The first 100 days: A five-step plan for tackling a new role in employee engagement

By Catrin Lewis, Head of Global Engagement

So, you’ve found yourself heading up engagement at your company. Firstly, congratulations! I was in the same position 100 days ago, so I know just how much of a big job it is. With that in mind, I’d like to share what I found really helpful in my first three and a half months as Global Head of Engagement and Internal Communications.

The first thing I want to start out with is that even though my title encompasses engagement and internal communications, sometimes companies treat this role very differently. I focus primarily on managing our employee engagement platform, delivering on our employee communications strategy and championing our Diversity and Inclusion initiatives, but in other companies, depending on size, company focus etc., other responsibilities might roll up to the Head of Engagement like working with a Rewards Director to evaluate company benefits or to put in place an employee rewards system.

OK, back to you, the new Head of Engagement! My first piece of advice might surprise you, but it’s to relax a little. We don’t want horizontal, just ease your foot off the pedal a little. Trying to tackle a few months of work in just a few weeks will inevitably end in disaster. Not only will you burn yourself out, you won’t be able to implement effective changes and real, long-lasting policies. It’s far better that you prioritise, spread out the load and ensure ample time is allocated to each task.

My plan of attack? As is inevitable, some overlapped and some ran simultaneously, but for the most part, I handled things like this…

Click here to find out more