EGR International, a New York-based company long-prominent in the meetings management and incentives business, recently announced that it would be positioning itself in the marketplace as a “Full-Service Engagement Agency.” The change would make EGR one of the first companies out of the meetings/incentives industry to put on that mantle.
“We’re not moving out of the meetings and incentives business, but we are moving into more of an agency space,” explains EGR president Jeff Grisamore. “We see the engagement space as a coalescence of several marketing disciplines, including meetings, incentive, performance improvement programs, integrated marketing, advertising, to a certain extent, and communications in particular.”
EGR was created in 1970 as a promotional marketing agency and increased its services over the years to include meetings management, incentive and recognition programs, event management, and multi-media communications, as well as consumer promotions. “About eight years ago,” Grisamore says, “we started enriching our meeting management and incentives portfolio with an overlay of very powerful communication elements. And that has taken us down a different path. We think that a lot of the things we’re doing really have the look and feel of a full-service engagement program.”
In fact, he adds, “the nomenclature of an engagement agency fits really well with what we’ve been doing in many of our programs over the last eight years, including interactive social platforms – which are kind of advanced websites or intranet sites – and a lot of motion-graphics and other unique communications features that fall right into that engagement wheelhouse. We’re also able to overlay a very powerful communication element onto our traditional programs so that they look and feel very different.”
According to Grisamore, EGR won’t be abandoning any of its core businesses. “We’ll continue to do meetings management programs and incentive programs – even incentive programs that by a client directive don’t have the level of engagement that we think they should have,” he says. “Our challenge will be to coach and help direct our clients into considering a broader-based portfolio of services that will help their programs inch closer to what we would consider to be an engagement application.”
● For more info on EGR International, go to @@http://www.egrinternational.com
JWT INSIDE, the employee communications and marketing arm of JWT, the largest advertising agency in the U.S., recently announced it will become a Gold Sponsor of the EEA. The marketing firm supports the EEA’s guiding principle that there is a critical connection between an organization’s financial results and the engagement of all of the people critical to success including customers, channel partners, employees, vendors and communities. JWT INSIDE believes there is a strategic link between an organization’s external and internal brand and making that connection enables a company to consistently deliver and enhance its brand promises, and, ultimately, the business outcome. According to Rob Quish, JWT INSIDE CEO, “We are at the onset of a big opportunity to intersect insights and craft tight communication strategies to change understanding, attitudes and behaviors. As smart companies are beginning to realize that engagement is a primary driver of business success, they need a unique form of agency that can help them make the connection between the brand promises and the communications and involvement of all organizational stakeholders to make sure those promises get delivered.”
● For more info on JWT INSIDE, go to www.jwtinside.com/
What is the connection between employee perceptions of organizational ethics and engagement levels? To explore this question, Hay Group Insight recently partnered with the Ethics Resource Center (ERC), a not-for-profit organization based in Washington, DC devoted to the advancement of high ethical standards and practices in public and private institutions, to insert several key engagement metrics into ERC’s 2009 National Business Ethics Survey (NBES), an ethics related poll conducted every two years in the U.S. Mark Royal, Senior Consultant with Hay Group Insight, recently spoke with Rebecca Masson, who led analyses of the data, regarding the findings.
● To read the interview, go to http://haygroupnews.com/ve/ZZp71j72L30V98Bnm26/VT=0/page=6
Globoforce recently announced the launch of the Globoforce Workforce Mood Tracker, a new semi-annual survey that provides insights on the current pulse of the U.S. worker. The new survey offers an invaluable benchmark on the driving factors behind employee engagement and motivation levels of the U.S. workforce. The first semi-annual report shows recognition ambivalence among today’s employees in the U.S. While 68% of those surveyed feel appreciated at their jobs, an alarming 41% aren’t satisfied with the level of recognition they receive for doing good work. Indicative of both the infrequency and non-personal nature of many of today’s employee recognition programs, 43% of U.S. workers had not been recognized in the past three months. More importantly, a startling 55% felt they weren’t rewarded according to job performance, indicating a critical disconnect between recognition and performance.
● To view the full survey results, go to www.globoforce.com/Feb2011_Mood_Tracker_Results/
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