How Orkla Uncovers Improvement Areas Through a Strong Feedback Culture

Orkla IT is a company that brings together various IT expertise and works to deliver IT services to Orkla's companies. With more than 170 employees, HR Director Liv S. Isaksen wanted a platform that provided broad insights into the work environment and employee satisfaction.

According to her, the company has always been focused on building a good work environment with a flat structure, helpful colleagues, and an open atmosphere. But it was difficult to know if this was really true, only based on large employee surveys every other year.

They needed updated, good, relevant, and reliable data. Here, we take a closer look at how Orkla IT obtained just that and how the data reveals improvement areas.

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Anonymous and More Frequent Surveys Were Necessary

Many companies conduct employee surveys once a year or less often. This provides insight into how employees are doing at that moment. The problem is that a lot can happen in a year. This allows problems to escalate before they are addressed.

It is also important to consider employees' anonymity. Employees who answer questions about management and satisfaction under their full name will, in many cases, "polish" their responses. This can be due to fear of consequences or a bad atmosphere.

Orkla IT had no doubt that both frequency and anonymity played an important role for them:

We needed more frequent surveys that took the pulse "here and now." At the same time, we wanted to give employees the opportunity to provide feedback anonymously and more often.

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The Solution That Helped Orkla IT – Even During the Pandemic

Fortunately for Orkla IT, the solution was not far off. Just before the pandemic broke out in 2020, they implemented the Winningtemp platform. This allows companies to take the pulse of employees' satisfaction levels in an intuitive way, and most importantly – anonymously.

Winningtemp gave us a tool that was easy to use, both for HR and managers. Suddenly, we got valuable insights through real-time data.

Pulse surveys gave Orkla IT's management valuable insights during the pandemic. And not least, the ability to get closer to employees in a time that was challenging for many.

The results mirrored society, and the trends moved in line with how strict the restrictions were. Little social interaction and only home office meant lower motivation, job satisfaction, and meaning for many. It was important to talk together then. Winningtemp helped us here.

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From Skepticism to Embrace

‍Implementing new systems or platforms can be met with resistance in the company. This was experienced to some extent by Orkla IT as well.

Several of our managers were skeptical at first, especially about being measured, but are now positive and use it actively in their management. Today, we have a high response rate, and employees provide feedback that responding is quick and easy.

Orkla IT also chose to customize the questions that were sent out, as not all categories were equally relevant. With a strong IT environment, also within Data Analytics and Cyber Security, it was natural to ask questions about Winningtemp's validity, quality, and anonymity (privacy).

It was good to know that the questions are based on research and that they are AI-generated to employees and can identify patterns and predict certain areas. It is valuable and necessary to have good quality surveys and to be able to compare data and results with other companies and industries.

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Measuring Everything from Psychological Safety to Diversity

Workplace satisfaction depends on many different factors, and Winningtemp provides broad insights into these. According to Orkla IT's HR Director, managers are good at fully utilizing the system, and they also have the data on their team meeting agendas.

A year ago, the company upgraded to Winningtemp PRO (Empower package), as they wanted insights into diversity, inclusion, equality, sustainability, and innovation. These are also important factors that affect employee satisfaction.

We recently conducted a workshop with all the managers on the theme of psychological safety. We score very high in this area today. However, it is an important topic for us due to our goal of creating a workplace where everyone belongs – regardless of background and who they are.

In Orkla IT's strategy going forward, they will work to achieve good collaboration across teams. In this regard, Isaksen believes that the PRO category "cross-functional collaboration" will be useful.

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Have Discovered Improvement Areas

For Orkla IT, Winningtemp has also helped identify improvement areas. This makes it possible to address problems at an early stage.

Our consistent improvement area has been the category "personal development." Therefore, we have worked a lot over the past year to build job architecture, roles, and career paths, as well as developing our "learning & development" policy. We hope this helps strengthen the category.

Isaksen also points out that sustainability and innovation need to come higher on the agenda and that this was a topic at a conference they had recently. Going forward, it will be important for them to establish good working methods in these areas.

Last year, we also started measuring ENPS, as we experienced higher turnover and saw that ENPS could be an indication that employees were on their way out of the company.

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Overall, the Results Are Good!

Orkla IT's goal of a good work culture fortunately turned out to be more than just a good gut feeling. The assumptions they had based on verbal feedback proved to be correct.

We are proud that over the past three years, despite the pandemic, organizational changes, and many new colleagues, we have consistently had good results and been above INDEX on most parameters.

According to the HR Director, the company's strongest areas have been leadership, autonomy, and team spirit. She points out that the leader-employee relationship is known to be crucial for a good work environment, and they have engaged leaders who give trust to employees. This creates good dynamics and autonomy in the workplace.

We started measuring the total score as a KPI in 2020. The goal has been to stay above INDEX, which we have managed to do for three years.

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Good Feedback Culture and Closer Employee Contact

‍After Winningtemp was implemented, Orkla IT has experienced getting closer to employees, facilitating a good feedback culture.

According to Liv S. Isaksen, managers are also developing to become good at both giving and receiving feedback. The comments they receive are very valuable, as they provide even more information and an indication of where they should focus. They aim for all those who give comments to receive a response within a short time. She explains that Winningtemp makes it easier to identify improvement areas and monitor development.

Through pulse surveys, we find our strengths and improvement areas for the entire organization, but also within each team.

Do you want to take the pulse of your company and discover potential problem areas? Order a free demo of Winningtemp today!

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