A few years ago I attended a CIPD employee engagement conference…. Fate is a funny old thing, as luck would have it the seat I picked meant I ended up sitting next to one David MacLeod. Of course I now know that David is somewhat of a celeb in the world of employee engagement but at that time I had no idea who he was. I had also failed to pick up on the fact that he was the keynote speaker for the conference…. However rather than being offended by the fact that I had no clue who he was, David patiently explained to me who he was, why he was there and the work he was involved with. When he took to the stage I was captivated by the talk he gave and inspired by the work of the taskforce. Despite our rocky beginning David and I got chatting and I’ve been lucky enough to be involved in the Engage for Success movement pretty much since that fateful day.
I genuinely do feel lucky to be involved with Engage for Success: working with an amazing bunch of people on a really worthwhile cause. We’re all united by our passion and belief in the power of employee engagement to do good in the world, It does feel special to be involved in this growing movement. First we are a hugely diverse bunch, which makes for a lot of lively debate but also this really helps to shape and push forward our thinking. Second, everyone involved gives up their time for free, which clearly demonstrates the commitment and energy behind the movement…. And not least we’re actually doing stuff which is making a difference, taking this way beyond a talking shop. And we all now that making a difference is more often than not a key component of our own engagement.
One of the areas I’ve been heavily involved with is the new website which launched 12th November. I’ve been leading a workstream to pull together content for the “strategic narrative” enabler. There’s been a whole team of people behind the scenes who have been inputting and reviewing content, so a huge thank you to all of them (you know who you are). Of course it’s not just about content focusing on the four enablers, there’s a whole lot more to it. .. on the site you’ll find best in class case studies, really great tools and ideas, top tips, upcoming events, the list goes on…
Working with the team to pull together content for the site has been a great experience and I’m looking forward to the next phase of Engage for Success.
Emma Bridger
Communications Lab and Strategic Narrative Content Team Leader
