On Friday, March 15th, Dale Carnegie of Southeast Michigan visited Motown Harley-Davidson in Taylor to run a two-hour workshop that taught attendees the importance of employee engagement.
Run by trainer Jef Kupiec, Managers Matter: A Relationship-Centered Approach to Driving Employee Engagement is an interactive session that invites participants to interact with other members of their community in order to have a conversation about how they can further engage employees in their respective organizations.
“We provide an environment where people feel valued for being here,” says Kupiec. “We don’t want people to attend a two-hour event and say ‘well I could have just read that or watched a powerpoint slide myself.’”
The emphasis on interaction between attendees also helps to reinforce some of Dale Carnegie’s core beliefs – the importance of people skills and the ability to relate to others. According to a 2013 study conducted by Dale Carnegie Training, employees who are dissatisfied with their immediate supervisor are 80% more likely to be disengaged than those with a positive relationship. This disengagement can result in decreased productivity and increased turnover, hurting an organization’s bottom line.
While the choice of venue was a bit out of the norm for the company, Kupiec says they chose the motorcycle showroom as it provided a central location for participants from nearby businesses to attend. “We just wanted to introduce ourselves in a new area,” he continued, noting that while there have been few classes Downriver in recent years, there is currently a Dale Carnegie Course running in Riverview, and another will be starting on May 15th in Allen Park.
The location also added a little something extra to the workshop, according to Kupiec. “The energy, the neon lights, just brought a little bit of excitement, and then the people always bring excitement.”
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