ENGAGE ASSOCIATES AND CHANNEL PARTNERS

Do your people have the understanding and passion to deliver what is required

In our discussions with board members and investors, the engagement of associates and channel partners does not get the ‘airtime’ it deserves.  ‘Investing in people’ is a mantra in the majority of large companies, yet it is also a misnomer. On the one hand we build up our employees or associates by saying that we value them, and on the other we knock them down by the way we behave and the decisions we make. We reduce training budgets, learning days, number of jobs, fun events; awards; we increase workloads and management appraisal focuses on productivity KPIs rather than creativity or business outcomes. We need to consider productivity and associate motivation and engagement.  Often the two go hand in hand.  We know that engaged people can make an unprofitable businesses profitable, or a successful businesses more successful. It is hard to prove this unequivocally but, indirectly, there is evidence and we have access to much of it.

The context for engagement is different in every circumstance .  For instance, there are different levels of emotional contract (e.g. with employees vs. contractors for instance); different cultures (e.g. process driven; productivity driven; people driven); different roles (e.g. contact centre vs. senior managers) and different histories of organisational change – to name a few.  Because of the different contexts, the methods and tools we use to help companies vary greatly – senior mentoring, business games, themed events, guides, training and coaching. 

A great starting point though is to carry out a rapid and low cost on-line research survey, with a few in-depth interviews, to identify, for different functions, both their understanding (e.g. I know where we are going; I know my role; I know what I am measured on) and their engagement (e.g. my manager knows me, focuses me, cares for me; I believe in what I am doing; I like it at work).  With this background, some short meetings with the leaders of the business and HR, a targeted engagement plan can be quickly implemented which will show results within a few months of launch.