"As the UK’s largest cargo airline operating 26 aircraft to 60 destinations in Europe, Africa, Asia and the USA, over 75% of our employees are absentee professionals such as pilots and engineers and, despite our best efforts we were simply unable to achieve high levels of participation in our annual Employee Opinion Survey (EOS). If feedback is golden then our ability to drive employee motivation by understanding and addressing their issues was a critical challenge we had to overcome. It was time for a fresh approach so I asked Don to become involved with our Employee Engagement programme. He created a solution that revolves around meeting people in their workplace at times convenient to them and always on their terms. This makes it sound simple but there is a lot more to it than that. Don’s easy going style and Empathic Communication process fostered the trust required to discover new ways of co-operating and working together. We have for example reduced reliance on email as a primary communication medium. Don’s enthusiasm and professionalism encouraged managers to engage with the project and as their confidence grew we saw better flows of effective communication throughout our business at all levels. Everyone is an employee, not just the employees. Since we began our strategic partnership with TalkBack, Employee Engagement has improved beyond expectations and participation levels in our annual opinion survey have increased every year, in the case of Pilots from 53% in 2012 to 62% in 2013 and 74% in 2014. The proof as they say, is in the pudding."