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Success Under Glass

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ALIGNED AND EMPOWERED EXPO GROWS IN SIZE AND SCOPE
Barbara Porter of Ernst & Young shared her experience of The Rewards & Recogniton Expo atracted more than 80 exhibitors
establishing an engaged culture in a Customer Call Center, then from 50 exhibitng companies, including American Express The Ultimate
expanding this throughout the parent organizaton at Nicor LoyaltyEdge, TUMI, Applebees, Naples/Marco Island CVB, Victorinox
Natonal. She described the foundaton of an Employee to Customer Swiss Army, Target, Canon and dozens of others.
framework, and introduced an engagement model based on Aligned “The event exceeded my expectatons,” said exhibitor Pete
and Empowered employees.
Mitchell, Director, B-to-B Sales at Samsonite. “The majority of my
Cofman later moderated a panel session with Barbara, Susan meetngs were with current clients...and we were able to get to the Rewards Source
Forgie of McAfee, and Melanie Lewis, formerly at AstraZenenca. business at hand. I’m happy I came.”
Among the questons he posed to the panel:
Atendees were also impressed with the ‘conversaton center
• Why do leaders really care about Engagement? Porter format’ of the Exhibit Hall, which lent itself to relatonship-building and
suggested that the interest came from a positve fnancial face-to-face conversatons rather than the typical ‘drive-by’ literature -> Bulk quanttes
perspectve (how does this help the company to succeed grab that characterizes most trade shows. Roundtable and Town Hall
fnancially), while Forgie felt that a concern about an sessions were also held in the Exhibit Hall over the course of the 2
authentc representaton of the Brand was a key driver. ½-day event, allowing atendees and exhibitors alike the opportunity -> Direct pricing
to add to their professional educaton about all things Engagement.
• Gallup uses 12 core questons in an Engagement Survey.
Why do so many others have 80+ questons? Once a “A well-planned and organized event,” noted Jill Trupo,
survey is seen as being successful, Forgie suggested, every Program Manager at Incentra, Inc. “The speakers were great, the
department head wants to add one or two of their own mix of show floor and in class speakers was nice, and the exhibit
questons. To avoid this, use the 12 core questons for all format was excellent for getting new information from our suppliers
partcipants, then add a few custom questons dependent on and new partners.”
the role, locaton, or division.
“It was defnitely worthwhile, as I took away some great research-
• How many employees respond to a well-designed based insights and contacts to enhance our ofering,” said Laura
survey? According to the panelists, AstraZeneca achieved Brady, Senior Manager, Business Development and Sales Enablement,
92% response rate without using incentves or penaltes. American Express LoyaltyEdge. “Having such a diverse crowd –
Ernst & Young surveys 158,000 employees globally with incentve providers, educators, authors and executves – all in one
a partcipaton rate of around 80% in 2013; consistent, place made for some interestng discussion. All in all, a great exchange
repettve communicaton helps to drive the number higher. of best practces, content and ideas.”
BEST-IN-CLASS Next year’s R&R Expo and Engagement U are already well along
IRF President Melissa Van Dyke presented the latest statstcs on in the planning stages – look for a few surprises to be announced soon
– and the EEA’s goal of growing bigger and beter has been achieved
Best-in-Class Companies, showing that they are 12% more likely to
view recogniton as vital, 90% more likely to value public recogniton, every year so far. This year, in additon to more big-name speakers
and exhibitors, the EEA debuted its new desktop guide, Enterprise
and 95% more likely to value Peer-to-Peer recogniton than other
companies. She suggested that efectve Reward & Recogniton events Engagement: The Textbook, to atendees, capping of an exceedingly
busy 12 months since the New Orleans show in 2013.
must have four atributes:
“I was really impressed with the conference…the venue and
• Salient (Memorable) by engaging multple senses
• Valued (Personal) the speakers were frst class,” noted Peter Hart, President and CEO
of Rideau Recogniton Solutons. “I also want to congratulate you on
• Performance Contngent (be triggered by a specifc event) • Search the latest inventory of over 1 million
• Performance Sensitve (the reward must be relatve to bringing the book to life. I believe it will be become a valuable tool in
our industry.”
the efort).
“I was so impressed by the work you and your team are doing to products and gift cards.
PULLING THE THREADS TOGETHER inform professionals of all enterprises about engagement,” said Jericha
The most compelling example was given in a Keynote speech by Gina Nichols, Business Development Specialist for Incentve Solutons. “As
Valent, VP Owner Services at Hilton Worldwide, as she described the a ‘newbie’ to the industry, I was surprised that publishing an actual • Find the hottest new rewards in stock at over
successful Hamptonality Starts with Me program, which began in 2007 textbook on enterprise engagement could be considered a ‘novel’ task!
as an internal employee program and has now become the advertsing Steve Cummins is Director of Digital Marketng & Communicatons 50 wholesalers, retailers, and brands.
brand promise of the hotel chain.
for Ditman Incentve Marketng. Richard Kern is the Editorial
Throughout the sessions, EEA Managing Director Bruce Bolger, Director of the Enterprise Engagement Alliance. For more
pulled the threads together as he encouraged the atendees to think informaton on Enterprise Engagement: The Textbook, go to www. • Browse Brand Stores to discover the many
of Employee Engagement as a core enterprise-wide philosophy and enterpriseengagementbook.com. Info on Samsonite at www.
not just a program within HR, Training or some other department. samsonite.com/; Incentra at htp://incentracorp.com/; American participating brands and vendors.
Just one more step on the road to showing people that Yes, Express LoyaltyEdge at www.loyaltyedgesoluton.com/loyaltyedge/
Companies stll do that! home; Rideau Recogniton Solutons at htp://rideau.com/; and
Incentve Solutons at www.incentvesolutons.com. ESM • Contact vendors directly for all purchases based
on their business rules.

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26 engagement strategies Vol.18 Issue 1