About Vaisala

Vaisala is a global leader in weather, environmental, and industrial measurements headquartered in Vantaa, Finland. They have been solving global challenges with innovative measurement technologies for 85 years, and over the past nine decades have created thousands of innovations and taken significant technological leaps. 

As they hope to continue being a leader in the world of innovation, they recognize the importance of creating a positive work culture to foster wellness in their greatest asset -- their employees. Vaisala implemented the use of the VibeCatch employee engagement tool in order to dig deeper into their employee engagement and productivity. We sat down with their US HR Director to review the results and get some helpful insights.

The Context and the Challenges

Vaisala had identified that the traditional employee engagement platform they had been using wasn’t a sophisticated enough tool to produce the full results. 

They were looking for a tool which would enable a culture change and address employee engagement within their digital organization. 

Though the tool provided bar charts and response rates, it didn’t provide the type of in-depth analytics that allowed them the opportunity to have a big influence on employee wellbeing.

Every business wants to keep informed to make smarter decisions.

For instance, you conduct customer surveys to learn more about their preferences, challenges, pain points and feelings. These surveys play a vital role in helping to understand customers so you can communicate effectively with your target audiences and build meaningful relationships with them.

But what about your internal customers? Your colleagues, team members and staff? 

Employee surveys allow you to gather their feedback, opinions and areas of concern too. Through these surveys, you can better understand the needs of your people and learn what motivates them at work. These insights can help you improve employee retention rates.

Here's how.

You always hear about the importance of employee engagement in driving your business’ success.

Why? Because strong employee engagement boosts staff productivity and helps improve overall performance, in the same way that it fosters loyalty and reduces employee turnover.

But who should take responsibility for employee engagement?

Is the leadership team accountable?
Perhaps it’s the Human Resources (HR) manager?
Or maybe, employee engagement lies solely in the hands of individuals?

When it comes to employee engagement, it’s actually a team effort – everyone has a part to play to achieve great results.

To understand this better, let’s discuss the different responsibilities each member of your company has in driving employee engagement forward.

Have you heard about the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive?

By December 17, 2021, you can expect this to be transposed as a national law across all EU member states, affecting organisations with 250 employees or more.

The Whistleblower Protection directive aims to protect the safety of corporate whistleblowers as they expose misconduct events. For companies like yours, this is a great opportunity to nurture a “speak up” culture that will help you proactively address breaches and other ethical violations before they become a state-wide PR issue.

This directive brings with it certain management responsibilities too. As you strive to ensure a healthy culture and work environment, privacy concerns must also be taken into account.

To help, here is a complete guide to the EU Directive on Whistleblower Protection and how your business can adapt effectively to comply with it.

Australian statistics report that 92% of their serious mental health concerns in the workplace are mainly caused by work-related stress. Other countries are not far off, unfortunately.

Problems like mental exhaustion, physical weariness and emotional burnout put employees at risk of what’s called ‘work disability’.

Work disability risk occurs when employees become unable to work due to ongoing illnesses, consistent anxiety or enduring injuries. This can be due to extreme job dissatisfaction and stress, resulting in employees losing the motivation to go to work and perform their roles. As a result, your company suffers from longer-term negative consequences including lost productivity, poor customer service and lower revenue generation.

Every business and employee wants to avoid this outcome. So it’s important to understand work disability risk and how you can mitigate its impact.

Why do you think Google invests in providing office spaces that cater to various relaxation, creativity and socialisation activities for employees?

Have you ever wondered why Nike prioritises inclusion and diversity across their business, or why NVIDIA provides generous medical plan benefits for their staff?

The answer is simple.

Companies know that employees are integral for excellent service delivery and overall success. The workforce drives performance, and that’s why businesses often go over and beyond to keep people on board and motivated.

Leave from work comes in many forms – career’s, annual, personal leave, just to name a few. This paid time off work is just one way of showing you care for your employees’ welfare.

However, when your employees are using their leave entitlements, such as sick leave, for purposes that are not in line with what they are intended for, this can have a negative impact on your organisation and even indicate that they’re not content in their roles.

When not properly managed, employee absenteeism can become a serious threat to your business. Frequent, unscheduled and unauthorised days off affect productivity levels, the delivery of service and the overall morale of your company.

It can also have a negative impact on your bottom line. In fact, absenteeism is costing the Australian economy more than $44 billion every year - equating to $578 per worker per day of absence.

To mitigate sickness and absence risk from hurting your business, you must understand what motivates these kinds of unplanned absences and know how to deal with them.

The signs of burnout can creep up very quickly in employees when their physical, mental and emotional strengths are reaching close to exhaustion.

However, the effects of employee burnout are not just limited to their personal welfare alone. It can lead to significant complications like lower productivity levels, higher absenteeism rate, reduced employee engagement and increased employee turnover.

As part of the Human Resources or leadership team, you’ll know that staff burnout often results in additional costs – financial, reputational and cultural – for your business, too.

Recognising the early signs and risk factors of employee burnout can help you prevent these serious issues from occurring. After all – prevention is better than cure.

Fortunately, there are innovative tools like VibeCatch’s employee engagement QWL (Quality Work Life) Polls that can provide your organisation with relevant insights in addressing employee burnout before they happen.

Like flowers that are nurtured with attention and care, employees bloom when they are acknowledged and appreciated.

Employees are human and it’s crucial to never forget this.

Their recognition is an important aspect of internal engagement as it shows how you value your staff’s contribution, performance, attitude and effort towards the accomplishment of your company’s goals.

Now that the year is coming to a close, you have the perfect opportunity to recognise your employees for all the hard work they did, especially during this year. 2020 has been a challenge but your teams have worked hard to keep things running, despite everything.

So, if you’re looking for the best ways to give employee recognition, we’ve prepared some useful tips to help you!

As a Team Leader, HR Manager, or CEO of a company, your primary concern is the wellbeing and motivation of your employees. You know your employees are your biggest asset and that creating a positive work culture is a main driver of productivity and profit for a company.

As leadership, wouldn’t it be helpful to have a tool that gives you the ability to know in advance how your employees feel, as well as provides a solid approach to prevent and/or mitigate the biggest risks that affect employee engagement and productivity in the workplace?

Now, you can do even more with Vibecatch employee engagement QWL (Quality Work Life) polls, with new features and report functions that provide concrete numbers to assess risks and to help you move forward with actionable items that will improve your company’s QWL.