More engaged employees, more proactive processes and optimisation of your employee retention – all thanks to pulse checks. These are just some of the benefits your business will see from using pulse checks.
Below Helene Odevall, Product Manager for Weekli by Talentech lists the seven most positive results you can achieve from doing continuous pulse checks.
1. Boost employee engagement
2. Take your chance to become more proactive“Each employee will get a digital coach who will send out the selected questions each week, and they will also receive insights into their situation to help them grow and develop. Following these insights can also provide a strong incentive for the employee to develop further. Managers will likewise have the opportunity to set conditions and to act on critical responses at the departmental level.”
Helene Odevall, Product Owner, Weekli
Traditional employee surveys are typically carried out just once or twice a year. Helene observes that this is often because certain questions are complex and complicated to answer, meaning that response times draw out and that it can take HR several month to act on the information collected and produce a workable action plan. This may mean that data are already out of date by the time the action plan is deployed, meaning that it does not provide employees with any results or opportunities for development.
For this reason, Helena Odevall recommends that companies conduct employee surveys in the form of pulse checks, so HR and managers can obtain real-time data that they can act upon before critical data develops into larger problems. This results in a proactive company which in turn tends to generate much higher levels of employee engagement. Not only that, but pulse checks also have a much better response rate compared to traditional survey forms.
“It represents a relatively small investment on the part of the employee to take around 30 seconds each week to answer questions that allow them to have their say and thus thrive as best they can at the workplace. The questions are based on research and specifically selected for each employee.”
Helene Odevall, Product Owner, Weekli
Using continuous pulse checks means that your HR team will always have access to the data that form a foundation for proactive measures.
“Human Performance Indicators (HPIs) are the KPIs of HR and thus a central part of Weekli. After a few months, the statistics speak for themselves, with managers and HR being able to view trends and tendencies in dimensions, scales and graphs that help them introduce the measures required. Pulse checks also create an opportunity for employees to be proactive, because they continuously come into contact with because the conditions for doing their job improve.”
Helene Odevall, Product Owner, Weekli
3. Retain your talents
Companies typically work hard to recruit employees with the right competencies, but they also work just as hard to make sure they stay. Companies at the forefront have understood that their employees are the most important resource they have.
“By continuously taking the temperature and understanding how employees are experiencing the work environment, companies can ensure that engagement is high and that energy is good. This not only produces satisfied employees, but veritable ambassadors for your company!”
Helene Odevall, Product Owner, Weekli
The younger generation place whole new demands on their places of work. For them, a data-driven approach is absolutely essential. They are more impatient and they want to work at an effective pace and to both receive answers and to see action faster.
“Using the latest technology is quite simply the standard and they have considerably higher demands around transparency, feedback and opportunities for development.”
Helene Odevall, Product Owner, Weekli
3. Anonymity fosters honesty
A good tool for pulse checks should place anonymity front and centre so that no responses can be connected back to a specific individual.
5. The importance of ongoing evaluations“It is smart to put a minimum limit on response groups, say at least five employees, and if there are fewer than five people in a group then the data should not be made visible in order to protect anonymity. Employees should also own their own data and have exclusive access to them.”
Helene Odevall, Product Owner, Weekli
"How are you doing?", "what projects are you working on?" and "do you need any help?" Questions that feel quite natural around the coffee machine or across the desk can actually have a negative effect on engagement, team spirit and productivity over time.
“In the modern world of today, it is more important than ever before to ask employees how they are finding their situation at work, so that we have the opportunity to pick up on any discontent and create change. It is also becoming increasingly clear that it is not enough to simply conduct employee surveys once a year. Data on how your employees are doing in January cannot be used in June, because circumstances will have totally changed.”
Helene Odevall, Product Owner, Weekli
The effects of the coronavirus pandemic can also be taken as proof that recurrent pulse checks have a positive impact, as they enable us to proactively and effectively intervene where there have been negative developments in employee satisfaction.
6. Become a business that learnsBoost profitability“Weekli creates a culture for learning and development. Using employee surveys in the form of pulse checks can create a culture of learning that allows employees to experiment, to learn from their mistakes and to quickly move on. Weekli supports independence, experimental personalities and learning through feedback. It creates a personal ecosystem for each employee, while also giving HR and managers a way to check up on what is working and what needs to be further developed.”
Helene Odevall, Product Owner, Weekli
“Higher levels of employee engagement translate into a high performance workplace, which in turn means greater profitability. And there are countless studies to back that up!”
Helene Odevall, Product Owner, Weekli
