Employee Engagement- A lesson from 100 years ago

You know how sometimes the most obvious things are looking you in the face? I've been looking for examples of employee engagement stories. The bad stuff, and I mean really bad, cringeworthy examples of ill conceived communications, the well intentioned ideas that backfired or the complete and utter miscalculation of some of the bosses, we have all probably met at some point. You know exactly what I am talking about. And, of course to get a bit of balance, the stories about the truly amazing stuff too.

And then I remembered..... how could I forget?

I am a direct product of one of the greatest employee engagement stories of all time. The story that created one of the world's largest companies and boxes full of household name brands that have become intertwined with virtually everybody's life. If you having been thinking that employee engagment is about just being being a bit more cuddly, or that it might be a 'nice thing' to put a few bits of gym kit in the basement for your staff, o rmaybe put in a shower, I am here to tell you that you really don't know the half or it.

I am a child of a village called Port Sunlight, created over 100 years ago to look after the workers for the Lever Brothers soap factory, by one of the greatest social philanthopists the commercial and industrial world has ever see. It is still there, in all its pristineness, just a twenty minute drive from the Pier Head in Liverpool. A magical, inspiring place of space and calm that sets the benchmark for how to treat and nuture your talent; your employees.


Growing up in the village a bit like going through the wardrobe to Narnia It was just a perfect place to grow up but, more than that, it raised my expectations and lifted my eyes to new horizons and, maybe most of all provided me along with the humanitarian lessons, that a staff’s welfare isn't just a nice thing to do and think about, but has a bottom line effect that can help create, and this is not to any degree hyperbole, an empire. The Unilever Group now includes the ultra brands of the likes of Lynx and Ben & Jerry’s and employs hundreds of thousands across the Globe. All because of palm oil and one man's vision of how to add value to it.

Today the village is still very much as it was. Although there are naturally more cars it still is remarkably peaceful. The wide vistas, pavements and green spaces are all still their, manicured and coiffured. The buildings, columns, walls and the numerous nods to a world history of architectural styles are devoid of any graffitti, anywhere. At the centre of the village, the hub holding the glorious spikes of its structure together, is the stunning war memorial, one of the most glorious and moving examples of the art form built anywhere.

The outdoor swimming pool, heated to almost tropical delights by the factory, in which thousands of us Sunlight children learnt to swim, is now a garden centre. But pretty well everything else is still there as it was when it was built 120 years ago - although the slopes we rode our bikes up and down and the statues and fountains we climbed over, seem a lot smaller these days.

There are hundreds of stories that feature the founder, William Hesketh Lever and his wife Elizabeth, and what they did on a day-to-day basis for the welfare of their staff, but I think one story epitomises what they may have felt about what was the right thing to do.

Imagine it is the early 1900's. The factory has blossomed since its opening in 1887, and new demand means they are opening their first factory overseas in Brussels, so what does Lever do?

He shuts the factory and the village for a weekend. He takes 2000, yes that's 2000 of them, on a trip. That's pretty well everyone in the village. They are used to the paid for annual trips to indulge in the delights of Blackpool, the garden parties in their own home, the birthday presents for every child, often delivered by Elizabeth herself. This time, they are given an adventure few would ever dream of. The employees are all given colour coded tickets to board specially hired colour coded trains, (you could do that in those days), to take them to the English Channel, then by ferry to Ostend, where this small victorian army is collected up by more painted trains. On their arrival in Brussels that are wined and dined at a string of restaurants across the city and then given a tour in a fleet of 300 wagons and landaus before the opening ceremony that evening. The village's own 40 piece orchestra play to entertain them.

This was in 1900. Can you imagine challenges of this logistical feat? They did have the help of another famous company, that is still going strong, one Thomas Cook, but even so? Can you imagine asking your board to write that cheque? And why did he do it?

It was I believe pretty simple really - he realised that, 100 years before we ‘invented’ the concept of work life balance, 60 years before the UK’s welfare state and free health care, 100 years before the creation of the EU and maximum working week directives, that the single most important factor in creating a happy and willingly cooperative and productive workforce was to build within it a sense of belonging. And he also was always mindful that you cannot build anything with people who do not care and that his own personal wealth arose from their labours.

This wasn't just a one off either. Change is not a single event. The list of events and goes on and on. I have scores of stories about the ideas and initiatives, of his innovation and sometimes down right cunning; how he introduced a maximum 36 week for all female staff - this was in the 1890’s for heavens sake - free medical treatment in their own hospital, workers education programmes, it just goes on and on. Although undoubtedly driven by pure benevolence, he wasn’t just being Father Christmas, it was also had a pragmatic bottom in too. Something he was very, very aware of.

He makes you feel a tad of ashamed with our miserly efforts, and IC managers worrying ourselves to death about whether the intranet works.

History is often a useful reference, but don't we we all need a 'root's story anyway?


Please feel to post your example of the good or bad internal communications or employee engagement below, anonymously if you like or give is us link to something, or just share.