Who is Office Vibe!? Tell us everything, just as you would someone approaching your booth and asking you this question at the 2019 SHRM Annual Conference and Exposition (#SHRM19) in Las Vegas.
At Officevibe, we believe that the future of work is human. In an era where everyone has equal access to cutting-edge technologies, it’s an organization’s people and the uniquely human capabilities they bring to work every day that will ultimately set them apart.
Built on the science of employee engagement, our solution puts the manager and their team at its heart, focusing on the relationships that most closely affect performance within an organization.
We provide a simple way for organizations to empower managers and their employees with the data-driven insights and actionable learnings needed to create fully engaged teams that deliver exceptional performance. Through seamless pulse surveys and feedback flows we fuel meaningful conversations, inform better decision-making and can help launch impactful new initiatives. And we do it all in a way that creates measurable results perfect for internal or external benchmarking against one of the largest structured employee engagement databases in the world.
Measuring employee satisfaction is a competitive and crowded space! What’s been the key for Officevibe to amass thousands of customers in 100+ countries, and counting?
A few things! We make it a priority to be in constant dialogue with the employees, team managers and HR leaders who use our platform. This helps ensure Officevibe always fits the reality of those using it and allows us to design an experience with user-empathy at its core. We’re big believers that people management is already complicated enough – the solution that helps you do it shouldn’t be.
We also partnered with Deloitte to confirm the scientific validity of our survey model. That means our clients get the most accurate, actionable measure of employee engagement possible, not to mention access to one of the largest structured employee engagement databases in the world.
Finally, we apply our people-first mindset to every customer interaction we have. Our Sales and Support teams work together as a unit to deliver a quality over quantity approach that can be felt by anyone we work with.
I love your story of going from a few employees at GSoft to 180+. That’s crazy growth! I’m curious - during that growth, why is it important that employees have a way to express their feedback anonymously, rather than expressing feedback directly?
Over 230 employees as of our 13th anniversary, in fact! One of the reasons Officevibe was actually developed in the first place was that our company was growing so quickly there was a concern of losing the close-knit culture that had been key to our success.
When you’re part of a small group full of people you’re comfortable with, it can be easier to have confidence in your voice. But as we grew, and new personalities integrated into that group, we realized that not all voices were speaking at the same volume anymore. A layer of optional anonymity in Officevibe’s direct feedback feature was our way of evening that playing field. The insights we gained reinforced the fact for us that while all feedback is useful, honest feedback is invaluable.
The goal is ultimately creating a culture of open communication that leads to trust and team performance. And as we’ve seen with some of our clients over time, the more comfortable employees become sharing insights through Officevibe, the more employees no longer feel the need for that layer of anonymity anymore and remove it.
Let us in on the magic. What’s the employee satisfaction process like at Officevibe? How do you utilize your own tech to retain the best talent?
Building on the point above, it’s all about creating an environment where people can feel connected – both to the organization’s mission, their place within it, and even more importantly to the teams and people they work with every day.
Every team has top performers. Officevibe allows us to understand engagement and satisfaction both at the team level through our pulse surveys, and at the level of each the individual making up those teams through anonymous feedback. We respect that not every employee is the same. Many top performers may also be introverts, and so it’s important to create that sense of psychological safety that allows them to voice opinions and concerns in a way that reflects their personalities.
We listen, we learn, and then we work to improve the areas that need it. For us, that approach hasn’t just helped us retain our top performers, but created an environment that’s raised the bar for performance in all out talent.
Your about us page lists a lot of smart people. What are the biggest challenges you’re facing as a company when helping companies improve employee satisfaction. Because at the end of the day, Gallup still consistently reports that the majority of the workforce is dissatisfied with their work.
I’d say that our challenges aren’t much different from the ones our client companies face every day. Our belief is that it boils down to three main concepts: a willingness to listen deeply, the ability to be empathetic, then to use that empathy to foster an environment of psychological safety.
While these concepts tend to seem clear on the surface, they can be extremely difficult to develop and sustain inside a group of people who interact with each other on a consistent basis. Whether among family and friends, or colleagues working together towards a common goal, our ability as humans to connect with one another is what nourishes strong relationships – which in the workplace translates to employee satisfaction, engagement, and performance.
For anyone who won’t be able to make it to the Officevibe booth in Las Vegas, what do you want them to know?
That we’re always here to talk! Helping organizations engage their teams, connect to their people, and strengthen their cultures is what gets us out of bed in the morning. So, while we would obviously have loved the chance to meet you in person in Las Vegas, if you couldn’t make it but have any questions about what we do, how Officevibe works, or how we can work together – reach out!
Bonus Questions (to potentially be used in various articles on SHRM, Forbes, or other HR related sites)
What are your favorite books?
Start With Why, by Simon Sinek
Dare to Lead, by Brene Brown
The Fearless Organization - Amy Edmondson
What are 1-3 of the best things you’ve implemented at Officevibe that has helped change the course (or culture) of your company?
- We encourage every team to form their own unique Team Principles. It sounds simple (and it is!) but the results have been amazing when it comes to creating a sense unity and moving past recurring issues. Our content team recently posted the story of how and why we implemented it internally and what resulted, so feel free to check out the Officevibe blog to give it a read.
- We facilitated a free 2-day Conscious Communication workshop for all of our employees. It’s allowed people to better understand their own personal triggers, those of others, and simple ways to practice empathy whenever speaking to one another.
- We do our best to give everyone a stake in how our company evolves. We hold “Officevibe Days” yearly, which are essentially huge structured feedback sessions where employees have the chance to step away from their desks, engage with colleagues and leadership, and discuss and feedback on the direction of the company as a group and in breakout sessions.
How do you scale learning and development to help employees grow?
We encourage employees to be proactive! Our goal is to empower employees to feel like it’s not just their manager or our organization that’s responsible for their career or learning path. We want them to have agency in the ways they develop and the skills they learn, so we can help them reflect, and ultimately support them in their growth in a meaningful way.
Building and encouraging internal communities of practice has also shown great results. Peers having a forum to share specialized knowledge with each other is an amazingly effective way to encourage learning and development in a way that shares the responsibility across a team or expertise.
Brett Farmiloe is the Founder and CEO – and currently CHRO - of Terkel.io, a platform where business leaders can answer questions related to their expertise and get published in articles featuring their
insights. Brett is a #SHRM22Influencers and has also been a keynote speaker at several state SHRM conferences around the topic of employee engagement.
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