Smart companies now survey employees in real time, not annually. Here’s why

Companies nowadays are looking forward to a happy environment in the office and are getting smarter while engaging with GeNext employees by opting for a more real-time tracking of their sentiments.

Recently, the HR team at Zensar Technologies noticed that a group of employees living in a specific part of the city were upset about something when they analysed their comments on group portal, Zenverse. On tracking this further, they realised that it was related to an issue with the outsourced cab service provider.

"We are working with the agency and launching a new set of apps to improve how the service is provided. This is something we wouldn't have been aware of if we weren't tracking employee sentiment through their comments and conversations on ZenVerse," CEO Sandeep Kishore told ET.

Persistent System is also in the middle of upgrading its feedback system which will allow employees to give feedback as soon as they are done with an interaction or using an app.

"So far, we've had a mood indicator where people would change their status to reflect how they are feeling. We want to make this more real time and get their feedback on how they feel, perhaps after spending time at the travel desk a bit like how you rank your experience as soon as your Uber ride is over ," Siddhesh Bhobe, center head-Pune, Persistent Systems, told ET.

All mood updates go to Bhobe as well as the concerned HR team member, and Bhobe reaches out to anyone who is feeling low or negative. Very often, it's just a way for employees to vent their feeling, and at times the bad mood may not have anything to do with work.

"This changes how you look at engagements. Most people are happy that someone is listening to them, and it prevents smaller issues from festering. We felt that if we can figure out what's happening real time, then we can fix it right away and it can help with issues like attrition etc," he said.

The adage that happy employees make for happy customers is one most IT companies are familiar with.

High attrition rates notwithstanding, most companies have realised that as the age profile of average employee changes, traditional met hods of engagement are no longer as effective. Bhobe likens it to how people interact on Twitter ¬¬ quick, short and contextual. If the feedback is contextual, organisations can take steps to nip issues in the bud.

HCL Technologies, which has been revamping its HR policies over the last few months, is piloting a Happiness Index, an analytics based platform where people respond to a set of statements which helps determine the mood of the organisation. The system is designed to automatically push out a short survey to anyone who has undergone a change of some sort. This could be a new manager, appraisal, end of a project etc.