Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Employee Engagement? In a Business, It Needs to Start at the Very Top

A fish rots from the head down, as the saying goes from my friends in Maine. While the word rot sounds offensive, let’s just say it starts from the top.


This week, I was having a conversation with a good friend of mine who is the CEO of a major company , an a true entrepreneur when I mentioned employee engagement. This is a topic I have blogged about now for over 3 years and is still top of mind in the HR world as it should be. This friend jumped on the topic and went on for 40 minutes on what CEOs should do to drive employee engagement from the top. 

This CEO met with the senior staff and employees daily and kept in front of them on the business climate, strategy, and new product development. He also had many teams of employees testing products, and asked them to act like consumers. Employee surrounded themselves with the business, and I will tell you even during these economic anemic times his business is going strong at 15% year-over-year growth. 



How does your CEO engage employees?