It’s Thursday evening. Drinks and food are laid out. Soft music is playing in the background. What’s the crowd at Urban Workshop doing there exactly? Learning how to boost morale at their respective work environment of course!
50 professionals gathered at the makerspace Urban Workshop in Costa Mesa to discuss tips and tricks on how to boost morale at the work place. The panel discussion and mixer featured three panel presentations followed by a Q&A.
First up, Sukh Chugh, President of XL-LEAD, presented on why employee engagement is even important at the workspace and the statistics he presented were staggering. $550 Billion a year is lost in the US economy due to disengaged employees. Mr. Chugh went on to provide a leadership development framework which provided practical solutions for managers and companies to improve employee engaged at their respective work places.
J’ne Hinger, Vice President at Allergan, then came up to talk about the importance of Trust when managing teams. Her personal accolades and historical references drove the point home – trust leads to success. Trust actually affects the bottom line as Mrs. Hinger showed us. She compared two companies with very different approaches, and then presented their resulting stock performance. A high-trust environment wins out every time!
Next up, Raghav Putrevu gave the perspective from a small company. As CEO of Orange People he’s tasked with keeping motivation up in a very fast-paced environment. Mr. Petrevu discussed how he has incorporated employee empowerment into the design of his operations and how it has ultimately led to better services for their clients.
After the presentations the engaged crowd asked several questions related to their own work environments. One thing was clear, the topic of improving morale is a vital one in today’s market economy.
The event would not have been possible without the generous sponsorship of Ledgent Technology and Engineering. The topic of morale affects them directly as well, as they provide consulting and permanent IT staff to various industries in the area.
At closing, Mr. Chugh reminded the crowd of the two innovative programs that XL-LEAD is engaged in. A monthly book club and a quarterly event. November’s book club is focused on reading Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh, and January’s event will be focused on Managing Diversity at the workplace. More details are here: www.xllead.com.
Presentations from the panel workshop:
- When Morale Matters – Presentation by Sukh Chugh
- Culture of Trust – Presentation by J’ne Hinger
- People Talk – Presentation by Raghav Putrevu
Pictures from the event:
