The Impassioned Workforce

Two great posts at Jeffrey Treem’s blog Inside the Cubicle caught my eye today. The first was a take on internal communication and executive on-boarding through blog power! Jeffrey reports how Jamie Chabra of Bob Evans Farms set up a blog for new CEO Steve Davies, to introduce him to the organisation and provide all employees direct access to their new leader. I am certain that this level of openness and inclusion will have increased passionate engagement, as people felt their opinion count to their new CEO. The transition to a new leader is always a period of great uncertainty and to my mind Steve Davies shows great empathy in establishing a blog and providing a portal for his people to get to know him. The advantage in return is that he gets to drive the water cooler conversation rather than pretend it doesn’t exist. Very impressive!

In the second (after a little more digging through this excellent site) I found a story about how effectively interactive media can be used to dramatic effect in recruiting. This story (which tracks-back through several iterations including a posting by Amy Gahran of PoynterOnline, Toronto Globe and Mail journalist Matthew Ingram, and Cory Bergman of Lost Remote in Seattle – the power of viral!) has to be seen to be believed! Again, by involving all these ‘extras’ in the campaign to recruit a new editor, the organisation is ensuring their commitment to the final choice! I wish ALL recruitment ads were so impactful!

Jeffrey, thanks for a great site. I wish I could reference all your articles! So far the read has been very worthwhile!