Recently, we made changes to our quarterly Town Hall format. Each quarter, we gather for an hour to hear from our CEO about the company, recognize associate anniversaries, and learn about upcoming projects/initiatives. The format was working well, but we felt it was time to change it and make it more interactive. Instead of following a regiment of topics, we decided to have the CEO and another VP discuss issues generated from employee questions. Associates could submit questions while at the event, by text, or e-mail. We also introduced an Emcee, who was responsible for keeping topics on track, asking follow-up questions where necessary, and, most importantly, ensuring the meeting only lasted one hour (we’re all very busy around here).

We wanted to draw attention to these changes in an informative and engaging way. So, we decided to keep the Emcee’s identity a secret, and use a microsite to help Associates discover who he or she was. Microsites are smaller, more focused websites (you could argue all sites should follow this pattern, but then we wouldn’t have Facebook). We wanted the site to be so engaging that associates would return daily. So, we created the “Who Stole the Mic” game.

Each day, Associates would visit the site and receive direction about where they could find “clues” that would help them discover the Emcee’s identity (the site has a distinct, mid ‘20s detective vibe; visitors were often referred to as “Gumshoe”). Associates would then search our websites (the mothership, Facebook, and Ivie Cares) for “clues,” which they would enter into the microsite. Each time Associates entered the correct clue, they would learn something new about the mystery Emcee. There was a new clue every day, so each day we had to change the dialogue, both the information about the clue’s whereabouts and “pass” and “fail” messages. It was an addition to our hectic workload, but ultimately a fun, mostly rewarding experience.

I say “mostly” because there were naysayers; ironically, often the same people that were advocating more employee involvement and engagement. Our site did this. It allowed Associates in both our home office and offsite to participate in a fun game. It was also directly tied to another event that is aimed solely at keeping Associates engaged, our Town Hall. Nonetheless, there were detractors; some saw it as a waste of time, others saw it as an unnecessary distraction (we were particularly sensitive to this claim; so “clues” were very easy to find; we made sure no “clue” required more than 5 minutes to locate).

Despite this reaction, the site was widely considered a success. We had roughly 150 different Associates visit the site and many of them continued to visit daily. This showed us that while there are detractors and the work behind an endeavor can be trying, it’s better to press on. While social media and digital solutions for employee engagement will be panned by critics, they are essential and should not be ignored or sacrificed in the name of expediency or busy schedules. Without them, those same critics will be complaining about the lack of employee engagement months later.

Have you done something to engage coworkers and received a mixed reaction? How did you handle the negative press?