#019 Employee Engagement in a Hybrid Working World, with Robert Hicks & Lou Kwakye

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

10-06-2021 • 48 mins

IN THIS EPISODE:

Do you have a team whose hearts and minds are 100% invested in your business goals?

What are the levels of motivation across your account managers and sales team?

How ENGAGED are they?

For many businesses, the working world has changed and for most - it’s still changing. The concept of remote and Hybrid working is no longer uncommon, and sales leaders are battling the ongoing challenge of managing performance and inspiring excellence in teams that are no longer sat every day in the office, feeding off of each other’s energy and learning from their peers in the room.

Employee engagement is not a new thing. It’s long been acknowledged that happy and engaged teams lead to happy and engaged customers which ultimately create happy and engaged shareholders.

And…in today’s world, as we edge closer to our own new format and structure of work, engagement has never been so important.

Perhaps you are a business leader asking yourself “how do I engage a remote or hybrid team to maximise performance?”

Or perhaps you are an account manager who is questioning your own level of engagement and feeling a little disconnected from the business that pays for your peak performance.

Whichever camp you are in, there is no escaping the importance of employee engagement and how it really does affect your business’ ability to maximise the success of KAM performance.

In this episode we tackle a fundamental mission to MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE TO WORK. Knowing that if we do that, EVERYONE benefits.

To dive into the topic, I invited two guests from the company Reward Gateway - the employee engagement people. More than 2,000 organisations worldwide use the Reward Gateway platform to connect, support and recognise their employees, whenever and wherever they work.

Let’s dive straight in! You will hear from Robert Hicks, the Group Human Resources Director, and Lou Kwakye the Sales Director. Between them, they live and breathe the company’s mission (‘make the world a better place to work’), both internally and externally, whilst continuing to push for profitable performance.


HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE:

This is a big discussion about the variations of working as we emerge from restrictive living, and sharing ideas for the best ways to engage sales teams who are working remotely.

We explore side topics like:

  • how tech can support sales leaders to engage, excite and empower their teams and
  • what do we think the future looks like?

This is one of those episodes where we intentionally blur the line between new business and existing customer management to look at the fundamental building blocks for keeping people engaged.

The thing about Hybrid working is that it comes with a whole load of choices. Choice for an employee and choice for employers.

What choices have you made in the way you and your teams engage on your key account management mission?

Have you considered what tasks are best performed from which locations and environments and are you organising you and your team’s diaries to be most effective?

How are you and the team achieving the 4 C’s of:

  • Cooperation
  • Collaboration
  • Coordination and
  • Communication

Perhaps a truly engaged team is where a Quality of Life meets Quality of Work.

Robert and Lou are a great example of where Sales and HR are working together, not just on the People Strategy for maximising performance but the rich learning that can be accessed when senior leaders share experience across departments.

Senior leaders are buyers in their own rights, so how often to you