Whilst not hiring a keynote speaker for your next event may not make or break your company, it might add weight to the argument about why an organisation thrived or failed or demonstrate a company wide attitude which may suggest certain things about the organisation to stakeholders.
The decision to hire, or not hire, a keynote speaker for your next company event speaks to the people working in the organisation in various ways. It suggests to them if the company cares about them as human beings and their desire to learn and grow.
For example, imagine an event is about to take place. The company hire an outside keynote speaker who is a well-known thought leader on a topic that most people in the organisation are keen to learn more about. It’s a trending issue that is red hot right now. Event enthusiasm has been building up for months. The keynote speaker has helped whet everyone’s appetite. The company haven’t hidden the expense they are going to for this speaker. They have taken the time to develop a plan that will get the most learning from this opportunity, both for the organisation and everyone attending the event. People in the organisation feel valued and know they are working for a company that cares about their growth as individuals as much as it does about the growth of the company.
Now imagine another scenario… This time no keynote speaker is hired. The MD or CEO is going to give the keynote. Many people in the organisation know them well and they can almost guess what they are going to say, and they’ve maybe even heard it for the last 3 years, if they stayed awake! People are not enthused. They are disengaged and disengagement over the last few years has grown to the extent, that while no one wants to attend the event, they are equally happy to not work.
Which company will be thriving 5-10 years from now and which company won’t be?
Like we said, not hiring a keynote speaker for your next event may not make or break a company, but it might add weight to the argument about why an organisation thrived or failed…
The cost not hiring a keynote speaker has on talent
A LinkedIn report says, 94 percent of employees would stay with a company longer if there was an investment in learning. This stat tells us that if a company is seen to be developing its people it could reduce its staff churn by up to 94%.
Not only that, an organisation would likely find that their best people would stay, because they would grow as individuals. Then, if the best people stayed and grew, where would that leave an organisation in the market place? Would they recruit more of the best people in an industry? Would they then become market leaders?
Learning and development opportunities are big for young workers. According to LinkedIn, nearly a quarter of Millennials and iGen (Generation Z) workers say learning is the top item that contributes to their work happiness and more than a quarter of them would leave their job if they did not see a chance to learn and develop.
Hiring a keynote speaker does not replace the need for learning and development within an organisation, but it can enhance the development already happening. On occasions people can resist directives or not see them as important, or even see this as an organisational bias. Hiring a keynote speaker can change this…
Think of it like this… consider your keynote speaker as a wise uncle or auntie. Remember how you didn’t like to listen to mum or dad sometimes, but when a wise relative disarmed you, and told you the same thing in a new way, you instantly took on advice as your own and lived by it. This is just one element a keynote speaker can bring. They can help drive home a message people are resistant to, or enhance learning already happening, driving it deeper into the organisation.
The cost of not hiring an outside speaker: how it restricts a company’s growth
A keynote speaker brings in a fresh perspective. This may be an industry wide perspective or it could be across multiple industries or nations. Keynote speakers are vastly experienced and successful individuals who have usually achieve great things. They want to share their knowledge, insights and the trends they see.
External keynote speakers also have methodologies and key phrases that can be used to galvanise a team through a launch or a project, adding great resilience and steel as well igniting a stronger can-do attitudes.
Some CEO’s fear that by allowing an external speaker into their organisation for their event their direction will be undermined. This isn’t the role of a keynote speaker. In fact, booking a keynote speaker shows a leader to be open minded, having the best interests of the business at heart, and a want to discover the best and most innovative ways forward – admirable qualities you want to see in any leader.
Having someone within an organisation deliver a keynote speech restricts the company to what it already knows, whoever the speaker is, whereas when an outside speaker is invited in, you can choose from a number of topic experts, who have deep knowledge of the topic, leading to more learning for everyone involved. This article gives you more information on why you should bring in an external speaker
The cost of not hiring a keynote speaker on team engagement
It goes without saying that any event requires a speaker who will engage your audience, regardless of the type of session. Failure to gain engagement could mean the audience will tune out and fail to absorb the content. Since people are giving up valuable productive time to attend, it’s important to the individuals attending, and the organisation, that the person speaking, grabs and keep the audience’s attention. But engagement goes deeper…
According to HRCloud a highly engaged workforce increases productivity by 21%. It leads to higher job satisfaction, more sales and higher revenue. This happens when employees feel happier and ready to go above and beyond to help reach a company’s goals.
When you consider that a company with just a £1m turnover, only needs a 1% increase in production, or a 1% reduction in costs to recoup an ROI on a £10,000 keynote speaker, it begins to shift the conversation towards what will help the company engage its people more. Imagine as a £1m company you invest £10,000 and your profit was to increase by £210,000… this could be because you retain more talent, develop that talent and then engage that talent through your business choices.
It’s a very simplistic example, but when you consider hiring a keynote speaker, having a plan on how to deploy them, have them build on the direction the company is going in, and know where you expect to find your ROI, you begin to see that the cost of not hiring a keynote speaker is perhaps actually detrimental to the growth of the organisation.
This article shares the pros and cons of hiring a keynote speaker.
We believe all keynote speakers should be Stellar Speakers – able to entertain, connect with an audience and make a positive impact. As a unique speaker agency representing change-making keynote speakers, we provide expertise to help you manage your budgetary expectations and provide realistic options. We provide a preferred partner’s service base, so that partner clients get everything they need, lowering your risk as a booker of speakers, so you can make your choice about your next speaker with confidence.
