The View from Both Ends of the Engagement Spectrum: Attuned at HCI Employee Engagement Conference

“The word ‘engagement’ has become meaningless.”

Followed by multiple nods around the table, that comment summed up the consensus reached by the group of engagement company execs I was seated at a round table with in Denver last month.

Hosted by HCI, the Employee Engagement Conference is the largest “engagement” focused conference in North America. Between 30 and 40 ‘engagement” focused vendors exhibited at the event, including Attuned, which touted a roster of excellent key notes delivered by insightful thought-leaders well attended by some of the largest and most prestigious organizations.

It was both well produced and productive. But among this round table of leaders, the feeling was that “engagement” was in the late innings of a multi-year trend -- with all of us solution providers headed towards consolidation.

Employee Engagement vs Employee Experience

The leaders of these fellow engagement tech companies were saying the new trend is “employee experience.” That for engagement, their customers were demanding real, case-study proven solutions to their problems. They could no longer get by just riding the “engagement” trend.

Looking around the other booths, over the two-day span of the conference, I could see that. Engagement vendors covered a lot of ground: from legacy, once-a year engagement surveys to trophy-driven (yes, real trophies) employee recognition companies to a water provider that customized drinks to drive employees satisfaction. It looked like some weeding out was needed.

On the other hand, arriving as a startup with a product on the market for less than a year, it was inspiring to see that many of these companies had been around for decades, making significant revenue, with happy customers.

In other words, there was a market there.

Employee Engagement in Japan: Just Getting Started

Attuned at HCI Employee Engagement Conference

This was validating and surprising to hear. I was just soaking it all up. Attuned is based in Japan, where the employee engagement trend has just started. Japanese HR tech companies putting out engagement solutions locally are still searching for their market.

In the weeks prior to the conference, we had to spend a lot of time educating our potential customers in Japan on the difference between personality and values, and the connection between values to motivations (personality has only a weak link to motivation).

Now that we have found product-market fit with Attuned, being at the engagement conference as a young Japanese startup was a comparative relief. The buyers in Denver were very sophisticated. They knew what engagement was, and they (generally) knew what they wanted to get out of a solution.

They got our concept of intrinsic motivation discovery very quickly. Attuned stood out—attendees saw in us something differentiated, something new.

What Really Matters: Intrinsic Motivators

The keynote speeches and lectures often hit upon the themes of intrinsic motivations and values. Several speakers mentioned the critical importance of discovering the intrinsic motivations of your team members and unleashing them. When the crowds spilled out of the keynotes and began rooming the vendor floor; when they got to our booth, the conversations were easy. Attuned was the only provider present with the ability to show employees’ intrinsic motivations.

Here we were, halfway around the world finding ourselves in the right spot, at the right time. The keynoters from household name-brand companies were educating the market on the importance of our core solution. The Attuned team was grateful for such esteemed introductions.

Meeting with potential customers and partners in Japan was a different experience. Many are on the very early stages of the learning curve of engagement. Buyers, and HR Tech companies, know there is a trend, and that they should be taking advantage of it, but there is still a lot of education to be had about engagement, what it means, and what type of results you can expect out of an engagement tech solution before the market becomes mature. Often the questions that we face in Tokyo are quite basic. Having sophisticated, insightful questions from sr execs of brand name companies was very engaging for our Attuned team.

Different Markets, Different Opportunities

We came out of the conference better informed, and excited about where the markets in the US and Japan were for engagement. We can work with sophisticated companies in the US that want a granular-level solution that shows deeply personalized insights into their employees and teams. And we can work to educate the market in Japan with a chance to help out a lot of companies as this trend expands and companies here mature in their understanding and expectations of employee engagement.

Timing a market might be deep intelligence, but it’s probably also a whole lot of luck. It seems that Attuned has timed the late-inning engagement market in the US perfectly. We can ride that wave, helping companies get real results, and then get the next surge that will surely come through Japan afterwards. Surfer’s delight.

We were debating whether or not we should spend the money to attend the conference, have a booth, and fly three members of our team over from Tokyo. In hindsight it was totally the right decision. HCI curated a great event. We came back buzzing, being much better informed, knew our place in the market, learned how others thought we were special. We’ll definitely be back next year, and the year after that. I’m sure we’ll see more of our Japanese engagement solution friends there in the next couple years too. We came back so much more sure of ourselves.

Thanks, HCI.

I’m still not sure about that customized water serving solution promising to fix your mood though.

Want a more recent look at Employee Engagement? Read about the “Power of Attention” in our 2019 HCI Employee Engagement Conference takeaways.

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