At the Engage for Success conference last month, I was inspired
by a tale from serial entrepreneur Sir Eric Peacock regarding one of the
practices he follows within his companies.
It’s a simple thing: his companies send a bottle of
champagne with a couple of glasses to people about to join them. The message is
clear: “we’re looking forward to seeing you”. The aim is to engage the employee
before they even walk through the door, to demonstrate that this is an employer
that will value them. Of course, there’s a defensive aspect to this – they
don’t want the prospective employee to be attracted by a counter-offer from their
current company – but there is also a real commitment to engagement and to
treating an employee as individual, even before he/she joins.
It’s not the only thing that is sent. There is other
material that follows it, including the usual pre-joining stuff you will get in
any company. But the celebration comes first: an important signal that sets the
context for the connection between employer and employee.
I’ve heard about it before, but I still found it inspiring.
Why? Because we don’t do enough of it, in any of our organisations. It doesn’t
have to be champagne, that’s not right
for everyone, but a gesture that shows we are excited to welcome a new employee
and can’t wait to start working with them is a powerful signal of intent. It’s
easy to appreciate the warmth that such a gesture creates. So why don’t we do
more if it?
To start as we mean to go on, to really connect with people and
seek to build engagement, we should be using every opportunity. We should also be creating
additional touchpoints to ensure a connection struck during recruitment is
maintained and even strengthened rather than falling fallow. The ‘Peacock
Principle’ as I shall now be calling this, is one to remember.
No comments:
Post a Comment