This week, we are participating in the Capital Associated Industries’ HR Management Conference at the McKimmon Center in Raleigh, NC. The theme is “Crushing Your Competition With Culture & Talent.” Several speakers have spoken about the need to transform the culture within our organizations to become more engaging. Engagement “management” is a huge topic for HR professionals, as we live in a day and time wherein employees’ minds are engaged/distracted by so many other forces. One of the speakers in particular spoke about the metrics for fun companies versus boring places to work.

While “fun,” may be a stretch for your organization, certainly, we can agree that “boring” is to be avoided at all costs. In between the extremes is where most of us live and work. The ultimate challenge is to find a way to treat the workers within our companies as customers–in doing so, we care about the unique interactions we have with each and become intentional in such.

Engagement takes collaboration!

Marketers think about the messaging, form of delivery, and psychographics of customers all the time. As HR professionals, we are challenged to do the same–both in our direct interactions and in the environment we help foster. There are always a zillion things that fall to our charge that distract us from this type of intentional awareness of what we’re doing for establishing culture. Slowing down to think thoughts like those below–and encouraging others to do so–can inject care and engagement into work life.

• how will she perceive this communication?
• is email the best way to share this information?
• am I the best person to bring this topic up?

Treating our supervisors, peers, and subordinates as target markets changes the dynamics of what we do dramatically. We develop strategies per “market segment,” tactics within each strategy, and “solutions” for problems we did not even know existed until we adopted this approach. Bon chance in making this concept work in your organization!