People first: how technology enhances organizational culture
Digital transformation makes it possible to build workspaces focused on people. The creators of the StarMeUp OS know this, and that’s why they designed a technological platform that builds more human organizations.
Digital change involves how people adopt technology. According to Guibert Englebienne, CTO and co-founder of Globant, adapting to the scenario we live in today requires that organizations move away from “doing digital” to “being digital.”
That mentality drives each one of the solutions that Globant develops for its customers. Renowned for its agility and rapid response to navigate changes, Globant made “being digital” a priority for its own employee experience solution.
As a leader in an industry characterized by high turnover and accelerated growth, Globant used its expertise–technology–to tackle the biggest challenges faced by its own HR department. As an employer of more than 11,000 people in 17 countries, Englebienne wanted to create a seamless culture that recognized people as the organization’s strongest asset.
He believed that fostering passion and a sense of belonging among employees was the key to building a successful company able to respond to the challenges brought by digital change. It was this belief that led to the creation of StarMeUp OS, a culture platform that would help this digitally native company build a solid organizational culture by strengthening the relationship between individuals throughout the company.
The backbone of StarMeUp OS is the platform’s people analytics feature, which maps each employee’s area of influence and the personal relationships they’ve formed across the organization. With this technology, organizations can leverage their employee turnover metrics and measurements to go beyond the basic numbers. In addition to the invaluable benefit that employee experience platforms like StarMeUp OS deliver when it comes to weeding out low performing individuals from the top performers, they track and measure the connections between employees.
By designing a cultural operating system that focuses on employee experiences, Globant created a platform that engages, motivates and retains the best talent.
Today, StarMeUp OS is not just the main driver of Globant’s own culture, it is also a business area with customers across the world in diverse industries such as finance, retail, and food.
Technology enhances organizational culture
What Englebienne understood from the beginning is that the success of an organization is tied to the commitment that its employees feel with it. A greater commitment impacts other key indicators like motivation, creativity, productivity, and innovation.
With its own in-house experience with StarMeUp OS and several customer success stories, in 2019 Globant surveyed 1,000 U.S. employees from various industries to understand what motivates them, why they choose to stay in a company, and what they believe builds the best organizational cultures.
Below are five key findings from the “Powering a People-First Culture” report that are critical to building the best organizational culture possible.
Key finding No.1
- Two out of three respondents (62%) would like to know their co-workers better.
Positive experiences depend on the connections that employees build within the workplace. Regardless of their job role or title, survey respondents cited their relationships with their peers as the No.1 reason they stay with their company.
Organizations have the opportunity to implement technology-based solutions focused on employees to help build connections between colleagues and strengthen their ties.
In fact, three-quarters of respondents (74%) said they’d use technological solutions to create closer relationships with their peers if they resembled those they use in their daily lives.
Reinforcing your values through recognition
Key finding No.2
- Regardless of their job role or title, nearly all respondents surveyed (97%) say it’s important to have their strengths noticed at work.
Recognition is a powerful tool. It increases productivity work, reduces employee turnover, generates higher profits, and improves customer satisfaction. How? When employees feel their work is valued by others, they feel valued as individuals. This drives satisfaction and engagement levels, motivating them to bring their best into the workplace every day.
360° Feedback in real-time
Key finding No.3
● Almost three-quarters of respondents (72%) said that they were not satisfied with the feedback process of their organizations in key areas such as career development (73%) and job performance (70%).
In the fast-paced workplace, employees must develop new skills on the job to accompany their organization’s need to continually innovate. Annual performance reviews do not provide sufficient input on skills and areas for improvement to ensure employees–and their employers–can keep pace with the demand for new skills and competencies.
Sharing the life of your organization
Key finding No. 4
● Four out of five respondents (83%) said that knowing their colleagues better would make them feel more committed to their teams.
By allowing employees to communicate what is important to them, you empower them and help them get to know each other better. Additionally, BeThere allows for employees to build a sense of belonging with their colleagues and the organization: by having a space where they can share stories and relevant information, the bond with their peers and your company is even greater.
Tap into every employee’s leadership potential
Key finding No.5
● Two out of five employees (43%) define a leader as someone who spearheads innovative company initiatives and half of the people surveyed said a leader is someone who takes charge of projects.
Actively involving people in innovation helps them accept change and prosper through digital transformation. Active participation in your organization’s initiatives has a measurable positive impact on employee satisfaction and talent retention.
When StarMeUp was still in the idea stage, Englebienne and his team imagined creating a company that would allow everyone to contribute ideas and be part of the company’s growth. And they saw in that concept an opportunity to be more transparent but also, by allying themselves with technology, more innovative.
To take that innovation to the next level, they conceived a space that would allow them to obtain the greatest possible diversity of ideas. This process led to the launch of TakePart, a platform that allows employees to propose projects, and avoids obstacles and traditional organizational hierarchies.
By creating spaces where employees can not only suggest new ideas but they can also implement them in record time ensures that innovation is even more impactful throughout the organization. Allowing employees to vote on peer initiatives also creates different channels for them to contribute to and influence organizational change.
Understanding this challenge was the drive that led to the development of BriefMe, a dynamic way to manage and transmit content on multiple devices, across locations whenever needed.
By sharing key information about what is happening in an organization in real-time, companies can keep the most up-to-date and relevant information in front of employees. They can also segment and target messages, which ensures better employee engagement following announcements.
Ultimately, if your employees can more easily see updates on initiatives they have in common, it will bring them closer together, which is the most effective way of building more cohesive, people-first organizations.