EXCLUSIVE: Tammy Palmer (pictured), head of people development and engagement at charity Age UK, will discuss how community opportunities can work as a low-cost employee engagement tool at Employee Benefits Live 2017.
The session, titled ‘Creative and cost-effective employee engagement strategies’, will form part of the employee engagement conference stream on Tuesday 10 October.
In her session, Palmer will speak about how employers can engage a multi-generational workforce with their organisation’s brand and culture without having to invest in expensive schemes that may be unaffordable for some businesses, such as those in the voluntary sector.
Palmer, in particular, will highlight her experiences at Age UK, describing how the organisation uses community volunteering and career opportunities, such as work experience, paid internships, a graduate programme and an apprenticeship programme, to encourage staff to become brand ambassadors for the charity.
She will cite how an employee-led social media campaign bolstered the charity through a difficult business period, and how Age UK’s charity mission and goals influences its employee engagement proposition.
She said: “I’m going to be talking about cost-light employee engagement opportunities, and flying the flag for the voluntary sector.
“It doesn’t matter what sector [employers] work in, it doesn’t matter who [employers] are; [organisations] don’t have to throw millions of pounds at engagement opportunities. It’s about people coming together and sharing experiences, being part of something, and I think really, really crucially, it’s opportunity to give back to their community.
“[Employee engagement is] nothing to do with money; it’s the way in which [employers] approach it and it’s the way in which staff responds to it. […] For me, it is about valuing everybody in [the] organisation and believing everybody in [the] organisation can and wants to contribute and finding the best way to get them to do that.”
Employee Benefits Live 2017 will take place on Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 October at Olympia National, London.