How activities affect staff performance

Three pillars of loyalty

All people are different, a fact is a fact, but there are three things that attract absolutely any employee in his work (for whatever reasons he initially responded to the vacancy and no matter what he met later on his career path):

• self-actualization
• status and compensation,
• comfort.

According to surveys of various recruiting agencies and portals, an active audience of job seekers (men and women 25-35 years old with 3-5 years of experience) most of all appreciates in employers: career opportunities, significant responsibility for the company, income and training at the expense of the company, the status of an employee of a well-known brand, the opportunity to work in other divisions of the company (especially in international ones), as well as stability, social package and developed corporate culture.

There are also a number of reservations about the millennial generation (or generation Z), that is, the very young geniuses who are now graduating from the most prestigious universities. According to Universum, a guru in assessing HR branding, their values are supplemented by the company's image, its social and even political activities, technological progressiveness, and work with friends (that's right: now young people prefer to sincerely get involved in work and do it in a good company not so much of like-minded people as of close friends).

All these values can be easily divided into the above three groups (self-realization, status/compensation, and comfort). These are the three pillars on which the loyalty of staff to the company rests. These are the key tools of motivation - material and intangible. The greater the satisfaction of employees on all three points, the higher not only their loyalty, but also their efficiency. Consequently, companies that want to achieve maximum efficiency through the full involvement of personnel in work processes must create in-demand values for job seekers and employees. It is not for nothing that the so-called Employee value proposition (EVP) is gaining more and more popularity - a set of benefits and offers provided by the organization in exchange for the skills, abilities and experience of the staff.

Events as a business tool

And yet, it is not enough to simply formulate a value proposition. It needs to be demonstrated regularly. It is necessary with oAt a certain frequency, remind employees what exactly the employer attracted them to in the first place. It is necessary to rediscover for them the values of self-realization, status and comfort, so that they are again heartily involved in the work, if suddenly over time their ardor has faded. And the best tool for this is internal and external corporate events. Depending on the goals that the company pursues in relation to its employees (and increasing their efficiency), various types and formats of events come to the aid of employers.

Task:

Broadcasting the company's values, EVP presentation

Event options:

• corporate New Year or company anniversary,
• professional industry holiday,
• organization of conferences,
• Otrategia session.

Example: OSTEC Group, one of the leading engineering companies in Russia, declaring its core values, speaks of leadership, development, assistance and openness. The company is proud of its employees, whom it sees as a continuation of the greatest scientists of all time. Its team works ahead of time and strives to predetermine events in the development of advanced technology production. The Big Jack agency was tasked with displaying these values and the vector of development within the framework of the corporate New Year.  As a result of the joint work, a bright, extraordinary steampunk-style project " League of Outstanding Scientists" was born, the participants of which found themselves in an alternative high-tech future. The corporate values of the company were somehow represented in all intellectual entertainment, in the sand show, in the corporate analogue of "Svoya Igra" and even in catering (a buffet of molecular cuisine dishes and a Nitro Bar). At the end of the holiday, the team charged the company's logo with the help of TESLA SHOW.

Task:

Increase loyalty and engagement

Event options:

• Corporate New Year or company anniversary
• Off-site event
• Corporate family celebration
• Creative team building (quests, creative workshops, regattas, games, etc.)
• Organization of business tours

Example: Family values have always been important for all generations. Nevertheless, after a surge in entrepreneurial activity in the nineties and zero, modern  business people are increasingly inclined to believe that "killing" at work is not at all part of their job descriptions. The more the company pays attention to the family life of employees, the more loyal, calm, self-confident, and therefore effective employees are. That is why among the clients of the company "Big Jack" family holidays are so appreciated. And some corporations even prefer to hold New Year's corporate events in the format of classic children's Christmas trees with contests, master classes, shows and gifts (as it was in 2013 at Tatneft).

Task:

Creating a comfortable atmosphere in the team (including harmonization of relations between different generations)

Event options:

• Corporate New Year or company anniversary
• Adventure quest
• Rope team building
• Off-site team building
• Organization of business games

Example: Today, many large companies are faced with the fact that several completely different generations work within their walls with their own values and views of the world. How can we make sure that young people and old-timers learn to understand each other better and can work more effectively? For this purpose, for example, the Moscow State Autonomous Okrug held a New Year's corporate party on the theme "As in childhood": each generation celebrated "in its own way" (the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s were represented). And Group M, on the contrary, arranged a summer picnic like those that Afisha makes with music and interactive entertainment in the air. And the Big Jack agency also provided favorite activities of all ages and generations at the Like party holiday: generation X learned to "check in" and "like" young people in all kinds of social networks, and young colleagues learned the delights of flying kites.

Task:

Debugging the processes of interaction between branches and divisions

Event options:

• Corporate New Year or 

Example: X5 Retail Group's "Riga Stories", which were invented for the company by the team of the Big Jack agency, were a topic for discussion of the entire office for a long time. The objectives of the quest in Old Riga with comic and not at all comic stress tasks were: the development of stress resistance and self-confidence in the participants, the acquaintance and rallying of employees and the demonstration of the importance of the work of the back office. The fact is that before the trip to Riga, many of the staff communicated only remotely and by mail. After they went through difficult tests together, it became easier to work side by side. This experience also made the strategic session of the second day more effective: the participants together developed a plan for improving teamwork, as they learned to listen and hear each other during the event.  

Task:

Demonstration of the company's image and status

Event options:

• Anniversary of the company
• Professional industry holiday
• External events
• Organization of forums and business seminars
• Organization of city events
• Sponsorship (with activation) in significant social projects

Example: To increase brand awareness and significance in the market, to attract new partners and expand the circle of adherents, the Big Jack agency offered REDIS CREW to hold an external event for 200 key top managers of the industry and make it conditionally closed - by invitation only ("only for the elite"). In the process of meeting with the "fruitful" concept (as soon as the name of the client company itself suggested it), two blocks were provided: "Harvesting" (a story about achievements) and "What you sow, you reap" (announcement of future business events). In front of the official part, unusual entertainment awaited the guests in the welcome zone: some performed simple tasks of the director on a green background (and by the evening the organizers had already shown the guests the finished film), and otherse painted virtual graffiti with good wishes for the company.

Task:

Proving the importance of each employee for the company, increasing efficiency through the disclosure of new talents of the staff

Event options:

• Corporate family celebration
• Adventure quest
• Creative team building
• Organization of business games

Example: A large bank, faced with a crisis of relations in the team due to the "star sickness" of some departments and individual employees, conducted a creative adventure quest based on stories about the Vikings. Employees were divided into several teams, which were initially asked to pass speed tests. On the way of the team to the cherished goal - the hammer of Thor - there were a variety of obstacles: they were selected by the Big Jack agency so that each employee could prove himself. There was no chance to reach the goal without applying the knowledge and skills of everyone without exception. And at the final step, it turned out that the teams had to unite in order to achieve the goal. Thus, the agency managed to demonstrate to the "stars" from the bank that without the participation of other employees and without refusing to compete and unite to achieve a common goal, there can be no development and victories.

Task:

Preparing the team for a new stage in the life of the company

Event options:

• Adventure quest
• Creative team building
• Off-site team building
• Organization of business games
• Strategic Sessions

Example: In 2011, the leaders of Azbuka Vkusa were tasked with preparing the team for the rapid growth and challenges of the next year. Its customer relayed it to the event agency, which was to hold a corporate event that would allow them to see colleagues from a new perspective, reveal talents, and show that the team is ready for much greater challenges than they used to think. To accomplish this task, the Big Jack team rented an entire island, where  they created the atmosphere of an abandoned pirate haven there. For three days, the participants of this unusual team building lived in primitive conditions (it was 80 km to the mainland in open water), they arranged their own life, they themselves They hunted (there was no food on the island, except for specially imported game, which had to be obtained), along the way finding clues in different parts of the island. Only by joint efforts the participants were able to understand what needs to be done for rescue, build a real raft, swim 3 km to the lighthouse, repair it and call rescuers. 

The benefits are obvious

Of course, the event can pursue several different goals. And the examples above in this sense are also indicative: the same corporate holiday "League of Outstanding Scientists" not only revealed the values of the company, but also contributed to close communication between the older and younger generations of employees, and during the "Riga Holidays" the accompanying goal of harmonizing relations in the team was achieved (during the quest, a lot of jokes were born, "chips" and other common to all and understandable only among their content, which was then used within the company as a unifying principle). 

At the same time, the head of the company should know that the result and effectiveness of the event can be calculated. Today, event agencies have learned to digitize even emotions. In this they are helped by a variety of questionnaires that allow you to calculate, for example, the index
Employee Engagement (EEI), Loyalty Index (NPS), Employer Attractiveness Index (EAI) before and after the event. Significant changes in these indicators will be a clear demonstration that the team buildings, holidays or business events held were a justified investment in staff efficiency.