Your company might religiously track sales trends, customer satisfaction or even how much time you spend on social media, but do they really care about your happiness?
Maybe they should. Increasing numbers of organizations are going beyond half-hearted yearly employee happiness surveys to check on staff morale, every day. And it would appear to have benefits for both sides of the office divide. As the old saying goes, “What is measured, gets managed.” Managers can see the impact of a whole litany of business decisions, from a sudden rush sales order, to implementing a new system, to a popular employee leaving. And for workers, they can anonymously and directly inform management of their satisfaction, and how motivated they are at work.
Quebec City tracks their employees morale weekly; this’d be great for @Saanich. Takes 15 minutes tops. #MoralDesTroupes pic.twitter.com/2QlLy7zE38
— Zac de Vries – Saanich Councillor (@zac4saanich) May 30, 2019
In a 2017 Gallup “State of the Global Workplace” poll, 85 per cent of respondents said they were “not engaged or actively disengaged at work.” Of this figure, 67 per cent were found to be “not engaged,” meaning they “make up the majority of the workforce – they are not your worst performers, but they are indifferent to your organization. They give you their time, but not their best effort nor their best ideas.”
The Employee Engagement Key Performance Indicator is a tool to measure employees’ engagement and analyze how well a business is meeting its goals. When used to track morale, it can provide Human Resources departments with hard data on which bosses can base business decisions and assess impacts on staff. The implication is outcomes could be increased productivity and reduced staff turnover, as well as a handy tool to see if employee happiness boosting initiatives have been successful.
How was your day? @celpax installed in Austria @celpaxreb #celpax #motivation #moodmotivation @emcotest pic.twitter.com/Q4HalJDLkT
— Eric-Jan Kaak 🇪🇺 (@claptonline) June 14, 2018
A number of developers have brought different types of system to market, such as Happy Team Check and Company Mood. Swedish company Celpax describe the issue they are trying to address on their website.
“People simply felt they lacked up-to-date insights into their workforce, their people, that traditional feedback systems and employee surveys had them acting on problems too late. Most companies would say employees are their ‘greatest assets’, but few said they find these assets easy to measure.”
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In their case, how it works is an electronic Celpax unit is fixed somewhere discrete near an exit, with the simple question “How was your day?” on the screen. As an employee finishes their shift, they note their satisfaction with one push on the touchscreen. That data is then compiled electronically and the anonymous results are sent to management. Many publish the results on bulletin boards or give workers access to the app’s dashboard.
Some larger corporate companies have developed their own in-house online versions, but the aim is the same – to track and gain insight into employee morale.
Does your workplace have a similar system or would it benefit from one?
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