Idea of the Month from Barbara Glanz
ENCOURAGE EMPLOYEES’ SPECIAL INTERESTS
This idea is excerpted from Barbara's book Handle with CARE—Motivating
and Retaining Employees (McGraw-Hill 2002), $16.95.
Find out people’s special interests and encourage employees to get together for a common cause. It may be an interest in cars, home-brewing, woodworking, travel, music, or literature. According to Employee Services Management (ESM) Magazine, activities such as these are wonderful ways to build relationships across the organization, and they also celebrate people as human beings with lives and interests outside of work.
* UCSF—Empact! Has a poetry group for enthusiasts
to share their work and to get feedback. Poetry readings are held at a
library where a public audience is invited to hear the voices of these
poets, young and old.
* Gates Rubber Company, Denver, CO, encourages art by
holding art shows on site, where employees can display and sell their
work to fellow employees and to the public. Other companies, like Jet
Propulsion Labs, encourage art by by offering discount tickets
to art museums and art galleries.
* Jet Propulsion Lab’s recreation club in Pasadena,
CA, formed a music club in which instrument-playing employees hold jam
sessions with others interested in similar styles of music. Specialty
bands such as jazz and rock are formed within this club, and the members
have a wonderful opportunity for extra practice and the sharing of their
special talents. Other companies have company choirs and drama teams.
They often perform at all-company functions.
* Compaq Computers, Houston, TX, holds a creative photo
contest with incentives for the winner in several different categories.
Other organizations encourage starting a photography club.
* Gates Rubber Company, which has sites in many other
countries, has founded a Travel Club. One feature of this club, according
to an article in Employee Services Management magazine, September
1998, by Catrina Cerny, is a type of exchange program in which the employee
services department acts as an intermediary for traveling workers. This
way a worker from the U.S. can visit another country and save accommodation
dollars as well as getting to meet people from this culture on a more
personal basis. Then the favor is returned at a later time by the American
worker. What a wonderful way to build global relationships within your
organization!
* Jet Proplusion Labs get groups of employees together
for adventure trips—scuba, skiing, river rafting, mountain-biking,
skydiving, bungee jumping, water skiing. These activities build friendships
and help reduce workplace stress.
* Citizen’s Trust encourages many internal employee
programs. One example is a monthly reading group to discuss works of fiction.
Citizens covers half the cost of the books, buys pizza, and provides a
“relaxation room” for the group to meet after work hours.
They also sponsor a “Living Well” program which Adine Mees,
director of corporate resonsibility, says is “a holistic approach
to heath that rewards staff for the simple and good things of life—such
as reading a book, visiting a parent, hugging, meditating, exercising,
learning, teaching, going to the theater, etc. “
* Schulmerich Bells in Sellersville, Pennsylvania, decided
to initiate an activity that would draw together people from various parts
of the company. Their answer was clear—a handbell choir. They perform
six times a year at senior centers and nursing homes during the noon hours.
The important thing is to listen to your staff, ask them what they want
to do and how they want to do it, and then give them support they need
in terms of resources, recognition, and responsibility.
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