GreenBiz’s 13th Forum kicked off yesterday with a series of intensive workshops. I attended Engaging Employees: How to Make Sustainability Simple, Effective and Fun. It included an impressive line-up of engagement experts, including Susan Hunt Stevens Founder & CEO, Practically Green, Mario Herger Senior Innovation Strategist, SAP, Megan Rast Environmental Sustainability Manager, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Edward Butler Sustainability Manager, Nokia.Takeaways
- Goal: Make your program fun and informative that inspires action and will span different offices/cultures.
- Measurable: Identify clear, measurable metrics of success.
- Focus: Don’t tackle every issue at once. Sometimes focusing on just one action works best.
- Video: Sony Pictures shared one of the videos they use to engage employees (they show a sustainability video at employee orientation!). They nailed that tough task of making engagement funny!
What Sustainability Directors can Learn from Angry Birds: Elements that make a program fun and engaging
For me, this was the most engaging portion of the day. A lively presentation and discussion on the question of how we can bring the elements of gaming to our engagement programs. I was a very late adopter to trying Angry Birds, but still recall how it grabbed me and I was up until 3 am playing it. How do we get employees this passionate about sustainability? Some of the elements to consider as you design a program.
- Constant Feedback: This is key. Create a way for employees to know how they are doing and how others are doing.
- Reward: This is also key. Green stars, stickers, badges, “frequent flier” rewards and prizes that will feel like a reward.
- Clear goals: % participation, energy saved, dollars saved all options.
- Other elements to report: % complete, # of people, # of actions, team score.
- Profiles: Create individual or team profiles where they can learn from each other.
