Linking Employee Engagement to Strategy at Yahoo!

On October 2 in a previous blog, I did a “pre-call” on the employee engagement strategy at Yahoo and how it will unlock value for the company.

Just say the word. It’s kind of fun. Yahoo!

Over the last five years as an employee, as an investor and to some degree even as a customer, Yahoo has not been fun.

I said it in October, and I’ll say it again now, Yahoo is blossoming from the inside out. You’ll often hear me talk about the importance of creating engaged employees who have great internal service from department to department and individual to individual. At CSI, that is what we define as service from the inside out.

Marissa Mayer has taken employee engagement seriously since she took the helm.

Besides building a world-class leadership team around her, I think it is important to note that in addition to the normal perks that employees are used to, including health and dental plans as well as 401ks, Yahoo offers unique employee engagement perks like adoption assistance and begins offering these perks on the first day of employment.

I think a unique perk that Marissa Mayer has instituted given her proclamation for Yahoo to be a mobile leader is the e-mail she sent informing all of her employees that they had the choice of receiving an Apple iPhone 5, a Samsung Galaxy S3 or comparable smart phone for free. Sometimes words can’t describe how cool a boss’ gesture can be, and this is one of those moments.

No offense to Blackberry, but a smartphone is a much cooler perk, and is aligned with the company strategy.

It has only been roughly four months since Marissa Mayer took over, but company morale is up and shareholders are happy that specific plans and greater emphasis on mobile application and user personalization are under way.

P.S. At CSI International, we are good at predicting which companies can unlock value by creating employee engagement through more effective, calibrated and consistent leadership.

Peter Psichogios is the President of CSI International Performance Group whose mission is to help companies create engaging employee and customer experiences.Prior to joining CSI International Peter Psichogios served as an executive member of one of the largest Instructional System Association companies in the world. In this capacity, he led all the front-end analysis and worked directly with Dr. Ken Blanchard, leading the large-scale E -Learning and employee engagement initiatives. Peter has been fortunate to work with the who’s who of the Fortune 500 and many of the world’s fastest growing companies, helping them deliver innovative learning, engagement and recognition solutions.

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