4th Annual Internal Branding and Employee Engagement Conference 23rd & 24th April 2009
April 30th, 2009 by Sean Trainor
‘Quality, not Quantity’ probably sums up the contributions to this year’s more intimate Marcus Evans conference, held in Amsterdam last week.
The Brand Union co-sponsored the event, so I had the privilege of chairing day 1: eight inspiring speakers across a wide spectrum of sectors from Healthcare to Hospitality and from Food to Finance, with one thing in common; their passion for Employee Engagement.
So, inspired by the thoughts, views and opinions stimulated by the sessions, we’ve created a blog called “You can’t Kiss a JPEG” – an expression that’s “borrowed with pride” from HP’s Rupal Purohit Ulrich when she used it effectively to make the case for face-to-face engagement. Because, despite all the powerpoint presentations in the world, social media and Flash wizzardry, you can’t replace the power of face-to-face.Three key takeouts for me were:
1. Daniel Vannier from hospitality service provider Sodexo tapping into his 350,000 (yes that is 4 x zeros!) colleagues across the world to understand cultural differences and validating the often criticised work of Geert Hofstede.
2. Kraft’s Annica Johansson introduced a third dimension to engagement’s Hearts and Minds – Clean Hands; thereby making the strong link between employee brand engagement & employer brand with CSR.
3. Building on all the compelling reasons that the speakers gave for investment in engagement and employer brand (especially in tough times), Joao Duarte from Italian energy giant Enel presented the highly emotive argument that “Engagement saves lives”. Who said engagement was fluffy stuff?
Our very own Pete Bell argued the case for not downing tools during a down turn, learning lessons from recent case studies. See it here:
Peter Bell: No Time to Down Tools
Two great days concluded with table discussions on emerging topics – Measurement, Channels and Engaging line Managers. The richness of these discussions made it apparent that the dialogue needs to continue. So, while you can’t kiss a jpeg, you can post a blog.
So join the debate. We welcome any points, posts and pixels you care to share. To stimulate your thoughts have a look at the following thought pieces:
1. Measurement 2. Channels 3. Engaging Line Managers
