I have argued against the notion that employee engagement is about warm “fuzzies” and pizza parties. I have changed my mind because of Claudio Ranieri’s management of the Leicester City Football Club.
David Zinger is a Canadian employee engagement speaker and expert who is always open to having his mind changed.
My view is that these things are nice to do things, but do they really impact the workplace in a measurable way? And when they do NOT generate results, does that failure then prevent organizations from doing things that WOULD work because no results were seen from the expenditure of money and time with the “pizza?” Companies spend Big Bucks on things like Firewalking ($300+ a person) and then see no changes (and a few burned feet are generally expected) and then do they do sponsor some event or acticity the next year? (The pun is, “once burned…”)
How many pot-luck lunches have you attended? And while a softball team might generate some community recognition, does it even compensate for the second-baseman hobbling around on a sprained ankle for the next two weeks, much less decrease interdepartmental competitiveness? Paintball?
Gee, let’s go go-kart racing and improve our service quality…
Hello Scott: I would have shared the same opinion until recently. I think there are more fundamental elements of engagement but I think this example along with the work of making the pizza and the celebration of progress and the results of this fine football team speak otherwise to me. Pizza is not all that much for a football team in the grand scheme of Premier League budgets. Don’t forget, in the word of square wheels, pizzas are round! 🙂