Group 7- Employee Engagment
Opening Statement
Welcome to “Who Wants to be a Corporate Millionaire!” I am Mary Fung and I will be your host this morning. Our topic today is “Employee Engagement.” So what exactly is employee engagement? Yes, it is about engaging the employees. The notion that “our people are our most important asset” has been a debatable topic. In the eyes of most employees, money and profit seems to be the company’s most important asset. However, even during the recession, companies are investing large sums of money to their employees to better educate them, satisfy them, and even enhance their self-image. The importance of employee engagement lies within the company through each individual, department, and whole organization. It is about effective communication, support, and development. In our opinion, employee engagement is when an employee is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about his or her own work. They care about the future of the company and are willing to invest a lot of time and effort on their part to exceed their normal responsibilities to make sure that the company succeeds. Today, we will discover different methods that companies uses, the importance of it, and will finish off with a nice, competitive game and then the Q&A session. Let’s start introducing our panelists. To our left, we have Valerie Grubb. She is a Senior Operations and Human Capital Consultant as well as the Principal of Val Grubb & Associates, Ltd. She works on a consulting basis in Operations Management and Training and supports talent/leadership development for corporations and non-profits. John McKeon is VP of Human Resources at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center. As the top Human Resource executive, he designs, develop, create, and administer human resources and organizational development programs to attract and retain motivated individuals to ensure the continued success and growth of the medical center. Mark Muller is currently the Senior Vice President and Municipal Portfolio Manager for Loews Corporation. Prior to joining Loews Corporation in 1995, he served as the Vice President, Asset Management, Municipal Portfolio Manager with Goldman Sachs. Eric Hamilton is a social media, internet, web and search marketing veteran with over 20 years of technology work experience. Currently, he works for Yahoo! as an Engagement Manager supporting Yahoo! Web Analytics which is Yahoo’s enterprise level analytics solution. And last but not least, Susan Zhou is currently a human resources consultant as well as an adjunct professor in Baruch College and New York University. She has 12 years of experience for profit and non-profit industries such as in financial services, healthcare, insurance, publishing, marketing and retail.
- Employee engagement is such a broad topic. Can you elaborate on what this means to you in relation to your field and how you take part in it? Feel free to use an example.
- Does your work environment incorporate employee engagement? If so, how do you think this affects the employees and staff?
- Organizations are trying to build a competitive advantage through engaging their employees. However, it is a costly investment. Keeping in mind of the current economic situation, do you think these organizations should invest in their employees?
- Have you ever had a bad experience with employee engagement?
10 Famous C’s: Connect, Career, Clarity, Convey, Congratulate, Contribute, Control, Collaborate, Credibility, and Confidence
Closing Statement:
Employee engagement starts with the attitude at the top. However, don’t let bad management sway you from being a great leader yourself. Work on keeping your team engaged regardless of what’s happening above you. You have the greatest impact on your employees. Employees most value recognition from their direct supervisor, more so than from even the CEO. It is proven that companies that implement employee engagment has greater profits than those who don’t. Google is a great example of this. They have in-office doctors, therapists, spas, gyms, and free food including snacks throughout the day. They foster learning and challenges and their success shows how employee engagement is the way to go.
Key Points from each speaker:
Valerie: Make people feel part of the company. One bad apple can spoil the bunch but before firing them, give them a chance. Be nice to everyone. You can engage your team no matter what role you play.
Eric: You have to be involved through constantly interacting and building bonds beyond technology. Every company is like a football game. You would cheer for your teammate after or before an achievement. You are above any pitiness. If people are disrespecting you, embrace the hate. You have to keep yourself above the fold.
Mark: Team organization and communication must occur or the team is bound to fail. The best corporate culture is an environment where a problem exists and it is worked on till it is resolved, bringing you confidence. It is inevitable where there is one unengaged member. You have to commit and invest, if it doesn’t work, let them go.
John: Motivation brings engagement to employees at the micro level. On the macro level, goals and objectives of the organization are clear to employees. You have to understand your management style by recognizing your weakness and rewarding employees. If you don’t have a right mix of people, the goal might not be properly achieved.
Susan: Employee engagement is about building on a strength that an employee has. The employee should think outside the box to better the company and create an engaging environment through activities and programs cuch as yoga and walks in the park. This motivates employees as well as contribute to their overall health and well being. You want the employees to do things that they are interest in, making them feel that you are supporting them.
16 responses so far
You guys had a great panel presentation, was a lot of fun and engaging. The speakers made some important points on employee engagement, on how managers should delegate jobs and how managers should interact with their employees. I think it is very important to have a manager that knows how to engage her employees, because if employees are not happy then good work ethic wont be put into their jobs. Work is then not executed at the highest level. I know how it is to have a managers that knows how to manage a team properly and one who doesn’t, working under different management in different branches. Employees like to feel comfortable, and not scared of their managers. Jobs will never be done to their best ability, if the employees are scared of their managers.
this panel was a lot of fun. The speakers meshed well together and also involved the rest of the class. Eric Hamilton had really great advice and was engergetic. Also, I liked the fact that you made your panel fun by adding a game at the end. I think the game would have been more effective if it was communicated better and planned a little better. You could have done one team at a time instead of together. This would be easier for the class to follow because we couldnt hear what everyone was saying.
I thought this panel was very energetic. The game got the students involved and I thought it was great for the panel’s topic of engagement. I also really liked the idea of teamwork and how everyone works together in an organization. Overall, it was a good panel with Valerie teaching me that before throwing out a bad “apple” you should give them a second chance and that kindness can go a long way, even in today’s harsh world.
This was a very entertaining and energetic panel. The speakers gave good insights and and strong points about the significance in engaging employees, and I liked the idea how the group came up with a game afterwards. A lot of what was discussed has been very relevant and I personally can relate through the job I work in. The whole idea of encouraging and motivating the employee, as well as making them feel more part of the company , is very important because it would make the company run more productive and efficiently.If all of the employees are happy, the future would seem bright for the company. Overall, I really liked this panel especially because the speakers were very engaging and brought out interesting points.
This was an very good panel. The group provided five speakers. They were strong speakers and very interactive. The speakers provided different styles of speaking and ways of actually talking about the topics. One dealt more based on what we learn from the books and the other tried to base it to sports. The group also used a different style of presentation and it was very unique. They even did an activity with the class and panelist. Some criticism would be that the activity was very unorganized and it could had went smoother. There was some kind of confusion which allowed one side to win over the other. Overall the group did a great job, it was a great panel that they provided us with.
-Won Lun Liu, #49
Definitely one of the most entertaining panels that involved the audience. Great speakers, they were very passionate about the subject and conveyed the message with a lot of enthusiasm, which is sometimes needed for an early class. The power point presentation was also well prepared. I would call this panel the creative one because so much effort was put in it to make it stand out from the rest. Good job!
Very, very, fun group. Again, like most groups, you had a very nice mix of people from different positions. Eric was very funny and really was the life of your panel. I also enjoyed Mr. Muller’s comments. All your speakers were well suited for this topic and was a pleasure hearing them speak!
I really liked how your panel was very engaging and fun for the audience. I personally felt like I was more apart of the presentation that any other panel I heard. The “who wants to be a corporate millionaire” theme was very cute and original. Also, the people on the panel knew very well what they were supposed to talk about, and all of them gave excellent examples of employee engagement in the workplace. My personal favorite was Eric Hamilton because he was very funny. For example, he asked the class if anybody was not on facebook to raise their hand. When one person raised his hand, he said, “Oh my, we must call the police!” Also throughout the presentation he took his camera out and took candid pictures of us and his fellow panelists and said, “now every one of you will be on facebook!” I also really liked how in the middle of the panel the class played a game. My one suggestion would have been to not do the two rounds simultaneously, but do it separately. At times it was confusing for us in the audience to pay attention to both sides. Otherwise, excellent job!
You guys had a great choice of panel speakers. The fact they were able to participate in your activities and do it enthusiastically just made it look a lot better. The idea of playing a game is great, you were able to tie up many topics learned in class and put it to the test. The game was a little test. When you played the game where you had the panelists act out a certain word and have students guess it, was a great way to engage the audience but I feel it is where you actually lost the audience. The time was probably a key fact of this occurring but overall keep in mind it’s hard to hear two things that are happening in the room at the same time. Overall you guys did everything on time. Uniquely done.
Panel 7 had various activities going on. Though it was informational, I thought it was a little wild when the audience was lost in what was going on from a few comments heard. Although it was unique to have something similar to the tech panel we had with keyboards, the panel left very few leeway in for questions.
On the flip side, the speakers were very good. They seemed to have engaged in the activity quite well. Employee engagement to playing games allowed everyone to have a little laugh and fun at it.
The speakers themselves had great information like investing in your employees and managing them on a large and small scale.
Only Eric and Susan felt sincere and dynamic at first, but I could tell that the rest of the panelists started picking up on Eric’s energy.
The overly long opening statement was rather dry; the people around me were all just hoping you would let the panelists speak already.
I thought that this panel was great. Without a doubt this was the most exciting panel of the semester. The group found a really unique and fun way to make their points and engage the audience. There were also some really great advice on employee engagement.
I agree that this panel was really good! They were original and really knew how to bring their topic to life. Employee engagement: they kept the audience engaged every step of the way and i think they thought it out beautifully with choosing two people to come up and participate. They also had the panelists and the professor get in on the fun. Apart from all the fun and treats that were given out i think it was a really informative presentation. It focused on something that we will all come into contact with whether it is when we are working someone and have to interact with our co-workers or when we are managers and bosses ourselves and have to make sure that every employee is engaged. I also thought that Valerie and Eric were great! They kept making me laugh, had great things to say and were so enthusiastic it was contagious. Great panel in all aspects!
Deffinitely, if we want to go to the corporate world we should know how to work in teams, how to engage employees and partners. I think that the presentation was a lot of fun but what is more important it was very educational. I really like what Valerie said about the apple that one bad apple can spoil the bunch. I guess we should all try not to be this “apple” in a company and to try not to be any “bad apples”. Another thing is that we live in New York, and I think that being able to engage employees here is extremely hard and extremely important. Everybody is different coming from different parts of the world and looking at it from different angles. So being able to engage them to one goal is hard but will contribute to a company a lot. The presentation showed engagement also, it was nice to have you guys!
I enjoyed this panel a lot because the speakers were charismatic and really went to lengths explaining situations where employee management was crucial. The group did an outstanding job of engaging the speakers with classmates during the short game you played. However, the trivia idea was good but it could have been more organized. It kept the environment lively and made everyone more willing to participate which kept within the theme of employee engagement.
i think this panel is something that applies to everyone, especially people who have goals to get a job in a management position. I think employee management is very important for success. I know from personal experiences where employees where I work are unhappy and it set back the progression of the company