Issues such as periodicity, the number of questions, and the very concept of happiness are raised in the quest for higher productivity
Keeping employees satisfied with their work and ensuring that productivity is as high as possible is one of the goals of business management. But how to accomplish this government AND topic of debate in the corporate world in several countries. For this reason, Brazilian companies are looking for ways to innovate in internal surveys, to capture different sentiments and take action when needed.
Conducting surveys is a common way to make this measurement, but several questions remain. What should be the periodicity? How many questions can be asked before people lose interest and just want to get it over with? Is it possible to measure such abstract concepts as happiness or job satisfaction, influenced by factors inside and outside the company?
There is no single answer to these questions, but organizations strive to keep up as best they can with the help of technology. Some conduct the survey once a year, others every three months, and some conduct a weekly survey with few questions to maintain constant monitoring.
One of the best known works of the genre is that of Great Place to Work (GPTW), a global consultancy that certifies companies with a “good place to work” seal and creates specific rankings. The seal is awarded on the basis of a declaration from the company that wants to have it and, subsequently, a questionnaire is created with 63 questions for employees, which address topics such as employment relationships, relationships with bosses and colleagues and whether the person she feels she can be herself within the company. An external check is also performed.
The seal lasts for one year and if the company wants to keep it, it must be re-evaluated. For rankings, documentation with written rules must be submitted to demonstrate work on the topic in question, such as inclusion of minorities (women, people of color, PCD or LGBTQIA+). They are analyzed if there are specific hiring programs, diversity goals and internal regulations to avoid problems.
The seal and rankings help companies compare their personnel management practices with those deemed positive by the market, and recognition is a consequence of this work, not a goal to pursue. “It is necessary to use the survey from the moment it is applied and especially after, open the note, unravel the survey and then look for the seals and rankings,” says Daniela Diniz, director of content and institutional relations of Great People, an ecosystem connected to GPTW.
The company must be concerned with the general well-being of the employee, not just internally, to measure happiness in a global scope. Therefore, it is up to the leaders to understand the issues to perform individual management instead of mass management. “Be close to them, listen sincerely, talk, give feedback, open and maintain dialogue. If you are not close to the team, you don’t know who you are working with,” Diniz assesses.
Although the survey is annual, GPTW works on alternatives on a less regular basis, which have not yet been launched. Other companies, on the other hand, have already started them.
internal solution
A Edenred Brazilowner of brands such as Ticket, TicketLog and Edenred Pay, has implemented a ‘felicitometer’ internal, with quarterly surveys, precisely because I miss something more frequent to contribute to employee satisfaction. “We’re looking for a home-based way to extend this, from engagement to happiness more broadly,” says Livia Alves, director of human resources at Edenred. The company also participates in the Great Place to Work survey.
The method is based on the Perma model of positive psychology, a method created by psychologist Martin Seligman. The letter A speaks of positive emotions; the E to be engaged in something pleasant; the R of pleasant relationships; the M, for having purpose and meaning and the A, for the individual’s achievements and goals. There are 20 questions in the felicitometer, which has an online and confidential template. The questions vary depending on the moment of the company and the employee, but are always related to the five letters.
Engagement in the survey has grown since the first edition, in August 2022, from 50% to 76%. The overall average was 4.20 to 4.25 on a scale of one to five. “Happiness is a journey, it doesn’t make sense to work under the illusion that every time you will have a 100% happy company. Happiness is linked to short, medium and long term satisfaction,” stresses Alves.
According to her, the most important finding is the work of the leaders to take care of the questions raised by the research. All team leaders are trained to apply a concrete roadmap to day-to-day work and conversations at monthly employee meetings. “You need time to evaluate the results and design the plan,” says Alves. According to her, this was also the reason why Edenred gave up the monthly felicitometer, as originally planned.
High frequency
Carrying out constant research, to catch every variation and intervene promptly, is one of the main activities of the company. Team culture, a startup that calls itself “HRTech”. The organization measures the engagement and satisfaction of employees of hiring companies through six questions, sent weekly through the application it developed – the low number of questions is to avoid the loss of interest of respondents. Questions are personalized, so no one gets them in the same week. Based on these, a score is established on various criteria for a team.
The work also serves to evaluate skills, ie if the professional has the behaviors expected by the organization, in technical and relational terms, and helps the worker to work on his own development. “Capturing people in a short period of time allows us to have consistent information over very long periods. There is an engine of intelligence behind the platform, in the metrics, for which averages are calculated,” explains Rafael Bueno, CEO of TeamCulture .
Another positive is that it would become something common for people: since it doesn’t take much time and is weekly, it easily enters the company culture. There is also room for employees to provide more elaborate feedback to their bosses, qualitatively, anonymously or otherwise. “We work a lot on the leader’s relationship with the subordinate. When the person understands that he is bringing his opinion in relation to a topic and it will be read, the way is usually more constructive,” says Bueno.
The results are accessible to leaders and the HR team, in order to maintain control over all areas of the company and take action if problems arise. The application’s artificial intelligence suggests possible actions in some measured aspects, as well as suggestions from HR and employees themselves. The calculated average is weighted over the last 90 days, so as not to be subject to the sentiment “do not become a stock exchange”. “The goal of our platform is to build a more productive environment, with greater organizational alignment and reduced turnover. It helps build a good relationship between leaders and subordinates and strengthen organizational culture,” sums up Bueno.
Source: Terra
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