Vevox has seen some huge changes over the past 12 months but as any growing tech business knows, the first few years can be a bit of a rollercoaster. Thanks to Vevox’s ancestry, our foundations are strong and supported by our teams in the UK and Finland, who are fiercely ambitious.
2017 saw an influx of new faces, 2 of the Vevox team on parental leave and a new CEO and in 2018 we already have an office move planned. In changing times especially, employee engagement often suffers, but not here at Vevox, so what’s our secret?
In November last year we submitted an entry to the Employee Engagement awards, judging the best of the best across the whole of Europe. We were thrilled to be shortlisted as a finalist in our category, 'Vendor of the year’, and as part of the application process we had to detail the ‘How’s' and ‘Why’s' of our own employee engagement strategy. Although the application form was long, writing about our own approach to employee engagement was actually really easy.
Welcoming feedback
To call ourselves experts might be a little big headed, but we do strive to practice what we preach. As the creative and technical minds behind Vevox App, used the world over for real time polling and Q&A, honest and uninhibited communication is at our core. It’s literally what our days are focused on, whether its designing new features to help staff talk to each other in employee comms meetings or thinking about how we can improve the dashboard GUI for our users to access their Vevox meetings. Our product development team are always looking for real feedback, whether it’s from our Future Forums, Trustpilot reviews or direct emails and social comments from Vevox users. We actively seek out people’s opinions and don’t shy away from it. The same is true from an internal comms perspective, we have learned how to give feedback to each other and this is always a work in progress. Staff are actively encouraged to leave reviews about working at Vevox on Glassdoor, take a look at some of our reviews and team photo’s
Focus on what matters
Understandably, people generally fear change for many reasons but a lot of the angst could be avoided if people’s expectations are managed appropriately. The UK team are currently preparing to move to new premises and its widely known that in life, moving has to be one of the most stressful things. Whilst we’re all rolling up our sleeves and mucking in, the Vevox management team have avoided having to listen to moans and gripes and the mood is actually one of excitement. How? Simple, they asked us for our input and took action on the results. As a company we have quarterly 'kick off’ meetings to review past successes and our KPI’s for the upcoming quarter. Unsurprisingly we use Vevox App at nearly all of our meetings, and last quarter we were all asked to complete a survey about our thoughts and feeling about moving. By asking a few simple questions incorporating multiple choice polls and space for us to input our own answers, the management team got a really honest view of what mattered most.
Speaking about the survey, CEO Jon Fowler says, “We were really pleasantly surprised about the results of our staff survey. Far from opening a can of worms, it revealed to us that the individual wants and needs in the team were all consistent with each other across the board and they are all straightforward points to address. Without this survey we would never have guessed the responses that we received, it was really eye opening in the best possible way”.
As and when decisions have been made, the team have been kept up to date and almost as important as asking us in the first place, we have all been involved in the plans for our new home - we even have a collaborative Pinterest Board!
Think about people, not just employees
Something as simple as this short survey has had an enormously positive effect on the whole team. One of the questions on our survey asked about our thoughts on working flexible hours. Due to our responses, we are in the process of trialing a flexible working timetable, which on initial reflection looks to be working out really well. Some of the team are early birds and like to be in the office first thing, others want to go to the gym or take their children to school first, so start later. Of course we have ground rules in place so the system can work and we all reap the benefits. Naturally, the business still needs to be run and is the main priority, but in recognising that the team are also a priority, everyone feels valued, committed and responsible for making it work.
In asking us what matters on a personal level and seeing beyond the employer/employee responsibility, Vevox is creating a natural culture of workforce engagement. If you’re looking to sound out your employees or colleagues, take a look at our guide 5 killer questions for employee comms meetings
For more employee engagement tools and tips, see our resources page.
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