Why will it work? Because employees who are invited to a discussion with their CEO are in fact being honoured and rewarded. It is similar to traditional forms of recognition but in fact has much more point. There may be no certificate or plaque but employees do have the opportunity to learn something about their company from a top decision maker.
They can also provide their own input, which the CEO should appreciate as an alternative source of information: sometimes it is good to hear some fresh and unbiased views from people who do not closely resemble the CEO. The fact is, according to the management.about.com website, that many CEOs tend to form their team from people who are similar to themselves.
Small, medium, large companies – it is the same everywhere
In small companies the logistics are more straightforward: the CEO simply selects an individual to invite to lunch; next, an appropriate restaurant with a quiet table needs to be found and that’s it. In large companies, the CEO may ask for recommendations from managers of individual sections; sometimes departments themselves nominate candidates. The CEO then selects an individual.
They may have lunch in the company cafeteria. It should be private enough so they are not disturbed or interrupted but at the same time sufficiently public for other employees in the cafeteria to see that lunches with the CEO really do happen. In very large companies, there could be an employee from each department at the lunch. Don’t be afraid to expand it a little.
Every manager needs to eat
Improved employee morale is an excellent outcome of lunches with the CEO. And the CEO level can be only the start: other senior managers and middle managers might follow and use the same format. The benefits are the same; only the number of employees impacted by it will be slightly smaller.
-jk-