This week a ‘one year on’ conference was held at the Department of Business Innovation & Skills in London to mark 12 months since the creation of the Employee Engagement Task Force, which was formed and launched with the support of David Cameron.
Comms professionals, particularly those working in internal communications, are no doubt familiar with the 2009 Engaging for Success report to Government by David MacLeod and Nita Clarke. Despite the change in Government, employee engagement was one of the very few initiatives considered so significant in its own right that the new Government took an interest too, although it’s important to note that the Task Force is not funded by them, but by its members.
Back in May 2011 I attended the Institute of Internal Communication (IoIC) annual conference in Bournemouth and wrote about the MacLeod report after hearing MacLeod speak, which you can read here.
From MacLeod to the masses
This week I’ve been in touch with Ali Godding who has been seconded to the Task Force. In this new role she will undertake a variety of activities to bring the work of the movement to life for as many people as possible. This will include being focused on communications and updates from the various work streams. Ali has just published the first blog post from the group on the back of Monday’s conference, so I thought I’d share it with readers of Diary of an internal communicator.
She is planning to update people with news from the Task Force via the official Engage for Success blog, including what’s been happening with regional subgroups. I’ve added it to my blogroll, so do be sure to check in with it to keep updated with the latest news.
Alongside Ali (@EngagementAG), the blog will be managed by fellow secondee Cathy Brown (@cathyab) and they will both be tweeting via the official Task Force Twitter account @Engage4Success. You can also check out the Task Force via their Facebook page and their LinkedIn group. Alternatively contact them: info@engagingforsuccess.org
Further reading
Doug Shaw, who runs What Goes Around Limited, has published his own article about Monday’s Task Force conference, offering his thoughts on how it went and what he saw.
If the Task Force is new to you, check out this film for an overview of what the practitioner group is trying to achieve and if you have any comments for them, do get in touch via the links above.
What do you think about the employee engagement task force? Do you think that employee engagement is being recognised in your workplace and by businesses as an essential ingredient to business success? Feel free to share your thoughts below, Rachel.
