following a codified framework and planning process that has the long-term vision in mind.
The biggest obstacle for sustainable programs is identifying specific deliverables that go beyond the current budgetary year. Often, instead of establishing an overarching strategic approach with multi-year deliverables, management decides it needs a specific tactical tool like a social media platform or a newly designed e-mail delivery system. The issue is that adoption of a specific tactic is not necessarily strategic unless you have persuasive communication messages that change the behaviors and attitudes of your employees over a sustained period of time.
I often go to conferences where the attendees say they come because they’re looking for ideas. Well, ideas are not enough. To have a seat at the “strategic business table” those driving employee engagement efforts must understand the business drivers, what is at stake, and what attitudes and opinions need to be addressed. They must demonstrate to leadership that if they make a strategic long-term investment, the result will be a transformed and engaged workforce that will contribute to better customer experiences, greater revenue, lower costs, and improved productivity. What CEO wouldn’t want that to be the case?
Sustainability and long-term impact happens when you have an equal balance between a great tactical idea and an even better persuasive message that opens people’s eyes, grabs their attention, and convinces them to embrace change. A mediocre creative idea/deliverable and a poorly crafted message does nothing more than go in one ear and out the other.
So stop thinking about deliverables, and start thinking about being strategic. Stop thinking about tactics and start thinking about the message. Stop thinking about the short-term budget and start thinking about incremental revenue growth. Stop thinking about standing still and start thinking about transformative change. These are the ideas that will sustain your program year in and year out.