‘Twas the night of the holiday party: An employee engagement poem

3 min read

‘Twas the night of the company holiday party, when all through TCR* 
(And truth be told, all offices near and far)
Not a co-worker was sitting, they were headed for the bar.
The plans had been set, the work was all done
Except one RGer, who’d put a pause on his fun.

He sat tapping away, his head bent down low
So I asked with curiosity, isn’t it time for us to go?

“Not yet,” he said, “I’ve got one client issue”
“I can’t go to the party, without solving this to-do!”

I walked away feeling so proud
This client, I thought, is sure to be “WOWed!”

The RG holiday cheer was in the air
For this engaged employee, he’d just done his share!

(That’s the end of my little Christmas poem!)

*TCR is our name for Tottenham Court Road, where our new London headquarters are! 

The True Meaning of Employee Engagement

When I told our content guru Chloe Deiulis about my Reward Gateway holiday experience, she penned this poem, inspired by my officemate, for a deeper reason than just to give you a laugh (though I hope it did!).

The truth is, I see dedication and a truly engaged workforce all around me, and this is just one example.

Along with taking part in the eggnog and festive decorations, my co-worker knew he had greater a responsibility to help his client, who was going live with their new discount platform in a few days. Although there were others in the team who were working on it, he said he couldn’t leave until he was 100 percent sure that it was all in order.  

What made this such a poignant moment for me was that earlier in the day I had spent 90 minutes presenting to a group of HR Directors on the topic of employee engagement. I had shared with them the theoretical side of engagement, sharing with them facts and figures on the importance of engagement, the impact of engagement and tools they could bring back to their organizations to impact engagement.

One of the slides I had shared with the audience was one showing three things commonly seen in employees who are engaged:

1. Understand the direction the organization is going in - it’s purpose, mission and objectives, they feel part of something bigger than themselves;

2. Understand how their role impacts and contributes to the organization’s purpose, mission and objectives;

3. Genuinely want the organization to succeed and feel shared success with the organization.

Walking into the office and seeing this employee brought these words alive to me, taking them from theoretical to practical. He had such a strong understanding of the importance of what our company does, what he does for the company and what he does for his client, and as the last bullet says, he genuinely wanted the client and the organization to succeed.

So I dedicate my holiday poem and this blog to this employee (you know who you are), and to all others at Reward Gateway and other organizations around the world who through their engagement help their organizations succeed. My wish for the new year is that as an HR community we continue to work together to close the engagement gap, bringing more joy to our companies and to our employees.