Hey there!
I’m Lena, a People Manager at FINN, a car subscription start-up based in Munich.
As someone deeply invested in People and Culture, I want to share our experience with Officevibe, a tool we’ve been using for several years to gauge our employees’ engagement at work.
In this blog, I’ll talk about why we find Officevibe so valuable, how it benefits our employees, and how it can be a game-changer for you as an employee, manager, or HR professional.
I hope that this blog post gives you some exciting insights!
What is Officevibe about?
Before we start, let me quickly explain Officevibe. Officevibe is an employee engagement and feedback platform designed to measure employee mood. It operates through regular surveys that gather anonymous feedback from employees on various aspects of their workplace experience. These surveys cover topics like personal growth, happiness, work-life balance, and relationships with managers.
Officevibe helps us identify areas that work well and areas that need improvement regarding employee engagement. While the People team uses the data to see which areas we need to invest more time in on a company level, the People and Unit Leads get more insights on what they need to focus on in their teams. The feedback enables us to track employee sentiment, identify areas for improvement, and implement strategies to improve overall employee engagement.
Why does FINN use Officevibe?
🚀 Higher employee productivity and work quality
First of all, when employees are engaged, they are motivated to do their best and, according to Gallup, 17% more productive and efficient in their work.
☺️ Higher employee satisfaction and retention
When employees are engaged, they are more satisfied with their job and probably won’t leave the company that quickly. This can then result in lower turnover rates, saving companies significant costs in hiring and onboarding new employees. Gallup states that highly engaged workforces have 59% lower turnover rates!
🤝 Higher customer satisfaction and retention
When employees are passionate about their jobs and motivated to do their best, they are more likely to provide good customer service. According to Haiilo, customer retention rates are 18% higher when employees are well-informed and highly engaged.
💸 Higher profitability
Higher productivity and work quality mean employees are more willing to put in extra effort to achieve the company’s goals. Companies with high employee engagement are 21% more profitable according to Gallup, 2023.
Why should you use Officevibe?
As an employee, Officevibe offers several advantages. By providing honest feedback, you foster a culture of transparency and contribute to creating a work environment that values continuous improvement. Your feedback is crucial for identifying strengths and areas for improvement. When your organization acts on your feedback, it greatly enhances job satisfaction, motivation, work-life balance, and, most importantly, your personal growth and development. It’s important to note that your feedback is confidential and only shared with relevant parties.
Officevibe serves as a platform for initiating important conversations. When you share feedback, you’re not just expressing your thoughts; you’re influencing the direction of these conversations. Your managers can address these topics within the team, leading to better communication and stronger relationships among team members.
Lastly, Officevibe is a powerful tool for promoting a culture of recognition and appreciation within the organization. It’s not just about sharing feedback; it’s about acknowledging the work of your colleagues and making them feel appreciated.
What can you do with Officevibe?
Since there is more to Officevibe than just the surveys, I would like to share a few of my favorite features with you:
- My absolute favorite is the Good Vibe feature, which offers a great chance to share kind words when someone does a good job.
- The 1-on-1 templates are a valuable tool for supervisors. They provide well-crafted questions that can guide your conversations, making them more structured and effective. It’s definitely a feature worth exploring!
- The feedback feature is great for continuing a conversation based on anonymous feedback. Managers can start a conversation or react to their team’s feedback. Even though it is a great opportunity to start an anonymous discussion with supervisors, I would like to emphasize that a 1:1 feedback conversation is always the best way to follow up on issues.
How to increase participation rate?
One thing is clear: low participation rates result in incomplete data and an inability to understand the overall employee mood, making it difficult for employers to address specific issues.
FINN faced this challenge in Q3 2023 when our Officevibe participation rate was only 59%. This presented a clear need for more comprehensive data and valuable insights into our employees’ engagement. In response, the People team set an ambitious goal to boost the participation rate to 80% by the year’s end.
We started by identifying the cause of low participation rates. Many employees were not receiving the surveys in Slack due to the Slack-Officevibe integration not working properly, or they were not logged into Officevibe. These technical issues were easy to resolve. The next issue was low Officevibe awareness. We addressed this through the following initiatives:
- a company-wide knowledge session
- Officevibe deep dives within the department management teams
- automated Officevibe reminders in Slack
- personal Slack reminders to inactive employees (We found this to be a very effective method to increase participation rate. 😎)
Long story short, by the end of 2023, we had successfully increased the participation rate to 80%. Even today, almost a year later, we maintain a strong participation rate around 70%, which is great to see!
Do you use Officevibe? If so, we’d love to hear about your experiences! What is your participation rate? What are your best practices? I hope you enjoyed this article about Officevibe! Thank you so much for reading. Feel free to leave a comment or open up a discussion.