The better a CEO knows about what is going on with his/her company, the better they can strategize its next steps.
To this end, great leaders resort to their employees for information, rather than basing their decisions and actions on guesswork or assumptions.
Company pulses are a tool to easily get that sort of insight. Thus, they have been around for quite some time in the business sphere. But the problem with company pulses is that they can be lengthy, which causes fatigue, or they can be short but superficial, which prevents the leader from getting useful and actionable insights.
Mogens Møller, CEO of Sleeknote, discovered a way to keep company pulses brief and yet convey rich insights. He bases his approach on asking “If you were in my shoes as CEO tomorrow, what would you do differently?”. In this article, we will delve into his method and how you can adopt it in your company.
The framework to conduct effective company pulses
Company pulses are still sometimes overlooked despite its rock-solid benefits:
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Employees feel heard and valued when you implement solutions based on their feedback, which leads to increases in employee engagement;
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Pulses allow for real-time issue detection, which helps you tackle the matter quickly and effectively;
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They help to assess the need to align values and culture – remember business strategy and practices only work if they're aligned with the business culture;
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Pulses enhance the feedback loop – they are a great way to receive feedback from your employees;
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They can be a good source to support business decisions.
Here are the steps Møller applies when conducting company pulses and that you can start doing too:
Send out surveys every quarter
As a leader, you want to get frequent insights – so you might think “the more I do pulses, the more insights I will get.” That is in part true.
But there is another piece of the equation which is survey fatigue – employees only have the energy and disposition to do a certain number of surveys in a certain period of time.
You want to get accurate information and feedback that is thought through. So your focus should be on finding the right cadence between pulses. This can look different depending on the company and sector.
As a rule of thumb, Møller opts for quarterly company pulses – as they allow for a balance between obtaining interesting insights and avoiding survey fatigue.
Some fast-paced environments may choose to conduct pulses on a weekly or biweekly basis. There is no one-size-fits-all. It is up to you to choose what is best for your company.
Verse repetitive and current issues
You can optimise your pulses by versing both repetitive themes and current issues.
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Repetitive themes are everything that has been there since the company’s creation, or are core business themes, or things that appeared some time ago and are meant to stay.
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Current issues are specific matters that appeared following external changes in the environment – for instance, you can consider the great focus employers started giving on remote wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
4-Step recipe to foster change
Every thought shared on the pulse is used to generate actions – this is the mindset!
Knowing how to design a company pulse is vital, but the real work only begins once you collect the data. You need to have a method that allows you to go from the raw data to the implementation of an idea/solution.
Here is how Mogens Møller goes from designing survey to following up on insights:
Build a survey with open and direct questions
One of the main questions Mogens Møller asks is: “If you were in my shoes as CEO tomorrow, what would you do differently?”
This question can lead to crucial insights – for instance, it helped Møller realise he needed to invest more in product and that there was a misalignment of perks/culture for remote workers.
- It is super important (and a game-changer) to collect feedback from your remote or hybrid employees!
The idea is to ask a handful of open questions that promote transparency and openness. On the brink of extreme transparency – that is what you should be looking for.
The focus is on what is working right, the level of satisfaction (employee NPS) and what can be done to improve.
Get together to go through the data
After gathering all answers, take your all-hands meeting and extend it by 30 minutes. The idea is for you, the CEO, to have enough time to go through the majority of the questions employees mentioned in the pulses.
Going through it together with your team makes people feel a sense of belonging and motivates them to later on take action and even give more feedback. Nevertheless, it is your job as CEO to curate the issues you will act on.
Communicate what to work on
It is almost impossible to follow every aspect mentioned on the pulses. After reaching a decision on which ones to implement, take the all-hands meetings and clearly communicate it.
Prepare your message for each issue you bring up. Mention which ones you decided to focus on and make sure you also highlight the ones you cannot take action on. Your team deserves a qualified and sound No.
Follow up the implementation
If your aim is to foster change, you need to have a great system to help you follow up and stay on track of your team’s progression on the issue they have at hand. Besides doing status meetings, you can soothe your efforts with Workjoy.
You can create a project on every topic you decide to pursue. This will allow you to easily stay in the loop. Each project can have its tasks which have a clear delegate, and the workflow allows you to always know where your team stands.
You can even resort to Workjoy’s channels to update your entire team on your wins towards the end goals - avoid overlooking wins or important contributions.
Summary
To build strategies that will lead to success, you need to assess what is happening. Use company pulses to get real and accurate insights from your employees.
Here is what you need to consider when conducting company pulses:
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Send out surveys every quarter.
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Each pulse should verse repetitive and current issues.
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Make sure you are asking open questions – e.g. “If you were in my shoes as CEO tomorrow, what would you do differently?”
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Once you have the survey answers, extend the next all-hands meeting to go through the majority of issues that popped up.
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Decide which topics you will act on.
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At all-hands meetings give status on the pulses and highlight what you cannot take action.
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Follow up the implementation phase - you can resort to Workjoy for an easier process ;)