EEA Update: Dedicated to Advancing Your Organization

As management goes into the fourth-quarter planning period for 2023, here’s an overview of the purpose, mission, and specific services of the Enterprise Engagement Alliance for those organizations seeking to profit from the shift to a more strategic and systematic approach to people management. Our mission is to help your organization or your clients profit from a strategic and systematic approach to people across the enterprise to optimize performance and stakeholder engagement and experiences. The emerging field of Stakeholder Engagement processes that support it create enormous value creation opportunities for organizations of all sizes and the growing number of engagement and human capital solution providers that serve them.

By Bruce Bolger

Corporate Outreach for Stakeholder Engagement and Total Rewards
EEA Media and Marketplaces in Stakeholder Engagement, Total Rewards, and Experiences

Free Online Learning on Stakeholder Engagement and Human Capital Management, Reporting

EEA Membership for Formal Learning and Certification

Advisory Services for Strategic People Management, Business Plans and Implementation

Human Capital Management and DEI Analysis and Reporting
 

In the last year, over 240,000 business professionals accessed the web sites, e-newsletters, YouTube videos, and social media of the Enterprise Engagement Alliance. While the names of people who read our e-newsletters is confidential, they include management in all areas of sales, marketing, and human resources, from the nation's largest companies and best-known engagement solution providers to a wide range of small-to-medium-size businesses.

The Enterprise Engagement Alliance exists to help organizations prosper through a more strategic and systematic approach to people management across the enterprise.

As our name implies, the vision is to bring together experts in all areas of engagement to help elevate the field on the simple premise that a rising tide can carry all ships.

Our learning and certification program, media and marketplace platforms, and advisory services in strategic people management and business development arguably provide the world’s most comprehensive resources to help any size organization and/or engagement solution provider benefit from a fast-growing new approach to business. Increasingly known as Stakeholder Capitalism, or in the academic world Stakeholder Engagement, this practical strategic and systematic approach enhances performance and stakeholder experiences in the same way Total Quality Management (TQM) has accomplished in manufacturing.

Whether or not you ever do business with the EEA, we offer numerous information and learning platforms to advance professional careers; organizational performance and personal advancement; and create or enhance the businesses of results-focused engagement and human capital solution providers. 

Overview of the Enterprise Engagement Alliance

The EEA’s purpose is to help foster the creation of a formal discipline of Stakeholder Engagement to support the emerging Stakeholder Capitalism movement that enhances returns for investors by creating value for customers, employees, distribution and supply chain partners, communities, and the environment. Our services include:

1. Corporate Outreach for Stakeholder Engagement and Total Rewards

2. EEA Media and Marketplaces in Stakeholder Engagement, Total Rewards, and Experiences

3. Free Online Learning on Stakeholder Engagement and Human Capital Management, Reporting

4. Formal Learning and Certification

5. Advisory Services for Strategic People Management, Business Plans and Implementation

6. Human Capital Management and DEI Analysis and Reporting
 

The EEA’s mission is to apply the principles of Stakeholder Engagement to help organizations of all sizes enhance performance and create better experiences for all stakeholders using a strategic and systematic approach that fosters alignment of all engagement tactics across the enterprise. Stakeholder Engagement involves commonly used practical business processes in a more effective manner to enhance sustainable returns for investors by creating value for customers, employees, supply chain and distribution partners, communities and the environment. The EEA aims to counter attempts by the extreme right and left to claim that Stakeholder Capitalism is the equivalent of “woke” capitalism, "creeping communism," or "fig-leaf" capitalism with the compelling fact that it is a business and academic field dating back decades before the concepts of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) or DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion.) See this recent academic view of Stakeholder Engagement by professors in Europe. 

What makes the EEA unique. We are the only outreach organization, learning center, media platform, and marketplace focusing on the practical implementation processes for Stakeholder Capitalism—enhancing returns for investors by creating value for customers, employees, distribution and supply chain partners, communities, and the environment.

Below are more details on our primary activities.

1. Corporate Outreach for Stakeholder Engagement and Total Rewards

There is an enormous opportunity to engage boards and C-suites and the return on investment of a strategic approach to people using the same processes proven in Total Quality Management.

Benefit from an enormous “blue ocean” market. Gallup estimates that the world’s businesses waste over $7 trillion in lost productivity and quality, with the US accountable for over $500 billion of that. This does not include the enormous waste in business development dollars for similar reasons: the lack of a clear organizational purpose; engaged stakeholders; unique selling proposition; a compelling story; a “smarketing” system that enables the sales force; or a focusing on informing and helping, rather than selling.

Addressing this waste is a significant opportunity for value creation. The EEA knows that US companies can achieve a better return on investment on the nearly $1 trillion being spent each year to engage consumers and employees, considering that customer and employee and customer engagement are at record lows, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Association index and Gallup. To make it easier, most of the strategies and tactics to address the issue are already being used every day in their manufacturing facilities.

A lot of waste? A report in Statista estimates that US companies spend over $250 billion in marketing services and another $285 billion in advertising to attract and engage customers. As for employees, according to the latest Incentive Federation Inc. 2022 Market Study, companies spend about $176 billion to motivate people, most of it on programs designed on their own—meaning that the majority of the 160,000 businesses with sales over $10 million or 100 or more employees are planning their own engagement programs and shopping at retail for rewards with in most cases no experience in process design or measurement. This does not include spending for other engagement processes, such as employee communications, estimated in one study at $1.7 billion for technology alone; another study puts US training expenditures at nearly $100 billion. There are no estimates for expenditures in employee engagement surveys; DEI activities, job design, or human capital analytics, but it’s safe to say many US companies are spending close to $1 trillion combined a year, many cases without much return on investment given the sorry state of customer and employee engagement today. 

Overlooked profitability? Multiple independent research studies from around the world verify the logical hypothesis that organizations with high levels of customer, employee, supply chain and distribution partner, and community engagement will generally outperform their competitors over time in profits and brand equity. 

Getting to the C-suite. The Enterprise Engagement Alliance is helping to lead the way in educating the C-suite on the importance of a strategic approach to people management through its recent advisory role to the Conference Board on human capital management; its involvement in helping organizations profit from ISO 30414 Human Capital and ISO 10018 People Engagement reporting processes and methods, and activities with professors involved with Stakeholder Management to help promote the field. The EEA soon will announce other strategies to educate executives across industries on the need for a strategic focus on people.

Reaching the Small-to-Medium Size business marketplace. The EEA is dedicated to supporting solution providers seeking to serve the small- to mid-size marketplace, especially those that focus on better program design and measurement, through the promotion of technology and information marketplaces.

2. EEA Media and Information Resources on Stakeholder Engagement, Total Rewards, and Experiences  

We help readers of our media in all areas of business, not-for-profits and government enhance the performance of their organizations and their own personal professional growth by providing useful information, research, and much more. We help engagement solution providers more effectively market, sell, and deliver their services. 

ESM for Stakeholder Management Implementation, Human Capital Reporting, Enterprise Engagement

ESM (Engagement Strategies Media) at EnterpriseEngagement.org focuses on the practical implementation of Stakeholder Capitalism principles, including news, how-to, insights, research, profiles and more. It is the online version of a print publication launched in 2009. Click here to subscribe to the ESM weekly e-newsletter.

EEXAdvisors.com is the latest version of an online marketplace focusing on solutions in the market dating to the 1990s.

RRN for Total Rewards and Brand Media

RRN (Rewards Recognition Network) at RewardsRecognitionNetwork.com covers the field of Total Rewards and the use of brands and experiences as part programs to engage employees, customers, distribution and supply chain partners, communities, volunteers, and any stakeholders. Click here to subscribe to the RRN weekly e-newsletter.

BrandMediacoalition.com is an online marketplace designed to tell the stories of brands in a way that can enhance to value of engagement efforts for any stakeholder group.

As part of its corporate outreach and community building strategy, the BMC runs the free Brand Club for members of the Incentive, Rewards, and Recognition industry as well as corporate and organizational buyers enabling them to enjoy special opportunities to get special pricing and sample great brands for personal purposes through leading IRR industry providers.

Short Escapes for Getaway Experiences

Shortescapes.net is an online guide to authentic travel experiences that provide getaways from cities and tourism destinations for travelers who love to explore by car and foot. Based on guidebooks published for about 10 years starting in 1995 by Fodor’s, produced and co-authored by CEO Founder Bruce Bolger and investigative travel pioneer Gary Stoller, the online platform suspended activity during Covid. It is currently being updated to support growing demand for seamless access to extraordinary getaways near cities and tourism destinations for personal exploration; curated for small group meetings, or packaged for gifting, incentives, and rewards for “Group Individual Travel,” the process of providing group travel experiences to small groups and individuals.

3. Free Online Learning on Stakeholder Engagement and Human Capital Management and Reporting

You are unlikely to find anywhere more free authoritative information on all aspects of Stakeholder Engagement and the implementation of the people issues involved with Stakeholder Capitalism.

EEA Human Capital and Enterprise Engagement Youtube Shows

Over 70 executives and academics in all areas of business have contributed to nearly 40 YouTube panel discussions, with more coming soon, based on providing a practical framework for the implementation of a strategic and systematic approach to people management.

The Enterprise Engagement Alliance Library

The largest and probably only library specifically dedicated to links to information on all aspects of Stakeholder Capitalism implementation; Human Capital management, metrics, and reporting, and Enterprise Engagement.

The RRN Total Rewards and Brand Media Library

A comprehensive library of links to information and organizations in all areas of the IRR (Incentive, Rewards, and Recognition) field, including the related event-gifting and amenities business.    

4. EEA Membership for Formal Learning and Certification

The Enterprise Engagement Alliance curriculum and certification is unique in the world in its focus on a strategic enterprise-wide approach to fostering the proactive involvement of all stakeholders in the organization’s purpose and goals. It's contributors leaders in business and academia, including people considered to be the founders of Stakeholder Engagement. Based on the same implementation process that helped transform quality in manufacturing, the EEA curriculum focuses on a strategic, holistic approach that aligns the interests of stakeholders as well as the multiple tactics used to engage people. Click here for a sample of the video training and classes covered or click here to learn about the EEA corporate and individual membership program, which includes the education program, five books on Stakeholder Engagement and Human Capital Management and measurement and optional certification in Enterprise Engagement implementation.
 

5. Advisory Services for Strategic People Management Plans and Implementation

This service is for organizations and engagement solution providers turning to a strategic people management strategy and looking for a consensus-based stakeholder management or business development plan; one that is authentically grounded in a refreshed version of their purpose, cultures and their unique selling proposition to their customers, employees, and other stakeholders.

Using a highly inclusive, proven process, the Enterprise Engagement Alliance helps organizations achieve key short- and long-term goals and enhance their performance by re-establishing their corporate purpose, aligning the interests of key stakeholders, re-clarifying unique selling benefits, implanting embedding DEI into their business plans, developing key human capital metrics tied to financial performance, and integrating sales, external and internal engagement processes to ensure that the entire organization is working toward the same purpose. The three related services include:

1. Strategic Stakeholder Management Business Plan Development to Enhance Performance and Experiences—A 30-day, inclusive process that measurably enhances employee, customer, and channel partner retention, referrals, and experiences by reestablishing your organization’s purpose, values, goals, and objectives across the enterprise and by delivering an actionable, measurable business plan created by your own team to achieve those goals more efficiently and with higher quality.

 2. Strategic Stakeholder Management Business Plan Implementation to Guide You Through the Process and Train Your Team—Strategically timed assistance with implementation of the plan by facilitating specific update meetings including all relevant business managers to monitor progress and identify challenges or opportunities and potential solutions, using what’s known as a Business Operating system that saves time and reduces fire drills. This can include assistance with the implementation of a Business Operating System.

 3. Managed Outsourcing for Engagement Technology, Services, and Total Rewards to Save You Time and Ensure Alignment--We help organizations find the right solution partners in all areas of engagement, including Enterprise Engagement, recognition, and loyalty technologies and professional services in talent recruiting; culture; assesment and feedback; communications in all media including face to face and three dimensions, incentives and rewards; social recognition; loyalty, job design; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; gifting, human capital analytics, etc.

6. Human Capital Management and DEI Analysis and Reporting

The Enterprise Engagement Alliance and its Engagement Agency implementation organization provide a concrete path for turning human capital into a profit center to support Stakeholder Engagement, a critical part of the implementation process for what increasingly known as Stakeholder Capitalism—achieving returns for investors by creating value for customers, employees, supply chain and distribution partners, and communities. The EEA uses ISO standards 30414 for Human Capital Reporting and 10018 for People Engagement as a framework for applying the same strategic and systematic approach ISO 9001 standards have achieved to enhance quality in manufacturing. These services address the fact that human capital, including all stakeholders, is the last bastion of value creation and enhanced sustainable profitable and better stakeholder experiences. Services include:

1. Introductory briefings executive or group-wide on Stakeholder Management principles Human Capital metrics, reporting; and Enterprise Engagement principles, and ISO human capital standards, presented by early experts in the field.

2. Preliminary confidential gap analysis of your organization’s human capital management practices related to all stakeholder—employees, customers, supply and distribution partners, and communities—to identify opportunities for value creations and implementation strategies.

3. Human Capital and Racial Equity analyses based on ISO standards that focus on evaluating the organization’s purpose; the degree to which it has a systematic approach to fostering the proactive involvement and capabilities of all stakeholders, and the degree to which treats DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) as a source of value creation rather than compliance.

Contact Information

Bruce Bolger

EEA Founder

914-591-7600, ext. 230
Bolger@TheEEA.org
 

• Founded in 2008, the Enterprise Engagement Alliance provides outreach, learning and certification in Enterprise Engagement, an implementation process for the “S” or Social of Stakeholder Capitalism and Human Capital Management and measurement of engagement across the organization.
• The Enterprise Engagement Alliance provides a training and certification program for business leaders, practitioners, and solution providers, as well as executive briefings and human capital gap analyses for senior leaders.
• The EEA produces an education program for CFOs for the CFO.University training program on Human Capital Management.
• Join the EEA to become a leader in the implementation of the “S” of ESG and Stakeholder Capitalism. 

• The ESM information portal and The Enterprise Engagement Advisors Network solution provider marketplace cover all aspects of stakeholder engagement, and the EEA information library lists dozens of resources.
• The RRN information portal and Brand Media Coalition marketplace address the use of brands for gifting, incentives, recognition, and promotions. The BMC information library provides information and research resources.

• Enterprise Engagement for CEOs: The Little Blue Book for People-Centric Capitalists. A quick guide for CEOs.
• Enterprise Engagement: The Roadmap 5th Edition implementation guide. A comprehensive textbook for practitioners, academics, and students.

• Organizations of all types develop strategic Stakeholder Capitalism and Enterprise Engagement processes and human capital management and reporting strategies; conduct human capital gap analyses; design and implement strategic human capital management and reporting plans that address DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), and assist with managed outsourcing of engagement products and services.
• Human resources, sales and marketing solution providers profit from the emerging discipline of human capital management and ROI of engagement through training and marketing services.
• Investors make sense of human capital reporting by public companies.
• Buyers and sellers of companies in the engagement space or business owners or buyers who seek to account for human capital in their mergers and acquistions. 

Click here for complete information on Enterprise Engagement Alliance benefits and to join.