Prime Minister of Canada: "A Voice for Global Employee Engagement?"

Employee engagement pioneer David Zinger recently brought to his community’s attention excerpts from the recent speech by Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a post he entitled “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: A Voice for Global Employee Engagement.” We share his excerpts with you below because Trudeau is the second world leader we know of after former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron to address the issue of employee engagement and whose influence helped launch the Engage for Success movement in Great Britain.    

 

While Trudeau does not use the word engagement, his remarks all but enumerate key principles of enterprise engagement. What’s noteworthy is that both these leaders define the engagement of people in ways that are good for business, consumers, and society, and not as a new reason to impose government regulation. 

 

While his speech includes political leadership principles as well, we have excerpted those that relate to business. Click here for the complete transcript. 

 

Editor’s note:  The Enterprise Engagement Alliance is a non-partisan organization. We believe that the economics of enterprise engagement provide justification enough for organizations and that government involvement generally is not involved. That said, government leaders can spur positive change in business and for that reason we highlight these remarks.

 

“For business leaders, it’s about thinking beyond your short-term responsibility to your shareholders. You have an equally important responsibility to your workers, their families, and the communities that support you. It’s time to pay a living wage. To pay your taxes. And give your workers the benefits – and peace of mind – that come with stable, full-time contracts.

You can’t build loyalty into corporate culture when people feel overworked and undervalued. You must give your workers avenues to update and modernize their skills for a changing world.

You must be part of the communities where you operate, realizing that these towns and cities support you, and you must, in turn, support them. And when you hear that an employee is expecting a child, congratulate her, don’t make her question whether or not she’ll have a job to come back to. And you must ensure your workplace, and especially your boardrooms, reflect the full diversity of society. It’s time to take a broader view of employee-employer relationships. One that treats workers as partners in success.

 

“Now, I fully appreciate the irony of preaching about the struggles of the middle class to a sea of tuxedoes and ball gowns, while wearing a bow-tie myself. But this discussion needs to happen. We need to realize our collective responsibility – to the people who elected us. To the people who put their faith and trust in us. The answers are not in this room. They’re out there. We all need to leave this place, and truly listen to people who are anxious about their futures. Hear first-hand about their concerns, work with them to develop solutions, and actually implement them.

The hard work of change begins with each and every one of us – around our boardrooms, our water coolers, and our Parliaments.” 

The Enterprise Engagement University and Expo, April 18-19, 2017. Master the principles of engagement across the enterprise. For more information go to EEAExpo.com or contact Nick Gazivoda at 914-591-7600, ext. 238.