Build It: The Rebel Playbook for World Class Employee Management by Glenn Elliott (A software engineer by training and MBA drop out by choice, it took a ten-year corporate career for him to understand how employee disengagement feels.) & Debra Corey (Author, speaker, global rewards director and employee engagement rebel).

1. BUILD IT
Glenn Elliott and
Debra Corey’s
The Rebel Playbook for
World Class
Employee Engagement
Must Read Series

2. Why Employee Engagement is important?

3. Criteria of a Truly Engaged Employee
01
02
03
They understand and believe in the
direction in which the organization is
moving.
They can see how their role
contributes to achieving the goal.
They are genuinely invested in their
employer’s Success.

4. How Do You Cultivate a Sense of
Engagement among Employees?
• In this book Authors have offered a model to cultivate a sense of
engagement among employees named Elliott and Corey’s
Engagement Bridge™. Our main discussion will be based on that
model.

5. Elliott and Corey’s Engagement Bridge™
• The bridge has ten (10) distinct components (seven “Beams” and
three supporting “Rocks”): one doesn’t need every part to build a
functional bridge, but the strongest constructions incorporate all ten
elements.
• Seven Beams: Open and honest communication ; Purpose, mission
and values; Leadership; Management; Job design; Learning; and
Recognition.
• Three supporting Rocks: Pay and benefits; Workspace; and
Wellbeing.

6. Companies need to stop lying to their Employees
and embrace Honesty and Openness
• Being honest with people is the best way to gain their trust.
• Keeping the channels open at all times lets employees stay in the loop
and means they feel included and valued.
• Communication needs to be heartfelt.
• How we talk to people matters as much as what we are saying.
• Whether it’s a policy announcement or a review, it is important to be
honest and open about the reasoning behind decisions.

7. If your business has a clearly defined purpose, your
employees will be much more likely to engage
• Your mission is the what, your purpose the why and your values the
how.
• Having a clear sense of purpose works wonders for long- term health.
• Employees are four times as successful when they identified a set
mission for themselves.
• We should up-front about what we believe and get the message across
with our memorable, tongue-in-cheek values. It will be translated into
a breezy, customer-oriented ethos that filters into everyday working
practices and shapes the way employees think about company.

8. Don’t just tell people what your values are; put
them into action and lead by example
• Leadership is what you say while management is what you do. They
have to be correctly aligned if you want to build a strong bridge.
• Make sure that management is in tune with the values of the company
as because it is essential to keeping employees on board.
• Many managers fail to live the values that company have so carefully
developed. That means they often fail to cultivate the kinds of
environments in which people do their best work.
• It designs HR policy with the interests of employees in mind and in
such a way that it reflects the company’s mission, purposes and values.

9. Engaged leaders acting as role models make for
engaged employees
• Leadership and Management-more important than ever before.
• Employees are much more likely to be adaptable and implement
changes when they respect and trust their leaders.
• Half the battle is already won when you know what employees think
about your leadership.
• Great leadership isn’t just about making sound judgment that take
employees into account. It’s just as important to include them in the
decision making process itself.

10. Engaged leaders acting as role models make for
engaged employees (Cont.)
• Big changes are shaped by everyone who works for the organization
rather than result of orders coming from up top.
• Taking time to work out objectives and solutions together with the
people who’ll be responsible for implementing them might sound like
No-brainer, but a huge number of companies don’t do it!

11. Boosting engagement means ditching boring,
joyless jobs that feed disengagement
• Well designed, high engagement jobs are challenging but also give job
holder control.
• The challenges makes them exciting and the control gives the worker
autonomy and self-determination.
• What is a well designed job?:The best place to start is with freedom
and responsibility. Employees need to feel like they have the space to
fail as well as grow.

12. Work should be an opportunity for personal
growth, so pay more attention to learning
• People and organizations thrive when employees are given the chance
to learn and develop.
• But you can’t rely on training courses and learning technologies alone.
• Learning and development require employees to have enough freedom
in their role to experiment, try new things out and occasionally fail.
• When those values are part of the company’s DNA, employees are
much more likely to be able to learn and develop.

13. Work should be an opportunity for personal
growth, so pay more attention to learning (Cont.)
• Looking forward is also central to creating learning culture. That
means focusing on developing your staff to meet the challenges of the
future.
• Fostering that sort of working environment takes thought.
Understanding Why you want to implement learning strategies? is
the main point to make clear about your goal. Designing your
programs depends on it.

14. Ditch impersonal “recognition” programs that
don’t actually make people feel recognized at all
• Huge amount of money are wasted every year on reward programs
that don’t do very much to engage employees. Surprisingly little.
• 87 percent of all this money goes toward tenure rewards for lengthy
service. But 72 percent would be happy and feel appreciated with
simple thank you for their hard work.
• If a husband only said to his wife that he lover her every 5, 10 and 15
years, she wouldn’t be happy either. In fact, she’d probably leave him,
which is what your employees will do if all you do is recognize long
service.

15. Ditch impersonal “recognition” programs that don’t
actually make people feel recognized at all (Cont.)
• What employees want is continuous and timely recognition that
motivates them to carry on putting the hours in. Feedback is vital.
• If you want to boost recognition, make your employees visible not
only to their superiors but also among themselves.
• Peer to peer nomination programs provide a helpful model.
• The best place to start when it comes to implementing new programs
is asking your employees for feedback. What do they value and what
they like to see changed?

16. Employee don’t just want money; they want to be
valued and treated fairly
• Throwing money at disengagement doesn’t solve the problem
altogether. But it is an effective strategy to prevent your employees
from becoming disengaged.
• People can feel disengaged wherever they are on the pay ladder. What
really matters is fairness.
• People don’t like the idea of others getting more than they do for the
same thing. Income inequality is the top contributor to stress.
• The best pay and benefits schemes act on this insight. They prioritize
fairness of salaries and use benefits as a cultural differentiator.

17. Flexible working conditions shouldn’t be a luxury
but a standard
• Place and Space, it is about more than how an office looks- it’s the
way employees interact with their virtual and physical environment
that’s really important.
• Employees have started recognizing how movement in office can
boost productivity.
• Agile working; it means doing different tasks in different parts of the
office- reading in one area, taking calls in another, writing in another
and so on. Colleagues bump into each other more frequently,
increasing the chances of serendipitous collaborations.

18. Flexible working conditions shouldn’t be a luxury
but a standard(Cont.)
• Keeping your tech up-to-date helps keep things moving.
• Best work places are usually the result of reformers sticking to their
guns and following through.
• It is a good idea to start by taking stock of what you need and what
you have. Are there enough quiet spaces? Do you need extra meeting
rooms? Or may be you just need to make your workplace more
comfortable?
• After analyzing all the thoughts, ask your employee what they think.
They might just spot something you’ve missed.

19. If you want to get the best out of your employees,
pay attention to their wellbeing
• Well-being is essential to productivity.
• Healthy food options and gym membership become increasingly
common.
• The two other aspects of wellbeing that need to be taken care of-
mental and financial health.
• These are often ignored because of societal taboos. We don’t like
talking about mental health and money issues. That’s a mistake.
• Anxiety of any kind saps productivity.

20. If you want to get the best out of your employees,
pay attention to their wellbeing (Cont.)
• Taking a fully holistic attitude to health, by contrast, does wonders for
business results and innovation.
• Two things are important to go about doing that. Firstly, you need to
take a personalized approached. Secondly, that flexibility needs to be
anchored in the company’s culture.

21. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to engagement, so
employ some basic principles and follow your gut
• “Asking your employees what they think is really helpful”- is the first
thing you should to start Engagement Bridge.
• Open and honest communication are the heart and soul of engagement,
building trust that is needed in other areas of the bridge.
• You might not have realized that these are all principles we teach to
young children! Telling the truth, being kind and playing fair are all
values we try to pass on to our kids.

22. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to engagement, so
employ some basic principles and follow your gut (Cont.)
• Problem afflicting working environments is that these basic and
fundamental ideas seem not to have made it out of the playground and
into the office.
• You can create a more productive working environment by treating
employees fairly and trusting them.
• Define what you want your company to be before implementing
changes.

23. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to engagement, so
employ some basic principles and follow your gut (Cont.)
• Once you know where you are heading, it will be much easier to
engage your employees and get them on-board for the journey ahead.
• Some elements of the bridge will be more relevant to you than others.
Organizations are very different. Each has its own needs.

24. Employee engagement is vital
for modern organization to thrive
• It keeps the company relevant by driving productivity and innovation.
• The ten elements once again-Open and honest communication; purpose,
mission and values; leadership; management; job design; learning;
recognition; pay and benefits; workspace and wellbeing.
• The enemy of employee engagement is inertia. Notice what exactly you
are or aren’t lacking and what you would most like to improve, and start
today.
• Thnik whether or not you could successfully apply these exaples to your
company and why they would or wouldn’t work.

25. Obsolete Concepts
• Production line concept by Adam Smith: Employees should not be
like Artisans working on one thing from start to finish but more like
individual parts in a larger machine. Money would continue to provide
a reliable incentive. Efficiency continues to be rated more highly than
taking pride in what you do.

26. Impactful Example to enlighten us
• Target 50 million users: It took Radio 38 years to reach; Facebook
achieved that in a single year; Angry Bird needed just 35 days
• Social Media Company Buffer publishes the salaries of its employees
as well as reasoning behind its pay grades. It also releases its pricing
models and revenue data. As a result, everyone knows exactly where
they stand. Once Buffer had embraced their new transparency strategy,
applications to join the company rose by 5o percent!

27. Impactful Example to enlighten us (Cont.)
• The clothing retailer Gap Inc. has crafted performance review system
with its staff in mind. It’s called GPS or “Grow. Perform. Succeed.”
Just like a car’s navigation system, it helps employees stay on track
and reach their desired destination. It looks at employees’ personal
goals and focuses on delivering honest and broader performance
reviews.

28. Impactful Example to enlighten us (Cont.)
• The Shift in attitudes is reflected in the rise of websites Glassdoor that
allow workers to anonymously review their employers. More and
more people are making use of these platforms- approximately 41
million people use Glassdoor every month.(Leadership and
Management)

29. Impactful Example to enlighten us (Cont.)
• The British Leisure and Car Accessory Retailer Halfords has
developed a leadership model named “Leadership Index” for each
leader based on how employees view them as a leader. (Leadership
and Management)
• Software Marketer HubSpot realized that reducing the size of teams
can make a massive difference. Today, their product teams are made
up of just three members. That’s a great way of increasing employees’s
sense of autonomy and speeding up communication. The side effect?
Much higher engagement rates! (Job Design)

30. Impactful Example to enlighten us (Cont.)
• Valve Corporation (Video Game Developer) implemented a totally
“Flat Hierarchy” which gives every employee complete freedom to
innovate and follow their instincts. That’s a radical model, of course, it
works in Valve’s case. (Job Design)
• DIY company Homeserve have a four tiered recognition program
which ranges from annual and quarterly awards to e-cards thanking
employees for going the extra mile. Gratitude is expressed from the
highest levels as well as from colleagues on the shop floor. Over
22,000e-cards were sent and 5,000 awards exchanged between just
3,000 staff in the first year!!! (Feedbcak)

31. Impactful Example to enlighten us (Cont.)
• Software company Basecamp has a strict policy of paying people on
the same level the same amount of money. They also build bonuses
into base pay, putting a quarter of their annual profits into salaries than
one-off “extras”. That’s good for morale and retention. (Pay and
Benefits)
• When the new CEO of General Electric took charge of the Sydney
offices and implemented Agile working, there was plenty of kickback.
But over time, employees came to value their fluid and interactive
workspace. Now, the only permanent features are the employees’
lockers. Everything else moves around constantly. (Place and Space)

32. Impactful Example to enlighten us (Cont.)
• The web-hosting service provider Weebly introduced a special
sabbatical program for staff members who’ve been there for five years
or longer. It gives employees six weeks of paid leave and a round-trip
airfare to anywhere in the world. It’s an effective way of letting people
recharge their batteries and avoid burnout.(Wellbeing)

33. Impactful Example to enlighten us (Cont.)
• Money.co.uk took a similar radical step like General Electric. The
company refurbished a listed British Castle with the help of interior
designer and TV presenter Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. Whole process
was undertaken with employee input. (Place and Space)
• Travis Perkins PLC. started running a financial wellbeing program
tailored to the needs of it’s staff. Rather than simply throwing money
at it’s employees, it mapped out landmark financial stages in life like
buying a house or having kids. Company designed a special programs
and provide relevant and useful information for employees, giving
them the know-how to make sound choices.(Wellbeing)

34. Beautiful Quotes to show the way
• The greatest enemy of communication is the illusion that it has occurred.
• “I keep beating the drum- management is here to serve the workers.”-
Satya Nadella, CEO at Microsoft
• “ The best workplaces combine space, service, and culture to create a great
experience for employees and customers.”- Elliot Felix, founder of
Brightspot Strategy
• In United States a million workers miss work per day; thanks to stress.
• “A great place to work is awesome colleagues.”- Netflix
• “An intense focus on the customer through brave leadership.” -Amazon

35. References
• ‘Build it: The Rebel Playbook for World Class Employee
Engagement by Glenn Elliott and Debra Corey
• https://blogcritics.org/book-review-build-rebel-playbook-world-class-
employee-engagement-glenn-elliott-debra-corey/
• https://doublethedonation.com/tips/blog/2015/09/why-employee-
engagement-is-important/

36. BUILD IT & the Authors

37. Glenn Elliott
Debra Corey • Member, Forbes Human Resources Council
• Group Reward Director, Reward Gateway
• Founder, Reward Gateway

38. Thank You