A struggle that business leaders are facing today is that of defining a business strategy and adapting their organization to an ever-changing business environment. One of the challenges in this is the fact there are many options available but not enough data to fully evaluate the situation and weigh up those options. And in some instances, the fast-changing business environment can mean that any available data can quickly become outdated once a decision is reached.
In addition to the above, business leaders often come up against limitations, as important business decisions are made in a small circle formed of an organization’s exec or management teams. Of course, this group will utilize the data they have, but they will also draw from their own experience and perspectives. This can be a limiting factor because, despite the long-standing experience of these business leaders, they cannot account for the experiences of everyone across the business, meaning there is some ambiguity.
Now, imagine if you could expand this circle, involve other people in this process, and use their experience and perception to get a different perspective. What if you could tap into the wider brainpower of your organization and get everybody to participate in solving business problems?
Jack Welch explored this notion in his book ‘Winning’. He describes an exercise called “Work-Outs” which was designed to get a group of people discussing a business problem to get some untapped ideas flowing. A famous quote one of the participants said: “For twenty-five years, you paid for my hands when you could have had my brain as well – for nothing.”
Tap in to the brainpower of your organization
Today we have many great ways to engage the entire workforce, and thankfully don’t need to adopt Welch’s “work-out” approach. But it’s not necessarily easy to bring a group together physically, so we need to find ways to engage them digitally. This is where Tachyon comes in.
Tachyon Sentiment can send queries or surveys directly to your employees and will be shown unobtrusively on the user’s desktop as a notification item. The user can choose to respond immediately or go back to the question when they have time to deal with it. Surveys can be sent to the entire population of an organization or a targeted group of users.
Tachyon Sentiment also allows business leaders to ask a question regarding strategic company directions and get direct feedback from employees. For example, a question could be: “Should we expand with product X into the European market?” And the answer options can be Yes/No choice and a free form text field where employees can provide additional comments. In this way, business leaders can better understand the sentiments within their organization regarding the decision and employees will feel more inclusive when included in decision making.
Uncovering diamonds in the rough
Business leaders can drive change management through the organization by using the sentiment-focused questions to prepare for a planned major change. An example here would be: a BYOD mobile device policy. In preparation for this, business leaders can ask employees if they would be interested in using their own devices, not only gaining feedback to help understand how employees feel about changes being made, but also help to prepare the organization for the policy change.
Tachyon Sentiment can also be helpful in better understanding facilities and workplace situations. Surveys can be created that deal with the general work environment or facilities available in an organization to provide insight into employee happiness and satisfaction. Take for example, amenities provided by the organization. Leaders can ask employees if the pantry is sufficiently stocked, and all the items are always available. This usually a tough question to find out as employees would not complain about this openly but if they can easily answer that question from their desktop the feedback will be more valuable.
All in all, Tachyon Sentiment provides business leaders with a powerful tool that connects them directly to their employees, including them in the decision making process, enabling them to share ideas and feedback, and providing a powerful lens into the business. You never know, this employee-sentiment focused approach might help uncover some diamonds in the rough!
Keen to learn more about Tachyon Sentiment? Why not check out the first blog in this series that provides an overview and explores prioritizing the employee digital experience. The second and third blogs focus on an IT use case and HR use case. Alternatively, to talk to us about the benefits of Tachyon Sentiment get in touch today!
