Ski power brings out team's best

By VICKI JAYNE

You didn't have to be a ski bunny to feel part of the team for the Compaq 50km international endurance ski race.

The computer company's sponsorship of a Queenstown-based sports event became a catalyst for all its 380 staff to prove they were as unstoppable as the competitors.

Sponsorship is a rapidly growing chunk of the corporate marketing mix, both in New Zealand and overseas. This one is Compaq's flagship and a good cultural fit - being high-speed and high-tech, and reflecting the company's image of "unstoppability".

Like the race's top international competitors, Compaq's New Zealand division got its chance to shine on the skifield by providing such high-tech enhancements as a wireless local area network, real-time web-streaming of all races to its internet site and laptops from which all teams could monitor race data.

But brand flag-waving had to be internal as well as external.

Compaq's human resources director, Bridget O'Shannessey, wanted to ensure that all the staff had a part to play.

"Often organisations have these great sponsorships but only the marketing or sales teams get involved," she said.

"This year, we designed a programme that had both an external and internal focus.

"It was structured so that if any staff member wanted to get involved, they could. It turned out that 380 people in this organisation wanted to get involved."

The 50K of Coronet is a new event - Compaq came on board as primary sponsor just three months before the inaugural race in winter last year.

The competition and a week-long series of activities built around it are used to raise money for CureKids - a division of the National Child Health Research Foundation specially created for the event.

Time constraints did not allow Compaq staff much involvement in the inaugural race, but the event in July this year became the nexus for two main strands of internal activity.

One focused on rewarding the company's unsung heroes; the other on an internal fundraising challenge.

In the first, every staff member could nominate a co-worker he or she felt made a valuable (though possibly unacknowledged) contribution to the company. Of these nominees, six would be chosen to receive an all-expenses-paid, five-day trip for themselves and partner to the Queenstown race venue.

"It's not often people get the opportunity to reward their peers and it was interesting to see the ways in which people are seen to add value to the company," said Bridget O'Shannessey.

The heap of nominations received were mostly for support staff.

"These were not your sales-award winners but the people who plug quietly away in front of computer screens getting orders in on time, or who make things happen behind the scenes or at customer sites," she said.

Strengthening the links between the sponsorship charity and Compaq staff also became an important aspect of the internal buy-in.

Employees were presented with their own "race" challenge - to raise at least $10,000 for CureKids in the five weeks leading up to the Queenstown event.

Added inspiration came from CureKids' 15-year-old spokesperson, Rebecca Dixon, who visited all Compaq locations to talk to staff about the impact of cystic fibrosis on her life.

She spoke of her interests, her ambitions for the future and how continuing research into the disease not only made her daily life easier but provided hope for a longer future.

Compaq staff responded with a surge of ideas and activities to help boost research funds.

There was a huge effort, said Bridget O'Shannessey.

"We had raffles, bowling competitions, a movie night held here, a gala dinner, even charity auctions held over the internet which involved employees from all the sites. One prize was a squash game with Leilani Joyce.

"People baked muffins to sell - in fact, there was a lot of food around here for those five weeks!"

It had been interesting to see how previously hidden talents were revealed.

"We have a pretty clear idea as to how we want this organisation to be - the sort of people we want to attract and retain. We test people and tick boxes for desirable work characteristics but we don't always look at the whole person.

"And in something like this, you get people taking leadership roles or demonstrating abilities that wouldn't necessarily emerge in their normal work situation."

She sees this as part of the wider work-life balance focus within the organisation.

"We view it as an opportunity for people to give back to the community while they're at work - because we're all busy and it's hard otherwise to find the time to contribute."

Contribute they certainly did. With money turning up on her desk every morning, Bridget O'Shannessey quietly stopped issuing bulletins on distance to target.

The staff had swept right past it and in just five weeks managed to tot up a total four times bigger - $40,000.

The six trip-winners were able to present CureKids with a cheque for this amount to add to the $150,000 raised by the ski event.

The internal benefits were "off the graph", said Bridget O'Shannessey.

"The fact everyone in the company did this together is a source of enormous pride.

"There's a realisation that with 380 people, you can make a difference. We made a difference to this charity and we can make a difference in the marketplace.

"The thing is that every individual's effort counts and customer satisfaction or company success is the result of the whole team's performance. Our HR strategy supports this for all employees."

* vjayne@iconz.co.nz