Engagement has been management flavour of the month for the last seven or eight years – but what does it mean to “engage” your employees?  And are all types of engagement made equal?

This two-part workshop will challenge assumptions about engagement – what it is, whether one definition is more appropriate to your organisation than another, how you measure it and give real-life examples of where it’s been done in business.  It also breaks new ground for the IABC by bringing together communicators and HR professionals in one development programme.  This recognises the crucial impact of communication on HR activity in this area – and also the need of communicators to be able to say something authentic which reflects actual management practice.The two parts of the programme allow for participants to think outside of the session of how they might plan and implement suggestions in the workplace.

Who should attend?

Communicators and HR practitioners who want to take time to reflect on engagement, and work on developing an approach to engagement in their organisation.

The facilitators

Simon Hardaker

Simon is the Director, Group Employee Communications at the engineering company GKN. He’s responsible there for developing and implementing engagement and communication strategy for the company.

Karen Drury

Karen is a partner in fe₃ consulting following stints in regional theatre, local government, Hill & Knowlton, Porter Novelli and Beaufort Management Consulting.  She has a critical approach to engagement as a concept.

Ghassan Karian 

Ghassan is founder of agency Karian and Box, and was previously Director of Employee Engagement and Communication at Centrica, ICI and Rolls-Royce. Ghassan currently advises clients such as HSBC, BP, Nationwide, TUI Travel, lastminute.com and Warburtons.

Jane Mitchell

Jane is an associate director with Karian and Box. She is an experienced advisor on internal communications strategies, and offers specialist expertise in business ethics programmes. Her clients include BAE Systems, Cable&Wireless, Diageo, and BP. Jane is also a visiting lecturer at Kingston University and President of the IABC UK.

Where and when?

Day 1 – Thursday, 20 October 2011 – 9.30 – 16.00

Day 2 – Monday, 31 October 2011 – 13.30 – 17.00

Venue – VMA, 23 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3HH (020 7436 4243)

*** NB: your ticket price includes both days.  Please ensure you can attend both parts ***