Ellwood Atfield hosted Engage International’s first event last night, in our gallery.
It was an interactive session where attendees got to play with Virtual Reality (VR) toys, courtesy of 27Partners, that are increasingly being used by organisations to showcase products: Ikea enables you to design your own kitchen for example and in the corporate world VR can be used for things like inductions and for attracting candidates to show them what it’s really like to work somewhere.
key takeaways
The session was kicked off by Damian McAlonan, Managing Partner of the Boost Partnership, who thinks that Abraham Lincoln should be the poster boy for engagement as he failed at so many things but succeeded in the end, and this is the type of perseverance that professionals need when driving engagement in a business. He said that engagement needs to have a vision and tenacity. He also said that it’s important to find out whether your leader is willing to take some risks or not and where they are on the Innovation Curve, as they will have to lead any cultural change initiatives.
27Partners also discussed case studies where they have used technology to meet business goals: reducing attrition; business costs and increasing sales through learning and development portals that also recognise employees and use gamification; video channels that can be watched in countries with poor bandwidth and through online newsletters that can be viewed in areas where there’s no signal.
Rob discussed how we live in a world of digital brilliance, then we go to work.
“Don’t make the audience fit the technology, make the technology fit the audience.”
Organisations spend vast amounts of money understanding consumer behaviour, so why don’t more companies do this with their most valuable asset – their employees?
What is the cost of losing talent for your organisation? Are you hiring the right people?
He also reiterated the point that with all these things, Content is King and to always think about the objective that you want to achieve.
It was also discussed how video content is on the increase. A Cisco study has revealed that by 2020, video will account for a staggering 75% of mobile traffic.
The event also supported the Humanitas charity who talked about how they strive to provide healthcare, education and family across the globe, and how partnering with a charity can benefit your organisation – providing employees the opportunity to give their time or money to a charity and help make a difference over and above their role.
