Important Lessons on Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is a hot topic these days. Over the past three years, workers have made it clear that they want to feel connected and purposeful on the job. And it’s not enough to take home a paycheck and just have health insurance. Employers are being asked to materially demonstrate their commitment to their teams, their customers, and the community. This is a movement that’s near and dear to my heart.

In my mid-20s as I was starting my career, I was one of those “kids” who questioned why employers wouldn’t listen to their employees. Why wouldn’t they want to create an environment where their employees thrived? I couldn’t understand it. I remember promising myself, “Someday, when I start a company, I will allow employees’ voices to be heard.” I wanted to co-create a company that inspired and produced better results and better environments for everybody.

Engagement Dos and Don’t

A few years later, when I launched Lantech, I had my chance. I did a lot of things right, and I made mistakes too. We built an incredibly engaging culture. We did awesome team building events like raft trips and charity fundraisers that included our employees, customers, and community. And it still wasn’t enough. 

I didn’t give people the space to really perform and have their own signature on their roles and responsibilities. I made the entrepreneurs’ classic mistake: Trying to control too much and overshadowing the contributions of team members. Not surprisingly, that business failed when the economy got tough and the tech bubble burst.

That failure yielded valuable epiphanies— both about running a business and about creating a holistic company culture. 

When I started my next company, comCables, I realized it was way more important to co-create a healthy culture with our team members, customers, vendors and community than it was to just focus on the bottom line. When all our constituents were taken into account in the decision-making process, we all truly benefited.

As it happened, Sun Valley Youth Center, which provides after school and summer programs for kids in Denver’s Sun Valley neighborhood, was right down the street from our headquarters. We adopted the center and the kids who attended their programs. On a regular basis we invited those children to our BBQs, car washes and other events. We hosted basketball, ping pong and corn-hole games and the kids, our team members and customers played together and had meaningful interaction.

I witnessed something powerful unfold. Our team members felt proud of their work because we were a purpose-driven company that wasn’t just lip service. We put our money, time, and resources where our mouths were. (One year we gave over 25% of our net income to non-profits.) comCables was successful. Our team members felt fulfilled, empowered and heard. Our customers loved being a part of what we were creating as well. The kids were given opportunities and resources they wouldn’t have had otherwise. The community was safer and more interconnected. Everyone won.

Greg Greenwood and Brad Appel at a Wish for Wheels Team Build & Give event in 2023.

It was during that time, I met Wish for Wheels founder, Brad Appel. He came into comCables to buy technology products for the homes he was building and by the time he walked out, I’d connected Wish for Wheels with Sun Valley Youth Center, too. A beautiful relationship was born — one which still exist today.

Meaningful Employee Engagement in Your Own Backyard 

Today, I’m grateful to apply the leadership principles I’ve learned over the years to the Wish for Wheels organization. Our team members are focused on our mission: To empower wellbeing in children, families, and communities. They love what they do because they know they’re helping our partners engage their employees to truly feel connected through Wish for Wheels’ Team Build & Give events that have real meaning and impact. 

These events embody the values that our partner companies want to demonstrate to their employees. Where else can they find opportunities to truly connect with the kids who will immediately benefit? Some Wish for Wheels’ corporate partners, like the Gates Corporation, are so committed that they return year after year to give new bikes and helmets to the entire second grade of the school they’ve adopted. They love that they can make a difference in their own backyard.

Building a holistic company culture with meaningful employee engagement takes clarity of your mission and values. It also takes trust in your team members and a commitment to the communities where your business resides. We exist to make it easy for your business or organization to create meaningful employee engagement experiences while making a lasting impact in your communities. If you’re looking for ways to strengthen your company’s purpose and engagement inside and out, Wish for Wheels is the perfect solution.