This article was written by Professor Marko Kesti and it was originally published in Finnish here. The following blog post is a translation of the origial article from Finnish to English.
There is a serious mistake in employee surveys that hinders the development of employee productivity. To illustrate the problem, let’s look at an employee survey with three questions:
company culture diversity Employee Performance HR HR metrics HR Tech motivation QWL workplace culture employee engagement Leadership productivity continuous listening analytics growth
How does someone measure the success of a business?
It’s usually thought of as the amount of sales they process, the number of deals they receive, their level of profitability, objectives achieved and so on.
These are the typical ‘go-to’ metrics.
However, something which often gets overlooked, and yet is crucial to overall success, is employee satisfaction and their enthusiasm for the job. Every business wants to experience success and we all strive to achieve it; but to get on the right path, it all starts with looking inside your business first.
So – how can you get the insights you need to get your business to the next level?
company culture diversity Employee Performance HR HR metrics HR Tech motivation QWL workplace culture employee engagement Leadership productivity continuous listening analytics growth
In this episode we talk to Dasa Suissa about the role of leadership and middle management when it comes to employee engagement.
Some of the questions we address in this podcast:
What is the role of leaders in engaging employees?
How can leaders impact the wellbeing of their employees?
Listen to learn more.
Employee Performance HR HR metrics HR Tech motivation QWL employee engagement Leadership productivity continuous listening analytics podcast innovation growth
We live in a highly connected and diverse world today; and the corporate environment is no exception.
People from all generations, industries and walks of life are moving around the globe to expand their careers, and in doing so, bringing with them an exciting opportunity for businesses to explore some bigger-picture benefits.
This diversity should be embraced, as it has been shown to improve a business’ culture, creativity and innovation, and overall revenue success. Diversity is not just a passing fad or popular ideal; it can create a competitive advantage for those willing to encourage it in their own workplace.
Here is why workplace diversity is important for business and how to get the most benefit.
company culture diversity Employee Performance HR HR metrics HR Tech motivation QWL workplace culture employee engagement Leadership productivity continuous listening analytics growth
In this episode we talk with Dasa Suissa about employee engagement metrics: how and what should you measure when you want to evaluate the engagement in a company.
We answer questions related to qualitative and quantitative metrics to measure, the impact of different factors in employee engagement and how to improve this in a company.
“Companies who are overly focused on creating happiness and satisfaction might not necessarily create the ideal conditions for performance.” - Dasa Suissa
Dasa is a Leadership Development Facilitator, Culture Transformation Facilitator, Employee Engagement Consultant, HR Capability Development Facilitator. She is also a Lecturer at the Charles University in Prague where she teaches several HR and adult development related subjects.
For more information about Dasa Suissa please visit her website.
Listen to learn more.
Employee Performance HR HR metrics HR Tech motivation QWL employee engagement Leadership productivity continuous listening analytics podcast innovation growth
Employee response rate matters
Businesses today understand how important staff feedback is when it comes to improving job satisfaction levels, productivity, profitability and overall corporate culture.
For a recap, you can listen to our recent Podcast, The connection between Employee Productivity and Profitability.
However, success all hinges on people actually wanting to participate in providing this feedback. After all, how can you obtain the necessary data if your team don’t get involved or their hearts are not really in it?
In this article, we address how your company can boost your survey response rate to get the insights you need from the majority of your team.
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For this month’s podcast we talked with Leena Saario, HR Manager at Jysk Finland about measuring employee engagement and how she overcame the challenges that come with gathering and interpreting data.
Furthermore, she talks about the improvements she saw by utilising the QWL method and how this increased both productivity and profitability in selected stores.
"We are very numbers driven and measure productivity very precisely with different business metrics here at JYSK as well as different HR metrics like sick absence and such. We were never able to link these two before as we could see poor HR metrics and great productivity metrics and vice versa. With QWL we are able to really understand how well-being and the quality of work-life really affect productivity. This led to a significant productivity increase and a 25% profitability increase in our stores that used QWL." Leena Saario, HR Manager at Jysk Finland.
Listen to learn more.
Employee Performance HR HR metrics HR Tech motivation QWL employee engagement Leadership productivity continuous listening analytics podcast innovation growth
Business is all about people
Management know that one of the most important assets is their employee workforce.
Successful businessman, entrepreneur and pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, says: “If you look after your staff, they’ll look after your customers. It’s that simple.”
When your teams are happy and satisfied, they are productive and play a big role in the company’s success. However, when they are unhappy and unmotivated, then retention rates drop, absenteeism climbs and the culture suffers, leading to an unproductive workplace.
In fact, a recent study showed that happy employees are up to 20% more productive than unhappy employees. A decade of research has also proven that employee happiness improves nearly every business and educational outcome: raising sales by 37%, productivity by 31%, and accuracy on tasks by 19%, as well as countless health and quality of life improvements. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise – when people are more fulfilled, they are more content across all aspects of their life, including their employment, and this boosts their enthusiasm towards related tasks.
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"The biggest challenge for leaders is to keep themselves relevant and attune with the deeper changes that are going on in the workforce."
In this episode we talk to Jonathan Smith about the role of leadership in an organisation. We try to get some answers to the questions below and look deep into the role the leadership of an organisation in the digital age.
What are some of the early signs of a disengaged workforce?
How can leaders make sure the company values and culture are understood and lived by its employees?
Digital engagement and user adoption are crucial as technology increasingly pervades business. How ready are organisations and especially the leadership to be role models in ushering in this change?
Jonathan has over 30 years experience in retail serving among other positions as a Managing Director CEE at Marks and Spencer PLC and board member in several companies. For more information about Jonathan Smith please visit his LinkedIn profile.
Listen to learn more.
Employee Performance HR HR metrics HR Tech motivation QWL employee engagement Leadership productivity continuous listening analytics podcast innovation growth
Every department within a business, whether it’s Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, Finance or even HR, comes with a cost and a return that must be calculated, monitored, assessed and controlled.
This Return On Investment (ROI) measures how much value each function provides the business, including sale quantities, number of leads, customer satisfaction and staff retention, in comparison to the expenses it requires to perform. The concern is that, while most departments are easier to calculate and justify the benefits versus spend, HR is far more difficult. How do you assign a value to better skill matching and improved culture, or higher staff satisfaction and lower absenteeism? HR departments often utilise HR software systems to assist them achieve their goals, and this seems to add to the challenge through additional expense, while excellent results are overlooked.
company culture Employee Performance HR HR metrics HR Tech motivation QWL workplace culture employee engagement Leadership productivity continuous listening analytics growth
