Innovation in Employee Engagement

Among other great articles, the winter 2007 edition of Fast Thinking magazine highlights the ‘8 Factor’ model for effective employee engagement, created by strategic futurist Marcus Barber. Using the model he shows how organisations can develop greater flexibility when it comes to providing incentives as a means for improving productivity and ensuring longevity for staff. Check out www.FastThinking.com.au where you can download a copy of the article and then make sure you subscribe to this excellent Innovation magazine.

 

Depending on the organisation type (for profit; not for profit; government) there will typically be a single dominant approach to how an organisation offers ‘incentives’ to its staff.  These incentives can be summarised as ‘more cash’; ‘more time’; ‘more stuff’ and ‘more people’ and by and large, the single dominant approach will be used as ‘de rigeur’ regardless of the actual needs of the various employees.

This ‘one size fits all’ approach is a highly limited way to engage your employees.  What it means is that you might be spending more cash on staff salaries than you need to, not appreciating the perceived lack of value that ‘time off in lieu’ creates, offering training programs where they are of little interest, or giving ‘bonus gifts’ that are both unwanted and of little use to the employee.

The end result is a staff engagement and incentive scheme that does NOT deliver the result you expect from it – a more productive, engaged, content workforce that can produce greater results.  Significantly if your business is faced with potential skilled staff shortages a mismatch might lead to an unexpected departure by employees for ‘greener pastures’ more attuned to their actual desires.

For more information on the ‘8 Factor’ model, feel free to contact us via email here or pick up the latest copy of Fast Thinking magazine

Marcus Barber invited to attend World Water Week in Stockholm 2007

May 11, 2007

Futurist Marcus Barber has been invited to present at the Stockholm International Water Institute’s prestigious World Water Week conference to be held in Stockholm later this year. His abstract submission ‘Life versus Lifestyle: the emerging clash between consumer demands and water availability’ forms part of the key workshop item of ‘Managing Future Consumer Demands’ which…

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May Brainnovation Session now open

Apr 26, 2007

The May Brainnovation session is open for bookings. If you’d like to be invited to attend this highly focused, creative and thought provoking session please contact us. We’ll send you an invite and as these sessions are strictly limited to no more than 15 people, it’s ‘first in – best dressed’ for acceptances! You’ll be…

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Authenticity & the Craft of Brewing Beer

Mar 29, 2007

Every now and again you discover something well ahead of the general public that is worthy of further investigation. That is the key advantage of being a futurist – you get to spend a lot of your time just looking for signals of change. In this case it is the soon to be opened Barleycorn…

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Strategy and Game Shows

Feb 27, 2007

Marcus Barber joined Brigette Duclos on the Channel 10 program ‘9am with David & Kim’ to discuss strategy and the game show ‘Con-Test’ How do game shows reflect our approach to strategy and what does it mean for the business decisons we make? This will be the subject of an upcoming ‘Ideas Piece’ to appear…

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Advanced Organisational Strategy (AOS) Events

Jan 24, 2007

Your Advanced Organisational Strategy events coincide with a specific need for your business and lead to excellent outcomes. These events are customed tailored to help you solve an organisational challenge or to answer a key exploratory question for you. The AOS focuses on two main objectives – to create a specific ‘How to’ for solving…

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Innovation & Counter Intuitiveness

Jan 23, 2007

The idea behind Innovation is to create something new, that has yet to be conceived. A lot of the times that requires Counterintuitive thinking and that can be a very difficult challenge because it needs to break the habits in our thinking styles. For me the essence of being a futurist is the essence of…

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