Employee Engagement

James Adonis is one of Australia's most well-known employee engagement and team leadership educators.

He is currently a PhD candidate researching the ways in which leaders can engage employees during organisational crises and significant change. His previous qualifications cover a diverse range of disciplines including business leadership, marketing management, and political science.

James's academic history is supported by rich practical experience as a leader in a variety of industries.

By the time he was 24, he was managing a team of 100. His major achievements included taking a team that had employee attrition exceeding 70% and reducing it to zero where it was maintained for two years. He has achieved employee engagement results that have surpassed not only the industry standard but also world's best practice. Another of his teams achieved its key performance indicators for an unprecedented 100 consecutive weeks.

James's articles and research are regularly published in many countries and he is frequently featured in the media as a thought leader on leadership. As a nationally syndicated writer with the Fairfax group of news, James's original thoughts are read by over 200,000 people each month.

He is the author of three books: Corporate Punishment: Smashing the Management Cliches for Leaders in a New World; Employee Enragement: Why People Hate Working for You and Love Your Team: How to Halve your Employee Turnover in Less than 90 Days.

Over the past decade, James has worked with hundreds of organisations, helping them to successfully lead change, enhance teamwork, improve performance, and engage all generations.

He has worked with leaders in Australia, New Zealand, India, Dubai, Thailand, Malaysia, Germany, and Belgium, with an impressive list of clients including McDonald's, American Express, Coca-Cola, Qantas, Optus, Ernst & Young, Gucci, and many government departments.

Previously, James was the President of the National Speakers Association of Australia (NSW Chapter) - the youngest person in the history of the Association to hold such an honour.

Presentation Topics Include

• Employee Engagement
  
• Staff Turnover
  
• Motivation
  
• Employee Engagement
  
• Managing Change
  
• Teamwork
  
• Personal Engagement
  

Testimonials

James is a pleasure to work with. He listened to our needs and presented a plan which was exactly what we were after. The session on the day was engaging and I have received many positive comments and feedback. I look forward to working with James again in the near future.
Manager, Training Delivery, Flight Centre

Thanks again, James, for a funny, provocative and very entertaining talk to the City of Sydney Managers’ Workshop on ‘Leadership for Engagement and Collaboration’. Your presentation provided insights that were very relevant to our earlier discussion, so this really helped to consolidate thinking about ways to engage and motivate people without resorting to stereotypes. Comments from our evaluation were overwhelmingly positive – ‘down to earth and fun’; ‘James was a great speaker’; ‘the external speaker was a real highlight’. So, thank you for making a real contribution to our learning and for your very authentic presentation.
Director, Workforce and Information Services, City of Sydney

I have engaged James a number of times to run the two-day Team Leaders program for our business services employees. This program is always one of our most successful programs of the year. James is a truly engaging facilitator, and always a delight to work with. I can’t recommend James or his programs highly enough.
Learning and Development Manager, Corrs Chambers Westgarth

James provided a 1 hour keynote and 2 hour workshop for 40 of our leaders on Employee Engagement and/or Enragement. James's engaging, comfortable style was perfect for the audience and with his humour kept the whole room enthralled for the 3 hours. James's use of real life scenarios, often out of the workplace, to demonstrate his key points worked a treat and had us all reflecting on our own similar experiences. The role plays and facilitated activities provided good energy and an opportunity to experience the scenarios. The feedback from the participants has been fantastic. Well done and thanks James.
Flight Centre, CFO, Australian Operations

James's ideas are fresh and challenging, his style is energetic and engaging, and the feedback from our team is that he has caused them to rethink what they have done in the past and they will be doing things differently in future. James will make you think and I encourage you to spend some time with him - it's very worthwhile.
Deputy General Manager, Human Resources & Administration

Motivating, insightful, professional and engaging, are a few words that come to mind when reflecting on our day with James. His enthusiasm, extensive knowledge and refreshing approach to employee engagement, was the inspiration we required. We strongly recommend a day with James to every manager.
AAPT, Training Co-ordinator

Thank you, James, for the great two-day leadership development workshop held at Swissôtel Dresden (Germany). The feedback from the candidates was only positive and the take-backs immense. We can only highly recommend James to anyone. The amount of quality information and the way it was tied together on the spot was impressive. There was always an atmosphere which instilled a level of comfort to discuss openly with others. The workshop was great!
Vice President Human Resources

James Adonis delighted our audience with his session on 'How to create an engaged and switched-on team'. James delivered an informative, energetic, and enjoyable presentation; a perfect mix of inspirational and entertaining stories to unveil the secrets of engaging your team.
CPA Australia

The participants were engaged at all times and appreciated hearing James's valuable insights and experiences in talent management. They were impressed by his candid and open presentation style and his honesty in answering audience questions. A considerable amount of positive feedback was received from the participants.
Australian Public Service Commission

James Adonis is exceptional - entertaining, down to earth, approachable and an expert on the topic of engaging employees and the generational differences. He really seems to practice what he preaches, and passed on some incredibly valuable information that has really made a difference to our understanding of generations in the workplace.
Australian Institute of Training and Development, Meeting Planner

An excellent presenter .. A very insightful presentation on employee engagement ... So many key messages that we will remember and use ... Extensive positive feedback!
Leadership & Events Co-ordinator

James delivered in full. He is a fantastic, engaging trainer. He presents his material simply and in a clear structure and backs this up with a huge wealth of tips and suggestions on how to continually engage and tap into individual employees' differing needs. James offers a full follow-up as part of his services and his website offers insights, tips and examples that cater for managers with differing management styles. We warmly recommend him to any company that is considering employee engagement and retention training.
Group HR Manager

I am delighted that we chose James Adonis to be part of our conference. His professional and passionate presentation was peppered with facts, examples, and humour. His ability to provide illustrations from his own experiences gave the presentation a unique personal dimension.
Stores & Operations