So in honour of two amazing Nigerian women I met through a women’s’ fitness group, we would be celebrating their mind-boggling feat of running 7 marathons everyday for 7 days on 7 continents with a group of 33 other people by the time this article is published. (42.195km is the real distance of a full marathon by the way). Worthy of note is that Guinness World Records was on standby as they attempted to achieve this mind-boggling feat!
As I explored the Guinness world records website inquisitively, I was amazed to note that there are records in honour of employee engagement!
Excerpts from the Guinness Book of World Records website: “No matter what corporate challenge you’re facing, when it comes to driving business performance, there’s nothing more important than a committed and cohesive workforce.
Our corporate record-breaking solutions incorporate the ultimate accolade of prestige and strength, a Guinness World Records title challenge and are designed to energise employees, bring teams together in a shared sense of achievement and to reaffirm the belief, that anything is achievable. All solutions are custom-built to bring to life key messages with authenticity while providing employees with a unique team building experience and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to discover what it means to be a record-breaker“.
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There are various event formats that cut across trainings, leadership away days, conferences and staff parties – yes you can win with organising a record breaking staff party that truly gets the engagement barometer on an all-time high!
Business leaders can’t just go ahead and attempt to drive employee engagement for the singular reason of getting a world record. When it comes to people the true litmus test is authenticity. The key message here is to propel business leaders especially those already on an employee engagement path, to see this as an added advantage to keep the momentum going. Leverage the power of record breaking in a way that would inspire your staff.
Examples of Guinness world records employee engagement initiatives:
Following the successful launch of the Galaxy S5 and Gear Fit, Samsung UK rewarded the high-performing marketing team behind these campaigns with an activity that was both aligned with the nature of the products and would reaffirm their culture of innovation. A bespoke series of record-title challenges was created for 180 employees to experience working towards a shared goal across different team dynamics.
Tesco is the sponsor of Stand Up To Cancer, a charitable partnership and wished to engage its staff around the UK with this CSR initiative. The most people standing on one leg simultaneously (Stand Up to Cancer literarily) at a single venue is 2,276 and was achieved by Tesco (UK) staff in the Guinness book of records.
Garnier Canada was interested in a team-building exercise for its national sales meeting. The record needed to excite and inspire the sales force, while ensuring they work together, and fit in with the meeting’s theme: ‘History Will Be Made’. Several months later, IBM decided to challenge Garnier Canada with the same record.
Employee Engagement…….Amazingly official!
Ngozi Adebiyi
