Build It
The Rebel Playbook for World-Class Employee Engagement
Book Edition Details
Summary
What if the key to skyrocketing business success is hidden in a bridge? "Build It" unveils the art of employee engagement through the revolutionary 'Employee Engagement Bridge'—a blueprint born from a decade of rigorous refinement at Reward Gateway. Esteemed authors Glenn Elliott and Debra Corey blend their own hands-on expertise with riveting case studies and groundbreaking research from HR trailblazers. This isn’t just a book; it’s an invitation to tear down outdated HR conventions and forge a new path to workplace vitality. Perfect for HR professionals and business leaders alike, this guide promises to transform your workforce into an unstoppable force of motivation and productivity, leaving you eager to implement its insights and reap the rewards.
Introduction
Maria, a talented marketing manager at a Fortune 500 company, sat in her cubicle feeling utterly disconnected. Despite earning a competitive salary and working for a prestigious brand, she found herself checking job boards during lunch breaks. The endless meetings without purpose, the lack of feedback from her manager, and the growing sense that her contributions didn't matter had left her questioning her career path. Maria's story isn't unique. Research reveals that only 30% of employees are engaged at work, while nearly half are actively seeking new opportunities. This disconnect between human potential and workplace reality represents one of the most pressing challenges facing modern organizations. When talented individuals like Maria feel invisible, undervalued, or misaligned with their company's mission, everyone loses. The organization fails to harness the creativity and passion that drives innovation, while employees experience the frustration of unfulfilled potential. The solution lies not in superficial perks or temporary fixes, but in a fundamental transformation of how we approach employee engagement. Through real stories of companies that have broken free from traditional management practices, we discover a blueprint for creating workplaces where people genuinely want to contribute their best efforts. These organizations have learned that engagement isn't something you do to employees, but something you create with them through authentic communication, meaningful work, and genuine care for their wellbeing and growth.
Building the Foundation: Communication, Purpose, and Leadership
Buffer, a social media management platform, made an unprecedented decision that would challenge everything we believe about workplace transparency. In 2013, the company published the salaries of all 71 employees on a public website for the entire world to see. Not just salary ranges or vague compensation philosophies, but actual individual salaries, complete with the formula used to calculate them. CEO Joel Gascoigne faced considerable skepticism from advisors and industry experts who warned of potential chaos. However, Buffer's radical transparency experiment yielded remarkable results. Job applications increased by 50% immediately after the salary disclosure, and employee trust soared to levels the company had never experienced. The transparency extended beyond compensation to include customer pricing models, revenues, equity grants, and even expenses for company retreats. When asked about criticism that such openness could create workplace tensions, Gascoigne explained that transparency breeds trust, and trust forms the foundation of exceptional teamwork. Employees stopped gossiping about unfair compensation because everything was visible. Instead, they focused their energy on contributing to Buffer's success, knowing exactly how their efforts connected to both company results and their own financial rewards. This approach reflects a fundamental truth about human nature in the workplace. When organizations default to transparency, explain the reasoning behind decisions, and create space for honest dialogue, they unlock a level of engagement that traditional command-and-control structures simply cannot achieve. The courage to be vulnerable as leaders, combined with clear purpose and authentic communication, creates an environment where people choose to bring their whole selves to work.
Designing Meaningful Work: Job Design, Learning, and Recognition
At Atlassian, the software collaboration company, employees experience something called "ShipIt Day" every quarter. For 24 hours, the entire organization stops regular work to pursue any innovative project that inspires them. From improving office lighting efficiency to creating new customer support tools, employees have complete freedom to explore ideas that matter to them. Dominic Price, Head of R&D and Work Futurist, describes ShipIt as "20% time on steroids." What started with 14 people in a living room has evolved into events with over 400 teams across eight global locations. The prizes are modest, just a small trophy and bragging rights, but the impact on job satisfaction and innovation has been transformative. One ShipIt project resulted in JIRA Service Desk, now a core product offering. Another led to significant cost savings through simple facility improvements suggested by facilities staff who knew the buildings better than anyone in management. The program succeeds because it recognizes that innovation exists within everyone, not just designated "creative" roles. This philosophy extends to Atlassian's daily operations through their "be the change you seek" value. Employees are encouraged to improve processes, challenge assumptions, and experiment with new approaches as part of their regular responsibilities. Rather than requiring permission to think creatively, the company has designed jobs that assume creativity and innovation are essential components of every role. The transformation occurs when organizations recognize that meaningful work isn't about grand gestures or expensive programs. It emerges when people have autonomy to solve problems, visibility into how their efforts create value, and opportunities to continuously learn and grow. Recognition becomes natural in such environments because achievements are visible and celebrated by peers who understand the challenges involved.
Supporting Your People: Pay, Workspace, and Wellbeing
When Ricardo Semler inherited his father's Brazilian industrial machinery company, he faced a choice between maintaining traditional management practices or experimenting with something radically different. He chose revolution. Semler transformed the company into what he called "a more humane, trusting, productive, exhilarating, and, in every sense, rewarding way" of working. The changes extended to how employees determined their own salaries. Nearly 25% of the workforce began setting their own compensation based on four criteria: what they could earn elsewhere, what others with similar skills made at Semler, what friends in comparable roles earned, and how much money they needed to live comfortably. Rather than creating chaos, this approach eliminated complaints about unfair pay and freed managers to focus on supporting employee success rather than policing compensation decisions. The company shared salary information and market data, enabling informed decisions. Employees took ownership of their financial future while considering the company's sustainability. Semler's profit-sharing program operated on similar principles. Employees negotiated what percentage of profits would be shared and decided how those profits would be distributed across locations. This required financial education, but it created a workforce that understood business realities and made decisions aligned with long-term success. The physical workspace reflected these values through flexible arrangements that prioritized results over presence. Advanced scheduling systems allowed employees to balance personal needs with business requirements, creating an environment where people wanted to contribute because they felt trusted and valued as whole human beings.
Summary
The stories throughout this exploration reveal a fundamental truth about human motivation in the workplace. Whether it's Buffer's radical salary transparency, Atlassian's innovation rituals, or Semler's participative management approach, successful organizations recognize that engagement emerges from treating employees as partners rather than resources to be managed. These companies discovered that sustainable competitive advantage comes not from controlling people more effectively, but from creating conditions where talented individuals choose to contribute their discretionary effort. This requires courage to abandon practices that prioritize compliance over creativity, and wisdom to understand that trust, once given, tends to be reciprocated with loyalty and exceptional performance. The path forward demands both structural changes in how we design work and cultural shifts in how we relate to one another as human beings. When organizations combine transparent communication, meaningful work design, and genuine care for employee wellbeing, they create environments where people thrive. The result benefits everyone: employees find fulfillment and growth, customers receive better service and innovation, and organizations achieve sustainable success built on human potential rather than fear-based control.
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