Leap Client Blog: Employee Engagement. Simplified.

The Leap500 is a list of the leading charities, non-profits and...

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 17:30:02 +0100

The Leap500 is a list of the leading charities, non-profits and social enterprises (“Good Orgs”) around the world that offer opportunities for companies and their employees to get involved in their cause.

Nominate your charity for the Leap500 here.

Top FAQs (with tips)

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 01:18:00 +0100

The Leap platform is built to be “no-training required” for employees.

The look and feel is very similar to other popular consumer social networks and communication platforms.

To give you a quick overview though, here are some FAQs with some extra tips to get going quickly:

How do I create or edit my Profile?
How do I create a new Activity or Group?
How do I find an Activity or a Group?
How do I add Documents or create Pages?

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How do I create or edit my Profile?

1. Go to “Me” and click “Edit Profile”.

2. Complete details.

Tip: Be sure to add a photo of yourself. This helps colleagues find you.

3. Now you will be visible around the site.

You can edit your Profile at anytime by repeating this process.

How do I create a new Activity or Group?

Setting up Activities and Groups is very simple. You do the same thing for both.

Follow instructions below.

1. Go to the Activities or Groups area and click the “Add New Activity” or “Add New Group” button.

2. Complete details.

Tip: Be sure to add a photo! This helps colleagues find your Activity or Group.

Tip: By “Selecting Share only with my company” you are making this Activity Private to just employees inside your company.

If you select “Public” others outside your company will also be able to see the platform.

3. That’s it!

Now you can invite colleagues, add to your calendar, RSVP, and add content in the News Feed for others to see.

Note: If you created an activity you can edit it at anytime. Just click “Edit”.

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How do I find an Activity or a Group?

You can find activities in two ways.

1. Click Explore and then filter.

2. You can also find Activities and Groups in the News Feed.

—

How do I add Documents or create Pages?

This feature is very useful for communicating:

Company news
Updates on policy
Success stories from employees around the company
New charity partnership
Messages from the CEO or other senior about company values

1. Click “Documents”.

Note: You can see just your document, documents for your office location or documents by selecting “Me” “My Office” or “My Company” at the top of the page.

If you are an Admin adding a Document, you need to be careful you are in the right Location (if it is a document for just one office location or in the My Company area (if it is a document for all employees).

Then, it’s easy.

2. Write your document.

Hint: You can embed videos here by copying the “embed code” from Youtube or other video platform.

Admin Hint: You can “Feature” a document and it will show up on the main Company Page (for Global Admins) or the Location Page (for Location Admins)

3. You also have the option of uploading a File, such as a CSR Report or any other type of document.

4. Now it is live and you can view your new page. Great job!

Made a mistake? Just click Edit.

5. If you are an Admin and you selected to “Feature” the document you will see it on the main page for all employees to see.

“To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.”

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:28:00 +0100

There’s a recent post on Forbes.com by Kevin Kruse that asks: “What is Employee Engagement?”

That may be the most unasked question in the world of HR and CSR. So many companies striving for it, so few clear on what it is.

Here’s Kevin’s answer summed up in a few bullets:

Employee engagement does not mean employee happiness.
Employee engagement doesn’t mean employee satisfaction.
Definition: Employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals.

Most importantly, from the perspective of a business owner/founder, I see eye-to-eye on what he calls the Engagement-Profit Chain:

“When employees care—when they are engaged—they use discretionary effort.”

And here’s how employee engagement leads to ROI and higher stock prices:

Engaged Employees lead to…

1. higher service, quality, and productivity, which leads to…

2. higher customer satisfaction, which leads to…

3. increased sales (repeat business and referrals), which leads to…

4. higher levels of profit, which leads to…

5. higher shareholder returns (i.e., stock price)

Kevin reminds us of the former Campbell’s Soup CEO, Doug Conant, who once said:

“To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.”

If you want to dig deeper on exactly how he suggests companies drive engagement, including how to win a “Best Place to Work” award within 12 months, you can read his latest book:

Employee Engagement 2.0: How to Motivate Your Team for High Performance (A Real-World Guide for Busy Managers).

Kevin is a serial entrepreneur and author. He’s @kruse on Twitter.

The new Leap is launching for everyone soon

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 10:13:00 +0100

Sunrise over the clouds

We’ve expanded the platform from a focus purely on corporate responsibility to a complete employee engagement solution.

Most of our current clients are now live, engaging with the new functionality and reporting by far the most positive employee feedback to date.

We are excited to announce we will be launching the expanded version of Leap with new clients from July 2012.

Why employee engagement…

Through working closely with clients and partners it’s been clear over the past 18 months that the landscape for corporate responsibility and employee engagement is evolving quickly.

Leading employers are striving to make “good business”, CSR and Sustainability completely integrated and embedded.

Silos where HR, Internal Comms, CSR and business teams are working independently of each other are coming down.

And perhaps most importantly, when we asked employees we got one clear message:

Whether it’s CSR initiatives, Learning & Development activities, Health & Wellbeing drives and work-related sport and social events they’re all a vital part of the overall employee experience.

And for those reasons, we’ve evolved the platform to meet these new expectations.

What this means for your company…

For employees, the new version of Leap means when they want to get involved, they have one place to go.

No more navigating an employee volunteering platform, a learning management solution, the (outdated) intranet and the announcements board in the kitchen.

That means better communication and awareness of what’s happening around the business…whether you have 1 office location or 1,000. The platform scales up and down for any sized employer.

Ask and ye shall receive

Users asked for the whole experience from creating events to logging volunteer hours to be simpler. You’ll find that’s now the case.

HR, Internal Comms and CSR teams requested more visibility on what’s happening around various office locations. Now all analytics are segmented by location and tag.

Accessibility is improved. This new release is fully functional via the web on smart phones (Apple, Android, Blackberry and more).

Functionality for charities and non-profits is so much better. You now have access to all the functionality of corporate clients. It’s still free. Leap is the best way to get corporates involved in your cause.

Thank you

We’ve had a lot of fun working with you on this and greatly appreciate the contribution of all clients and partners. Thank you. Through working together we will continue to push the envelope of engagement and impact.

Please keep your ideas and suggestions coming. No request is too big or too small.

A closer look at setting up Leap for success

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 00:37:00 +0100

Welcome!

In the new version of Leap, we’ve handed controls of how to customize and tailor the platform over to you.

Here is a quick overview.

First, give the platform the look and feel of your brand.

Just follow the instructions here:

1. When you get in, go to the “My Company” tab.

2. Then click “Admin”.

This is where you can make all the changes to the platform. You are automatically set as a “Company Admin” because you’re the first user.

3. Click “Settings”.

4. Now set up the Platform.

Be sure you change the color scheme and upload a logo. It’s ok to experiment a little. If you don’t like the way it looks, just try another colour combination.

5. Add your office location.

6. Go ahead and add any other office locations too. There is no limit and staff around the world can use Leap.

7. Next, set up your own personal profile.

See the profile questions? Those are the same on each users profile. You can change questions these in the Admin area if you wish.

8. Now you can invite colleagues. This is when you will see the platform come to life.

9. Add a few Groups for employees to join.

10. Add upcoming activities.

11. You can also add a Welcome Message from the CEO and use Leap to share Company News Stories.

Go to “Documents” area. Write your message or upload your document. Select “Featured” and this document will show up on the Company Page for all employees to see next time they log-in.

—

That’s it.

A powerful, simple-to-use & secure platform with all the tools you need to communicate, manage and measure employee engagement.

If you would like a more thorough walk through of how Leap can be set up to be tailored for your medium or large business please contact us.

Bonjour, Hallo, Hej

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 18:47:00 +0100

We’re excited to announce that the Leap platform is now translated into French, German and Swedish.

We worked to achieve this alongside Logica, one of Leap’s global clients committed to employees across the globe coming together on one unified engagement platform.

This language functionality helps increase engagement at office locations in countries where local business is done in the local language.

More languages will be added soon.

If you’d like to request a particular language, you can do that by clicking on the Support & Feedback button at LeapCR.com.

Logging Volunteering Hours: Easy as 1-2-3

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 18:32:00 +0100

Many companies are using excel spreadsheets to track volunteering.

Anyone that has ever tried to track hundreds or thousands of employees this way knows all too well it’s shortcomings.

Leap makes this process simpler, faster and more accurate.

Here’s how it works.

1. Just click “Volunteer Hours” from any page on the site.

2. Complete the form. Each company using Leap can tailor the skills on this form in order to better track skills-based volunteering.

3. That’s it. All volunteering gets aggregated across the entire company in one place.

The system knows which employee is entering the data and their office location. This feature allows Country Heads and Office Managers to ensure they are tracking towards quarterly or annual goals.

Tip: To get employees logging hours when your platform launches, try offering an incentive.

One large bank using Leap enters everyone who logs volunteer hours in a given month into a draw. The prize changes from month to month (such as an iPad).

A recruitment firm had similar success through providing a bottle of champagne to 5 people who logged hours in a given month.

At other companies the Internal Communications team uses this feature to easily find inspiring stories of employees making a difference in the community.

"Companies that are breaking the mold are moving beyond corporate social responsibility to social..."

Sun, 27 May 2012 11:15:00 +0100

““Companies that are breaking the mold are moving beyond corporate social responsibility to social innovation. These companies are the vanguard of the new paradigm. They view community needs as opportunities to develop ideas and demonstrate business technologies, to find and serve new markets, and to solve longstanding business problems.””

- Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business Review.

Charities, Nonprofits and Social Enterprises

Sun, 27 May 2012 10:46:00 +0100

As always, Leap is a completely free platform for charities, nonprofits and social enterprises to attract the support of employees at the world’s leading companies.

With the leading investment banks, insurance firms, law offices, media groups, retailers, hotel groups, recruitment firms, hospitals and technology companies using Leap the platform provides a very targeted marketing channel and management tool with the most valuable segment of supporters.

Here are examples of activities these employers are looking for:

Team Volunteer Days
Mentoring Opportunities
Skills-based Volunteering Initiatives
Pro Bono Volunteer Support
Fundraising initiatives
Challenges (runs, swims, parachute days, bungee jumps and more for charity)

As a Charity, Nonprofit or Social Enterprise you create an account just like any company does from the home page Leapcr.com (see the Quick Get Started Guide for that).

For large Charities, you can also use Leap to manage dozens of even hundreds of corporate partners. Request to speak to one of our team and we can help you set that up.

Then you can get started adding your activities and events.

Just go to the Activities area and select “Add New Activity”.

Make events public so all companies can see it.

Be sure to select “Public” and this will then be viewable by all companies using Leap when they search for “Community” activities.

Also be sure to set the maximum number of attendees when you create your event (do not leave this field blank).

That’s it, your event is now created.

Easily see who and how many people have RSVP’d.

Easily update all attendees, even across multiple companies.

You can also leave comments to update all attendees of important event information. They will get a notification when new comments have been added.

Hint: When an event is full you can go in and edit the Event Title to say (FULL) if you want to let others know.

You also get access to the same advanced reporting and analytics that companies see (refer to Quick Get Started Guide)

"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected."

Tue, 22 May 2012 12:26:00 +0100

““Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.””

- Steve Jobs

Quick get started guide

Tue, 22 May 2012 09:07:00 +0100

You’re the first person in your company or charity to get going on Leap. Here’s the quick get started guide.

1. Enter email

Enter email at leapcr.com to set up your private Leap hub. As the first user you will be set as an Admin (you can assign other admins too).

2. Set up your platform

Once you’re in, go to My Company. Then click Admin on the right hand side of the page.

-Go to Settings and give the platform the look and feel of your brand and a name (e.g. “The Culture Hub”)

-Add approved work email domains users need to access your hub (in case you have more than one)

-Set tags that make sense for the categories of activities and groups in your company

-Set the skills you want to tag when employees are logging volunteer hours

-Set questions that will appear on each employees profile for them to fill out

3. Set your office location

Remember to set an Admin for each location. They will be able to make changes to this location.

4. Edit your personal profile

5. Add 2-3 groups and activities

Group examples: Volunteer Ambassadors, Green Guardians, Cycle to Work Group, 5-aside Football Team

Activity examples: Upcoming Team Volunteer Day, Summer Office Party, HR and Marketing Team Night Out

6. Invite in colleagues onto the Hub

7. Log volunteer hours

8. Track analytics on engagement, active users, activities, skills-based volunteering and more for the whole company and by office location.

9. Watch your new hub come to life with your colleagues joining, creating and collaborating on upcoming activities, popular groups of staff with shared interests and more.

Why our clients are partners in product development

Sun, 20 May 2012 19:12:00 +0100

Our approach to building world-class software is to involve you as clients in everything from brainstorming big ideas to deciding which features get prioritised.

Now more than ever, a great software platform is in a constant state of improvement.

Goals and requirements inside companies and industries change. Acquisitions are made. New CEOs get hired. Regulations change. Budgets shift. We all know how it goes. The world changes. Software must adapt.

As a Leap client, we want to be certain that cost-reductions and productivity improvements around employee engagement, communication and CSR reporting are actually happening for you.

We are in touch regularly to get your input on specific product decisions and update on the progress of the Product Roadmap.

You can share new ideas at anytime directly from the Support & Feedback area on our home page or inside the platform. You should contact one of our team directly to flag business changes on the horizon that may require new features to be discussed at greater length.

Working with you on this is one of the most fun parts what we do. It ensures your success and ours. Every piece of input gets considered. No idea is too big or too small.

First to arrive at the party

Sun, 20 May 2012 17:37:00 +0100

If you’re the first in your office to launch Leap, it’s like showing up at a party before anyone else has arrived.

That doesn’t last long.

Go to the “My Company” section under admin settings. Set the look and feel of the platform to reflect your branding and how you want it to feel when your colleagues first arrive.

Add a few of upcoming activities already happening in the organisation and create your first couple of groups for those staff with shared interests (Volunteer Ambassadors, Green Champions, Sports teams, Cycle to Work group, etc)

Then invite your colleagues in. They’ll get the email invite immediately and be able to start joining and creating groups and activities.

Have fun watching your culture come to life.