Looking for the latest insights on HR topics such as engagement, retention, compliance, and more?
We share our expertise and latest insights that can help you retain your employees and create a world-class work environment.
How likely is it that you would recommend your workplace to others?
Boom! You don’t really need more questions if you want to brand your company and ensure that it appears attractive to both your current employees and your future ones.
As a starting point, you must think of The Health and Safety Assessment as an important project every three years. This is what the legislation says, but there are also other instances that you have to take into account.
Clear rules have been drawn up by the Working Environment Authority in relation to how often The Health and Safety Assessment must be carried out. According to the Danish Working Environment Authority’s executive order no. 1234 of 29 October 2018. Chapter 2a – § 6 b, subsection 4.
“A health and safety assessment must be updated when there are changes in the work, working methods and work processes, etc., which have an impact on the company’s working environment, but no later than every three years.”
And what exactly does this paragraph mean? This means that, as a rule, The Health and Safety Assessment must be carried out every three years – as a minimum. It cannot be avoided. But… If there have been any radical changes in the workplace in the meantime, then every three years is not quite enough.
Well, then the company is qualified to carry out a workplace assessment subsequently according to the legislation. And there is a pretty good chance that right now you are in a company that has just undergone a few significant changes in recent years. The post-corona era means a completely new approach to the hybrid workplace, where many employees and companies have now seen the value in working at home a few days a week. A great value. But also an agency that changes the workplace and that the working environment and well-being can be exposed to different and new forms of challenges and problems. It is important for the company and not least the working environment that these problems are discovered, analyzed and dealt with at an early stage – which the Workplace Assessment can help to ensure.
‘The Great Resignation’ is upon us – and more than 40% of all employees are currently considering quitting their jobs. Even if they don’t have a new one in sight. These are tough times for companies. Because a turnover costs a lot on any financial bottom line. So, what can you do?
The employee development interview is your planned and close conversation with your employees. According to Krifa, 85% of Danish companies hold annual employee development interviews. And it’s a good idea, as these conversations are an important part of the big, essential well-being work. Well-being and daily job satisfaction can change relatively quickly for the individual employee – Therefore hold the interview at least once a year to be sure that you keep up to date with the individual’s well-being, expectations and job satisfaction. Employee development interview is an important tool in the whole great well-being work. It cannot stand alone, because of course you also have to run workplace assessment and engagement surveys on an ongoing basis, but the employee development interview is definitely a crucial part.
Having an effective engagement platform implemented to maintain and increase the entire working environment and employee well-being is an extremely important decision. But if you have to go all out and ring the big, solid well-being bell, then you should consider getting a certified working environment advisor on board in the process.
Well, it probably goes without saying that the question frame is crucial for your engagement measurements. The questions MUST reflect the company’s framework and be decidedly industry-specific. Otherwise, you might get an answer in the West, even if you ask in the East – and that doesn’t add much value in the end. So, it is a good idea to get expert guidance from someone who has carried out a lot of well-being surveys and who has knowledge of the various industries and from there can put together the right questionnaire for the company.
A small side note here is that Woba.io actually offers (as one of the few providers) the possibility to design a completely specific and self-selected question frame for the individual measurement – and in this way it is ensured that the frames are not standardized, but on the contrary tailored for both industry, employees and company.
You have probed the market and have concluded that Woba.io is the absolute best match for your company and your employees. Wonderful. Then you already come a long way. But now there is an inevitable question when it comes to the technical side.
Can this new software integrate with what we already have? And that is important. Because it can take immeasurable amounts of time and effort if this part can’t just be put in place easily and clearly.
We know it ourselves – diversity and internationalization in companies around the country has led to an exciting trend. The workplaces often consist of several nationalities. This is how we feel at Woba, where a large part of the employees are English-speaking and originally come from Belgium, Romania and India, among others. And then of course it is not an option to send out a well-being survey – which is only in Danish.
We thought about this when we built our well-being platform and therefore all question frames in the various surveys are available in both Danish and English.
You have already recognized that working with well-being and the working environment is definitely important for your company.
Keeping up to date with your employees and continuously taking the pulse of well-being will be your most important means of being a well-functioning company with satisfied employees – who do not fall ill with stress or leave you in favor of the competitor.
Well. Important realization. Then you are that far.
But now you have to research the market and find the best provider – and not least the most optimal match for you and your company.
In this phase, ask yourself the following:
– What do we want to achieve with the platform?
– Should it be digital and dynamic?
– How much time do you want to spend on well-being work yourself?
– How much should employees be involved?
– Should the platform offer action plans built on valid research?
When you have asked yourself these questions – and not least the answer to them, well then it is just starting to probe the market for providers who have just the right solution for you and your company.
“Uh, we don’t really want to say that out loud!“
– we often hear company owners, HR directors or working environment representatives say when we ask if we should tell the outside world about their effective well-being work and increase in employee satisfaction after using Woba.
And here, of course, it’s not the great results that they don’t want to share.
No, these are the original risk areas that are found at the starting point for their completed surveys – i.e. the problems that come to light via Woba’s well-being platform.
The reasons for this can be many.
But our experience tells us that it basically deals with vulnerability and “brand image”.
Are you faced with having to start an engagement survey?
Then it is a completely unavoidable part of the process that you first of all decide when the study is a success.
Without a set goal, you can quickly find yourself groping blindly for what you really want to achieve with the effort.
One of the parameters you can set your mind on is how high a response rate you want to achieve in your measurement – so that the measurement can be characterized as being a success and can be called representative.
More than 81 % of our surveys show cases of ‘offensive actions’.
‘Offensive actions’ is an umbrella term that includes bullying, sexusual harrasment, physical violence and threats of violence are characterised. In this article I will focus on: violence at the workplace.
First of all it is important to mention the fact that many workplaces will never experience problems with violence.
Nonetheless, it is still everyday life for many employees in Denmark why it is important to take a closer look at it.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the United States
“Workplace violence is any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behaviour that occurs at the work site. It ranges from threats and verbal abuse to physical assaults and even homicide. It can affect and involve employees, clients, customers and visitors”
Now we have the definition in place.
But ‘psychological violence’ can also happen through social media, text messages, emails and websites.
‘Psychological violence’ that takes place on social media uses the same mechanisms as other forms of psychological violence. It affects the victim’s self-esteem, creates anxiety and discomfort. The psychological violence through social media can seem extra harmful because it is anonymous.
We therefore always recommend our customers to have a clear zero tolerance policy about physical and psychological violence and documented guides for preventing.
You probably remember the wave.
The overwhelming wave that hit the whole world in 2017.
The MeToo wave.
Here the world became aware of how big a problem sexual abuse really is – and it soon became clear that most women have experienced some form of unwanted sexual attention at some point in their lives.
“… And a grown man can be terribly injured
Of pats on the butt and hands on the thigh
We do not engage in sexual harassment
We do not find ourselves in sexual harassment”
Maybe you have heard about the old SHU-BI-DUA song that blew up all the danish charts back in the 1990s.
Back then, sexual harassment was presented as ‘a pat on the rear’ or ‘a hand on the thigh’.
Today it covers a somewhat wider range of situations between people.
Sexual harassment is now defined as ‘any form of unwanted sexual attention’.
And it is quite subjective, in that we all have different and very individual limits.
The statistics show that 11-12% of young women report experiencing sexual harassment every year.
And these are primarily women between the ages of 18 and 34.
Sexual harassment can occur in many guises and in many different scenarios.
It can be between an employee and a customer/citizen.
It can be internal between employees.
And of course it can also occur between manager and employee.
If the scenario is internal to the workplace, then a distinction is made between four different situations:
– Sexual harassment as punishment for breaking norms
– Sexual harassment as group culture
– Sexual harassment after the breakup of a romantic relationship
– Interplay that is misunderstood
You may primarily associate bullying with children and classroom environments.
But bullying occurs in particular (and unfortunately) also in adult workplaces.
Bullying is an abusive act that takes place repeatedly over a long period of time.
The Danish Working Environment Authority defines bullying as:
Then we have the definition in place.
And so we have come to the conclusion that bullying is not just a simple argument or a form of disagreement between two parties.
And yet there are several gray areas. Because it will always be the subjective perception of the situation and the relationship that determines whether it is bullying.
And it is difficult.
Because people are different and we have very different limits.
What is purely sarcastic humor to the receptionist can be decidedly offensive behavior to the cleaning manager.
The Danish Working Environment Authority therefore attaches great importance to the quantity – i.e. how large a volume these actions constitute – how often they actually occur.
Isolated situations will rarely be categorized as bullying – depending on the severity of course.
Examples of workplace bullying could be:
– Spreading rumours
– That you consistently talk down to an employee
– That you deliberately give an employee a very large amount of work compared to the other employees
– That an employee is excluded from social events
– When an employee consistently undermines their manager’s authority
– Posting humiliating, offensive and threatening comments or images on social media
So yes, bullying can come in many guises and none of them are particularly fun for the recipient or for well-being in general.
That’s a fierce headline.
But nevertheless, it is the apparent truth.
And that leaves a certain surprise (and fright) because is it really THAT widespread in Danish workplaces?
So, our surveys (which so far count 420,980 pieces) show an unequivocal answer – that the offending acts actually occur, and that they occur much more often than we had just predicted.
It can be a difficult thing to track and discover as a manager, as the actions often take place in secret – or indirectly.
Therefore, it is extremely important that you go through the APV and follow-up well-being measurements, so that the problems are highlighted – and you thus have a chance to act proactively on these.
Abusive behavior spoils the working environment in general and makes a big dent in employees’ well-being.
In fact, stress sick leave and resignations are often caused by abusive actions that have been going on for a long period of time.
Offensive acts are only the general term.
In reality, the actions must be divided into three categories:
– Bullying
– Sexual harassment
– Violence
Let’s go deeper into the categories.
“I sit for long periods of time by an open window and often catch a cold”
Action plan:
‘We will immediately arrange for the air conditioning to be repaired and the windows to be closed. The nearest department head is responsible.’
“My PC is slow and often gets kicked off the internet”
Action plan:
‘Purchase of new functional equipment and an upgrade of the internet solution. The department manager is responsible for purchasing.‘
This is how you can meet your employees’ needs and challenges in the working environment with a specific and solution-oriented action plan.
But what if the comment fields in the workplace assessment look like this:
“I don’t have any symptoms of stress. However, I find it difficult to sleep through the night and have some heart palpitations.”
“I don’t know if it’s just me, but I sometimes feel that Kirsten talks down to me and treats me as if I’m not doing my job well enough. It’s probably just me.”
Well, the challenges suddenly have the character of something far less tangible and cannot be solved with a simple measure.
And what do you do?
Yes, it is as the name strongly suggests – a plan for an action.
And it is also one of the most important things in your workplace assessment work. Because what is a workplace assessment without a real follow-up and a thoroughly concrete solution plan?
If you ask the Danish Working Environment Authority what they think an action plan should be based on, then you must map out the following:
– Theme
– Action
– Priority
– Term
– Responsibility
– Date of follow-up
In order to be even more specific, we at Woba have specified the action plans so that they are far more in-depth and useful.
It is indeed a really good idea to map and divide everything at an organizational level, management level, group level and individual level. In HR, this way of thinking is called the IGLO model.
I – Individual level
G – Group level
L – Management level
O – Organizational level
Let’s start in reverse order …
At the organizational level, you look at what the employer’s responsibility actually is in relation to the problem and in particular in the future plan. What must the employer do, say and focus on in order for the action measure to be implemented.
The management level is where the manager’s role is clarified. What does the individual manager mean to the work culture and how can he/she help to solve the problem.
The group level happens to be the ‘team’, characterizes the community and the “we lift in a pack” mentality. A specific action plan can be used here and focus on what you can actually do together in the team to meet the problems. Are there any prejudices that need to be addressed? Does the general language need to be tweaked a bit? Or should we just get better at involving and taking each other into account?
And then we come to the individual level. What can the individual employee do to promote the working environment with a view to the specific challenge?
Here it is important to come up with guidelines for how the individual tackles the challenge, but general attitudes to the company’s policy can also be set out here – and how it is desired that you behave towards colleagues.
The right action plans produce the right effect
… And they just do!
We have seen it ourselves through many years of experience with research in the working environment.
The research clearly indicates that you can achieve improved job satisfaction, productivity and lower sickness absence if early efforts to act on the measurement’s problem areas are prioritized.
What is the cost of losing an employee? If you’re asking this question, you’re not alone.
There is a really good reason to worry about this particular question – from the perspectives of both top management, HR and management. First, it is crucial for the financial health of companies to be able to attract and retain talent.
Several substantial surveys such as MIT’s newest ‘Toxic Culture Is Driving The Great Resignation’ reveal that currently more than 40% of all employees are contemplating leaving their job. Between April and September 2021, 24 million Americans left their job under the so called – ‘The Great Resignation’ – a phenomenon which has also started to reach Danish companies.
Losing an employee comes with consequences for the workplace – both financially, culturally, socially and therefore for the entire work environment. The largest direct financial costs can be traced to the loss of production, recruitment and training of new staff in order to cover the human loss. Still, it is difficult to ascertain the exact loss. But some studies point out that every time a workplace loses a full-time employee, the cost is an average of 50% of the employee’s annual salary. However, this is merely the directly measurable costs. If you count the indirect costs in the form of lost production, cooperation difficulties and similar issues, the picture appears much scarier!
Having worked as HR Director for many years, I can say that, in HR, we know that losing an employee isn’t only about the money! Losing a great talent cannot only be traced in an Excel sheet, but has substantial consequences for the unity of the team in terms of cooperation, broken friendships and a psychologically bad work environment.
In this connection, one metric speaks its own clear language when we want to know about employees’ well-being; the employee turnover rate – or simply: How many employees leave the company, and how quickly do they leave?
The most crucial metric for HR. Because it is costly to lose one’s employees. No question about it.
The employee turnover rate – or in other words attrition rate – of course varies from industry to industry. After The Great Resignation we call them the blue-collar and white-collar sector. Blue collar industries are some of the hardest industries to retain employees – retail, fast food and apparel. Where fx management consulting has one of the highest attrition rates.
However there is rarely a focus on what could be done to lose fewer employees. Even in companies with an employee churn in excess of 25%, information like this does not give rise to making a special effort.
And why is that? There are often two reasons.
One is that it doesn’t hurt enough.
The company and its employees manage to compensate for the large employee turn-over rate and reach their goals nonetheless.
It is off, all right, but not sufficiently off.
Another reason is that something inadvertently happens when you dive into the numbers. The focus of the discussion then shifts from a number reflecting a problem for the whole company to the individual employee.
”Hanne left, yes. But she had worked here for a long time…”
”So Peter left. But maybe it was time for him to try his hand at something new…”
”Well, Jakob left. He wasn’t exactly cut out for the job…”
The logic I have often witnessed is that it does not make sense to make company-related initiatives because the problem is the individual employee – not the company culture.
Recognisable?
But from my perspective, unwanted staff departure may be first and foremost an overlooked and expensive problem.
Luckily companies have an opportunity to measure the root causes of their employee turnover rates and forecast their top predictors before it happens. Let’s take a closer look.
And what does it take to change this individual and reactive approach? This is my suggestion: Take action in tree areas.
Use the employee engagement pulse surveys to measure the root causes of employee turnover rates
Find a digital system that can translate employee feedback into a forecast of your top predictors of employee turnover
Translate the results into action as fast as possible
This applies regardless of whether we are talking about the mandatory health and safety risk assessment, the employee engagement survey or the leadership evaluation. It is important to find a digital solution which doesn’t merely deliver data, but also gives you an idea of what the data means, and what actions you can take to proactively prevent loss of key employees. If you receive data only, much too often the result is talk and good intentions, without any real action or change.
It is also important not to play with closed cards within a narrow group consisting of HR and the company’s top management when it comes to data and insights from the measurements. If HR wants to create real change, the results must be put to work in all the company layers.
For these reasons, the best solutions go one step further and offer some good advice and recommendations as to how you may work with the work environment and employee engagement on the basis of the feedback from the surveys.
And the action plans must be implemented in all layers of the company – at the level of the employees, the teams, the management and the top management – so that you may work with prevention as a joint effort for the whole company.
Need help working proactively with employee feedback and data?
The few – but grey – hairs on my head may reveal that I have worked in the HR business for an unsaid number of years now. And, until recently, we have primarily worked reactively with our employee feedback.
Typically, the process has been like this:
Problems arise…..We collect feedback and discover the problems over several months.…We then correct the problems (mostly).
Our HR method has therefore been to look back at the data and feedback from various employee engagement surveys. In other words, we have had our backs against the future.
But what if we could look forward, having a sneak peek into the future – and predict employee turnover that hasn’t happened yet?
We can actually do this today using the ‘predictive people analytics’.
As the name suggests, ’predictive analytics’ uses machine learning to predict the development and future results with the help of historic data. This gives HR and managers a real possibility of looking into the future where they can identify risks and prevent problems that haven’t happened yet – but will happen if we sit on our hands. The companies are simply given the ability to foresee potential problems and the loss of key employees before these problems arise.
And if you want to reach the very premier league of HR, there is no way around this.
’Predictive analytics’ is a big deal in HR data. And the possibility of putting it to work isn’t just a distant dream anymore, but the new reality that has come to stay.
In just five years, the number of HR professionals skilled at data analytics has risen 242% (LinkedIn 2020 Global Talent Trends).
And I am certain that ‘predictive people analytics’ will become a significant game changer for the whole of the HR industry, which will transform the way in which we work with employee turnover and attrition rates in HR.
A game changer in the sense that it will enable HR to quantify the effects of their efforts! HR will find themselves able to deliver quantifiable financial gains from their employee engagement strategies with a whole new level of precision and speed than previously seen.
If HR succeeds in making this paradigmshift, companies will not only save an unimaginable amount of money – but will also save an incomprehensible number of people from losing their ability to work.
And that change is worth fighting for!
If you wish to learn more about the possibility of implementing ‘predictive people analytics’ with Woba, please contact me.
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