Well there is no such thing as a free lunch…however according to Gallup Organisation in one of their many studies. If people are engaged with their employer (in other words know what they are doing, why they are doing it and others notice the difference they make) 78% will openly recommend the company’s products or services. For disengaged people only 13% will recommend their company’s product. Did I mention already that according to Gallup that Australians are the second least engaged employees in the world (after the French!!) I worked in marketing at Ansett when it launched the campaign “You can’t have the greatest airline in the world without the greatest people”.

It is a while ago now (obviously). Talk about setting people up to fail. It is nice to put a badge on 15,000 employees to promote the campaign. But if you are a baggage handler and a customer is giving you grief over a bag that has gone in the wrong direction. Do you think that the badge announcing that they are the ‘greatest’ is really meeting the customer’s experience of the brand? What about the poor bunny who had to wear the badge….if they don’t believe the message, they are not going to ‘live’ it or promote it. ‘I feel terrible about my job, they set me up to fail, I cannot win – I will not be a spokesperson for my company’ Ooh it comes back to honouring your people – then they will give you free advertising.