Process mapping is an important technique used by organizations to analyze and improve their workflows and procedures. Providing effective process mapping training to your employees is key to getting their buy-in and engagement in process improvement initiatives. Here are some ideas for conducting interactive and engaging process mapping training sessions:
Make it Hands-On with Real Examples
The best way to teach process mapping is through hands-on activities using real examples relevant to your employees’ work. Break employees into small groups and have them map out the current processes for tasks they are familiar with. This could include things like:
Onboarding new employees
Processing customer orders
Developing new products
Providing real-world examples will help employees see how process mapping applies directly to their day-to-day responsibilities. They are more likely to stay engaged when they can practice a new skill in a familiar context.
Share Examples of Process Maps
It can be helpful to show employees examples of different process map layouts and visuals. Provide samples of basic flowcharts, swimlane diagrams, value stream maps, and SIPOC diagrams. Explain when each tool is used and the benefits of visualizing different aspects of a process.
Having these process mapping template examples handy during the training will help employees understand the different techniques for illustrating processes. They can refer back to the samples as they work on creating their own maps.
Illustrate How Processes Can be Improved
One of the goals of process mapping is to identify opportunities for improvement. Provide real before-and-after examples that showcase how organizations improved inefficient or broken processes through mapping exercises.
Point out specific areas that were streamlined after being analyzed through process maps. This will help employees understand the tangible benefits of mapping out processes and get them excited about the potential changes to their own workflows.
Another interactive way to conduct process mapping training is to have employees physically walk through processes and observe how they flow. For example, you can have call center representatives sit with customer service reps and map out the steps to handle a customer phone call. Or have employees follow an order through fulfillment and track the process cross-functionally.
Observing processes in real time helps employees gain firsthand knowledge of different workflows across the organization. They will capture more accurate information to translate into process maps.
Provide Templates and Tools
Give your employees templates, tools and software to facilitate the mapping process. Provide simple flowchart templates they can fill in to map out processes. Have large format paper on hand so they can map out processes more visually. Show them online tools and mapping software your organization uses to capture and analyze processes digitally.
Equipping employees with these resources during training sets them up for success when documenting processes independently after the session. They will be more prepared to map processes on their own.
Do Group and Individual Activities
Your process mapping training should include activities completed in groups and individually. Small group activities allow employees to collaborate and learn from each other as they map out processes. Individual assignments will then allow them to apply their new skills independently.
For example, break employees into groups to map out a departmental ordering process together. Then give each employee a unique process to map on their own as an assignment after the training. This allows for both teamwork and individual learning.
Role Play Process Mapping Interviews
Sitting down with process owners for mapping interviews is an important data-gathering technique. Role-playing interviews during training help employees learn how to effectively conduct these discussions.
Have one employee play the role of a process mapping interviewer and another act as the process owner. Then switch roles so they get experience on both sides of the interview. Provide some sample mapping interview questions they can practice asking to uncover process steps and pain points.
Align with Overall Process Improvement Goals
Your organization likely has specific process improvement goals you are working towards. Align your process mapping training with these overarching objectives and explain how employees will help achieve the desired outcomes. This gives them a purpose beyond just learning a new skill.
For example, if your goal is to speed up production cycles, explain how process mapping will help identify bottlenecks causing delays. Employees will be motivated to engage in training when they see how their efforts contribute to larger improvement initiatives.
Make it Interactive
Incorporate interactivity into your process mapping training to ensure employees remain actively engaged from start to finish. Have them participate in discussions, hands-on examples, group work, and activities that apply what they have learned. Interactive training techniques keep employees focused and cement newly gained knowledge.
Provide Ongoing Support
A one-time process mapping training session will only take employees so far. Provide ongoing support to help them execute their skills back on the job. Check-in after training to see if they have any questions about applying what they learned. Offer refresher sessions for more complex mapping tools and techniques.
Having continued support programs ensures your employees adopt process mapping skills as part of their regular workflow. They will see greater value in the training knowing they can get help as needed after the initial session.
An effective process mapping training program is key to getting your employees onboard with process improvement initiatives. Using these interactive training ideas will arm your employees with process mapping skills and get them excited to improve workflows in your organization. Employing hands-on examples, group activities, and role-playing while aligning training with overarching improvement goals will lead to an engaged and empowered workforce ready to transform processes.
The article has been contributed by Ms. Manisha Dash, HR – Head, Celigo, APAC.
Festivals like Diwali are an excellent way to engage with our teams, celebrate diversity, and build team spirit. When employees feel connected and appreciated, they become more engaged, which has a direct impact on productivity and satisfaction.
Celebrating Diwali at Work Strengthens Team Bonding
Diwali celebrations in the workplace is a valuable tradition for companies that believe in cultural inclusivity and team bonding. It’s one of the biggest festivals in India, which celebrates victory by light over darkness, and victory by good over evil, and the workplace provides excellent opportunities to translate this spirit onto paper. The office arrangements for Diwali festivities create a sense of community among employees, building a positive environment that promotes morale. Most offices start by decorating the space with diyas, fairy lights, and rangoli.
Building Community Values with Office Decor
Office environments are brimming with colour, and some organisations host office decoration competitions in which employees compete to team up to decorate their workspaces. This pleasant competition engages employees and promotes teamwork and coordination. A kaleidoscope of colours and festive decorations creates a dynamic atmosphere, making employees feel more connected to the festivities.
The ethnic dress code is another big attraction during Diwali celebrations at work. Besides decorations and clothing, games and competition are big parts of celebrations. Some companies host games such as housie or tambola, Diwali-themed quizzes, rangoli-making competitions, and other activities. This recognition boosts morale and gives a feeling of belonging, as it shows that culture and heritage is being valued in the organization. It is a very simple gesture that reinforces an organization’s commitment to celebrating diversity.
Games and Activities Encouraging Cross-Department Bonding
Engaging games and activities are a core element of Diwali celebrations in the workplace, offering employees a chance to connect in a lighthearted and inclusive way. These activities often include games like housie (tambola), Diwali-themed quizzes, and rangoli-making competitions, which not only bring fun into the office but also promote healthy competition and teamwork. Among the most valuable aspects of these activities is the way they promote interaction across departments, break down silos, and creates a more united work environment.
Whether it’s team-based games or activities requiring diverse skills, employees from different teams get a chance to work together, communicate, and get to know each other in a setting that feels less formal and more personal. Such bonds foster strong interpersonal relationships, which work well into cohesiveness in the day to day working.
Food is an integral part of any Diwali celebration, and most businesses host a special lunch or distribute traditional sweets like laddoos, barfis, and kaju katli to the staff. It not only satisfies the sweet appetite but also creates a sense of community when people gather to share a meal and celebrate.
The proper and fun-filled celebrations of Diwali would ensure great employee engagement, improved bonding among employees in the workplace, and some memories to remember years later. Properly planned Diwali celebration events, along with the presentation of food and sweets, are what leave such nice memories with the employees once the event is over. These small yet effective gestures explain why employees remain loyal to and satisfied with a firm.
By organizing thoughtful, relevant celebrations, companies can foster higher employee engagement, as employees feel valued and appreciated for being part of an inclusive workplace culture. In celebrating Diwali with food, organizations not only uphold a cherished cultural tradition but also build a stronger, more connected workplace. These shared meals and treats embody the spirit of togetherness that lies at the heart of Diwali, ensuring that employees feel the joy of the festival both as individuals and as part of a supportive team
Celigo Diwali Festivities : Blending Tradition, Fun, and Gratitude
At Celigo, Diwali is a celebration of solidarity, culture, and the value of family. Our office’s Diwali celebrations get vibrant every year, and we take pride in showcasing the rich ethnic diversity of our employees. We make sure that the spirit of Diwali is celebrated with respect and creativity, whether it is through the creative exhibition of traditional clothing or brand-new, thrilling games. We want to make every year’s celebration more unforgettable than the one before as we mature and gain a better understanding of our employees’ needs.
We provide thoughtful and inventive presents that are valued by both our employees and their families. We think that having a solid support network at home is essential for influencing work. We think that a solid support network at home is essential for influencing performance and work ethics. We at Celigo are incredibly grateful for the sacrifices and support that our employees’ families make, as they help to make Celigo a fantastic place to work. Like every year, we celebrate not only the holiday but also the spirit of thankfulness and unity that makes our Celigo family stronger this Diwali.
In summary, festivals like Diwali provide an organization with the best opportunity to embrace diversity, build team spirit, and enhance employee engagement. By creating a culture of such celebrations, companies can foster a supportive environment in which employees feel connected, appreciated, and motivated to contribute their best. Such celebrations have a profound impact, not only enriching the workplace culture but also driving productivity and satisfaction for years to come.
In today’s highly competitive business landscape, innovation serves as the driving force behind success—companies that fail to innovate risk falling and losing their edge in the market. To stay ahead of the game, numerous organizations are turning to firms for assistance in cultivating innovation within their teams. These firms enhance employee engagement and establish a culture that ignites creativity.
However, achieving this goal requires the right tools. This is where the best employee engagement software comes into play. In this blog post, let’s take a journey and delve into how engagement firms spark innovation and why they play a role in the triumph of businesses with the assistance of top-notch employee engagement software.
Engagement firms foster innovation by aiding organizations in creating a culture that embraces and supports new ideas. They collaborate with leadership teams to establish a vision and mission that aligns with their goals. Through employee surveys, focus groups, and workshops, these firms identify organizational innovation obstacles and devise strategies to overcome them.
One significant obstacle to innovation is the fear of failure. Engagement firms contribute by fostering an environment where employees feel at ease taking risks and exploring avenues. They promote a growth mindset, encouraging employees to see failure as an opportunity for learning rather than as a setback.
This change in mindset enables employees to take calculated risks and think creatively, resulting in the development of solutions.
Promoting Collaboration and Idea Sharing
Companies that prioritize employee engagement also understand the significance of collaboration in fostering innovation. They create programs and initiatives that encourage employees from various departments and backgrounds to work together. By breaking down barriers and facilitating the exchange of ideas, these companies inspire creativity and embrace perspectives.
These companies may arrange innovation workshops, hackathons, or brainstorming sessions where employees can collaborate to solve challenges or explore opportunities. By providing spaces for collaboration and challenging hierarchies, these initiatives foster a sense of ownership and engagement among employees, ultimately leading to innovative thinking.
Empowering Employees and Cultivating Creativity
Another essential aspect of nurturing innovation is empowering employees and nurturing their abilities. Companies that prioritize employee engagement offer training and development programs designed to enhance employees’ creative thinking skills. These programs may include workshops on problem-solving techniques, brainstorming methods, or design thinking approaches. By equipping employees with the tools they need to think, these companies create an environment for innovation.
Moreover, these engaged companies emphasize autonomy and encourage employees to take ownership of their work. Engagement companies facilitate the creation of frameworks that empower employees to take ownership of their projects and explore ideas without supervision. By granting employees the freedom and autonomy to pursue their ideas, these companies nurture a culture of innovation where creativity can thrive.
Recognizing and Rewarding Innovation
To sustain an environment that encourages innovation, it is crucial to acknowledge and reward ideas and efforts. Engagement companies assist organizations in developing systems for rewards and recognition that incentivize innovation. These programs may include incentives, public acknowledgment, or opportunities for career growth. By appreciating and celebrating innovation, engagement companies motivate employees to continue thinking outside the box and generating solutions.
Tracking and Evaluating Innovation
Lastly, engagement companies play a role in tracking and evaluating organizational innovation. They aid in establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics that enable quantification and assessment of outcomes. Through monitoring progress and evaluating the impact of innovation initiatives, engagement companies allow organizations to refine their strategies and continually enhance their abilities for thinking.
Conclusion
Engagement companies are instrumental in fostering a culture of innovation within organizations. They promote collaboration by breaking down barriers while empowering employees to think through training programs and initiatives. These companies provide the tools and resources for nurturing creativity among employees.
They also create systems of rewards and programs for recognition that encourage innovation and allow for the tracking and measurement of its effects. In a business environment, engagement companies play a role as partners for organizations seeking to stay ahead of the game and foster innovation.
Tips to Establish a Supportive Workplace for Transgender Employees – By Sanjay Kaul, CEO, InnovaWorkSpaces
India is a young country, with its majority population under the age of 30. The new generations come with their own beliefs and individualities –changing India’s consumption and economic story. Where most organizations fail in attracting the right millennial talent is the right culture. The culture doesn’t imply a fun environment, a high pay scale or gaming zones, but an inclusive and diverse workspace, that accepts people as individuals, and not on the basis of their gender.
Creating a trans-inclusive workplace will be the focus for many companies across the world, in the next few years. These younger generations need a workplace that doesn’t burden them emotionally, based on their gender identity, or disregards them. It’s high time companies realized this and looked into some ways to make their culture more gender agnostic for trans people.
Supporting the LGBTQ Community With More Inclusive Policies
The very first step in this direction would be more transparent gender agnostic non-discriminatory policies –which protect the trans community and promotes their rights as individuals. Such policies with strict bearings on violations will help the section of the trans workforce be more open and confident in professional settings, and in the long term will also contribute to people accepting the community and their ideas.
Education and Awareness Drives Within the Organization
Thrusting inclusive policies for an organization will never be enough. The population needs to be educated about different gender identities, and the trans community, in particular, to help them clarify their assumptions and encourages sensitivity. One of the reasons the transgender community is neglected is that they never feel open and accepted by their colleagues. This will eventually come through additional efforts by companies that educate and train their employees about gender discrimination issues, and diverse identity cultures.
The Pronouns and Their Usage
A trans-inclusive workplace needs to normalize the pronouns, they, them, their and let people use them freely and unapologetically. This should be one of the key steps of the organizational trans-culture policy. Normalize asking for accepting preferred pronouns and titles that the trans community would like to use to define their identities.
Ensure Inclusivity When It Comes to Workplace Amenities
When it comes to implementing and achieving the inclusion of diverse communities and genders in the workplace, organizations need to ensure that this is embedded in the physical space. This implies amenities, restrooms, medical facilities and so on. The workforce, HR managers and leaders – all need to accept the new aspects of this inclusion, while it helps employees feel more comfortable and connected to their workplace.
Ample Opportunity and Fair Exposure
It is essential that an organization is not only trans-inclusive in its books, but also needs to provide ample opportunity for trans people to showcase their creativity, collaborate with other employees, and get the right exposure that they deserve in their roles. They should be valued and feel fulfilled considering that they are impacting the business.
Some Trans-Community-Focused Initiatives or Benefits
While an organization is expected to be fair and gender agnostic in its policies, some benefits and initiatives designed specifically for the trans community will help boost their confidence in the workplace. It also speaks to the inclusion of such minority communities, an example of which can be fertility benefits and policies, in which transgenders are often excluded.
Conclusion
Trans people often experience stigma and discrimination, hostility from others, and pressure to “manage” their identities in social settings, including the workplace. It is important to have a positive and supportive environment to work in. Governments have taken a series of steps and policies to support trans people but until the common people do not change their perceptions, the situation remains the same.
This article has been contributed by Ms. Swati Soam Rathore, HR Head Springfit Mattress.
The rise of innovation and the digital revolution have ushered in the era of personalization. Our specific expectations and tastes are considered in every proposal, from the e-commerce sites we shop to the web streaming services we use. Given these facts, it makes sense that personalization will eventually have an impact on employee engagement as well.
The days of using a conventional approach to raise employee engagement are over. Every employee is unique, and they all have different needs and wants. This has long been the case, but modern technological breakthroughs make it possible to gather and analyze the necessary data that forms the basis for personalization. Companies must personalize the experience for each employee to ensure maximum productivity and great performance.
Global Employee Engagement from 2019 to 2022 Q1
In Q1 2022, global employee engagement was about 62%, a 6% decrease compared to 2021.
To increase employee contribution, organizations must tailor their employee engagement tactics, and they should lead the way toward personalization. Employers who use personalized employee engagement techniques have a better chance of keeping and attracting top talent, maximizing ROI, and increasing employee engagement. It also creates a seamless environment that increases employee loyalty, makes staff members feel valued, and offers them a competitive advantage.
1. High-Quality Personalised Communication:Imagine the reaction of employees when HR sends an email to the entire firm that only affects a small portion of the workforce. Excluded employees are irritated because it wastes their time. And unlike a customer, they are unable to unsubscribe or choose not to receive the communications.
The best communications are highly personalized and designed to improve employees’ lives, expand their knowledge, boost productivity, and give them the resources they need to make better decisions for themselves and their families.
Additionally, although email may be the quickest and most efficient means for HR to communicate with staff it might not be the most helpful channel for employees. The choice of the employee can be an SMS, email, push notification, etc.
2. Personalized benefits schemes: Employers must provide a range of financial, health, and well-being benefits to meet the needs of a workforce.
Consider employees’ demographics, socioeconomic status, environmental variables, and life events to consider the benefits that you want to offer to your employee.
Organizations must personalize employee engagement strategies forefront of employee engagement. The following are a few considerations to keep in mind as your organization moves toward personalizing employee engagement:
It all begins with hiring
Most companies believe that employee engagement starts after onboarding. It starts when a potential employee reads about an opening and submits an application for it, though. Organizations must take the time and make the effort to identify the abilities required for each function. Adding a few qualities to the function to make it more engaging is the finest personalization tactic for raising employee engagement.
Changing the nature of the workplace
Today’s information and creative professionals are no longer inspired or motivated to reach their full potential by shared desks, a 9–5 schedule, or office employment. Organizations must redefine how their teams function to increase employee engagement. Starting points include giving employees the option of working from home and scheduling flexible hours when their creative energy is at its highest. Organizations should also consider employee feedback and opinions when choosing office furnishings, cubicle designs, meeting room styles, etc. Employees will be able to design a workspace that appeals to them, draws them in, and gives them a boost.
Adapting the learning curve
The success of learning and training sessions has a significant impact on how effectively employees are engaged. It wouldn’t be wise to believe that all of your employees are at the same starting place for every training session given the variety of knowledge sources available nowadays. They might also have entirely different views about what they want to learn and how they want to learn it at the same time. Organizations must therefore tailor the entire learning experience to ensure the sustainability of employees. This includes the training that is being provided, which needs to align with the employees’ individual needs and gaps in knowledge.
Different management tiers and task allocation
Redefining the organizational structure and the type of work that people do is just as important as personalizing how they work and what they learn. First, different levels of management are required for personalization. While some workers prefer frequent micromanagement and active reporting from their superiors because it makes them feel more engaged at work, others loathe it and want more independence and autonomy. Every employee’s pulse must be monitored by organizations, and they must be managed accordingly. Second, task distribution also calls for personalization. To divide labor effectively, firms must have a thorough understanding of each employee’s skills and interests. This will not only keep the worker more engaged and motivated, but it will also enhance productivity.
Conclusion
Personalization is key to maximizing employee engagement for enhancing contribution. Personalized employee engagement strategies inbuilt the feeling that the company is “listening to employees” and considering their requests as distinct individuals and not just “work machines.” To make employees feel valued and empowered and to get a competitive edge from a highly engaged workforce, personalization is best for employee engagement. Although your employee is a human and wants to get attention and offering something that is personalized to his or her need is the best that an employer can offer to them and it can develop a fruitful relationship.
FAQs
What is a personalization strategy?
Personalization strategy is an approach used by employers to personalize the experience for each employee to ensure maximum productivity and great performance. It helps to increase employee contribution, has a better chance of keeping and attracting top talent, maximizes ROI, increases employee loyalty, and so on.
How does personalization increase engagement?
Personalization helps to address the different needs and wants of the employees. It improves employees’ lives, expands their knowledge, boosts productivity, and gives them the resources they need to make better decisions for themselves and their families. It creates a seamless environment that increases employee loyalty, makes staff members feel valued, and offers them a competitive advantage. Hence, these increase employee engagement.
What are the advantages of personalized employee engagement?
Some of the advantages of personalized employee engagement are:
Increases the chance of keeping and attracting top talents
Maximizes ROI
Increases employee engagement
Increases employee loyalty
Makes staff members feel valued
Offers employees a competitive advantage
What are the considerations for an organization to move towards personalizing employee engagement?
The following are a few considerations to keep in mind as your organization moves toward personalizing employee engagement:
Start employee engagement with hiring
Change the nature of the workplace
Adapt the learning curve to ensure the employees’ sustainability
Adopt different management tiers and task allocation
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Ethika.
No matter how great an organisation may be, it is highly impossible to carve a growth path without a healthy ecosystem of happy employees. Employee compensation that used to be the benchmark for measurement of employee well being has truly been relegated to the back seat.
Employer concern for the overall well being of the employee trumps most other considerations today. A carefully curated employee benefit insurance program, not only ensures employees and their families are taken care of, but this sense of security fosters a culture of belonging which propels the Company towards its intended objective.
Ethika is a new-age insurance broking startup that focusses on curating such Employee Benefit programs intended toward keeping employees of their clients happy. Such programs provide innovative solutions to not just make Insurance (mediclaim) easily manageable but also provide several value-added services, that ensure holistic well being of an employee and make them feel valued by their company.
Read to know more about Ethika insurance broking, its founders, their USP, business model, marketing strategy, and the story of its starting up.
While providing Insurance Broking Solutions for Employee Benefit Insurance to Small and Mid Size Corporates is their core business model, they also add value to their clients by offering innovative solutions for creating happier workplaces.
Employee Benefit Insurance, their core offering, includes Group Health Insurance, Group Personal Accident Insurance, Group Term Life Insurance, Group Top up Health Insurance, and OutPatient Health Expenses Insurance.
At Ethika, they believe, an Insurance Brokers’ role should not be limited to helping clients receive financial assistance when their employees fall sick, but to prevent employee sickness in the first place. One of the pivotal parameters in preventing employees from falling sick, is to make employees happy. Moreover, they do not advocate this belief in some spiritual sense; science backs the fact that happier workplaces are more productive ones. Creating happier workplaces therefore not only results in lesser employee sickness (translated into lost man-hours) but also increased employee productivity.
They are infact so driven by their vision of creating a culture of happiness at work that they do not charge for it. Yes you read that right; they offer their service of creating happier workplaces as a free add-on to their Employee Benefit services.
Their journey as an Insurance Broker started in 2016. Today, about six years into business, while insurance remains the core of their business model, they have also diversified into servicing the Employee Value Proposition via the happiness route i.e. increasing employee engagement levels at the workplace by making the workplace happier.
Ethika – Industry
India is home to around 10 Lakh Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) – these enterprises form the coal to the engine that keeps India running, month on month, day after day. Unfortunately, when it comes to health insurance, these organizations are also the most neglected ones in the country.
Imagine the kind of impact they could create for this huge segment if they could use Group Health Insurance as one of the tools to create a happier workplace for them. Not only would the employees come to work without a thread of worry about how they would manage their expenses in case a calamity struck, but they would also be better equipped to concentrate at work, which in turn would act as feedback and they would go home happier.
Wouldn’t that be a wow experience, for the entire country? Their goal in the next two years is to reach 1 Lakh SMEs and spread this happiness.
Covid-19, has altered the human landscape completely. Before Covid, the basic necessities of life were Roti, Kapada, and Makan; after Covid, their necessities have one added element – Health Insurance. In the next five years, they believe every Indian will be covered under Health Insurance in some form.
They are looking at 2 lacs crores of Health Insurance premium within next five years.
They also feel the industry has reached the inflection point where it is finally ready to tango with technology.
Insurance would stop being a push product in the next five years. By 2027, they would have reached a point where people will be able to understand and appreciate risk; they would no longer need an incentive to insure themselves.
Ethika – Founders and Team
Susheel Agrawal – Founder of Ethika
Susheel Agrawal was not happy with his professional life, and after some deliberations decided to quit. Sarath and Sandeep, his colleagues then, decided to follow his footsteps and put in their papers as well. They trusted him even when he did not have a roadmap, but they did, and the rest has been history.
It is the element of trust that has gotten embedded in their DNA today. They work with clients who they trust – ofcourse the feelings are mutual in this case. They hire people they can trust, so on and so forth.
Sarath Reddy, who handles client relations, is a post graduate in business administration and has extensively worked in client servicing before Ethika.
Sandeep Mukka, who looks after operations, is a postgraduate in computer applications and has been associated with the insurance industry for about 13 years.
Sarath takes care of client relationships, Sandeep takes care of operations, leaving Susheel with handling people responsibilities.
Ethika – The Idea and Startup Story
At 33, Susheel Agrawal, the founder of Ethika was an average employee working in the highly competitive corporate world. While most of his material needs seemed to be satisfied, Susheel Agrawal wasn’t happy. Something seemed amiss; he kept feeling a void for far too long than was bearable.
After some introspection, he realized that the soulless corporate world was taking away his peace of mind. That was when he quit his corporate job.
Susheel was fortunate to have been exposed to the insurance industry in India. He started with what he knew best – selling Group Health Insurance to organizations.
He knew from experience that one of the main pain points in the health insurance ecosystem was the insured’s experience during claims and that became his first point of focus.
Sarath Reddy and Sandeep Mukka, his co-founders, shared the same vision from Beginning.
They started bridging the gap between employee, hospital, TPA, Insurer, and doctor by fine tuning the claim process. This in turn enhanced the experience of employees during the claims process and positive reviews started pouring in. The kicker used to come out of cases where they could indirectly intervene, and help employees when they needed it the most. One critical observation was that most of the health insurance claims could have been avoided, if they had intervened at the right time. This insight led them into innovating low-cost solutions which could be offered along with group health insurance to their clients to prevent work disruptions due to employee illness. A lot of tweaking and tinkering later, they built their inhouse software and an employee wellness team. This turned out to be their tipping point. The word of mouth referrals spread and business started pouring in. The foundation for self-belief however came out of client testimonials and referrals.
At one such new referral meet, a client said, “I’m surprised that you can run a company without having a website or visiting card.” Yes, they were so focussed in creating a positive impact for their clients that they didn’t have their own website in the first two years.
As a matter of fact, to this date, the ratio for the number of employees focused on generating business to the number of employees focused on support is the lowest and in inverse proportion to the standards in the Insurance Broking industry.
Now that they have stabilized their group health insurance offering, they have added a new element “Employee Happiness” to their portfolio, which is helping their clients create a happier workplace.
Their core vision however remains enabling facilitation of the push product (insurance) to a point where the first thought that comes to your mind, when you think of insurance, is a happy one.
Their areas of expertise include
Broking services across the Employee Benefits vertical which includes Group Health Insurance, Group Super Top up Health Insurance, Personal Health Insurance and other Lines of Businesses.
Employee Happiness Program.
Employee Assistance Program.
Employee Engagement Program.
Employee Wellness Program.
Group Insurance Software &
Red Carpet Claims Assist.
Numbers don’t drive them, happiness does; it remains one of their core beliefs. They go the extra mile in incorporating this belief in the way they do business. They keep evaluating themselves on how happy they are as a company; they advise their clients to follow the same methodology.
Earlier, when they had just started, there used to be genuine apprehensions in clients, especially with regards to objective measurement of translation of their Happiness Index into business. Their objective answer to that question has been – increase in toplines, client referrals, and appreciation.
Most of their clients have now warmed up to the idea and the results have followed.
Meanwhile, their understanding of human psyche has thrust them on the path to finding new ways to increase employee engagement that can benefit their clients to a greater degree.
When it comes to their vision, in the short term, they would want to establish themselves as someone whose name is the first thing that flashes in a Customers mind when they think of the words ethics, insurance, and broking in one breath. They wouldn’t mind being called the TATA’s of the insurance space.
Their long-term vision is to facilitate the achievement of insurance literacy in our country. All of their energies over the next decade would be focused towards trying to expand insurance penetration in the country.
Ethika – Core Belief
The core belief of Ethika stems from a root-cause analysis they did for one of their clients in the early days.
Employees form the foundation of every business; they spend about a third of their day at the workplace; a happier workplace translates into
the employee wanting to turn up for work, every single day
increased engagement levels at work &
increased productivity.
Keeping the workplace happy, therefore is the chief responsibility of the employer. They help them shoulder this responsibility.
On the technical front, they also want to help un-jargonize insurance.
It is a sad reality that despite being one of the oldest professions in the world, they are still married to wordings that should have been buried a long long time ago.
They also feel these wordings are one of the main reasons why people remain skeptical about insurance – it is difficult to convince someone of buying something they cannot understand.
Ethika – Name, Tagline, and Logo
Ethika Logo
An insurance policy can be likened to a currency note in the sense that an insurance policy is a promise that the insurer makes to the insured to fulfill a certain obligation. But that is where the similarity ends.
During their earlier days, they had a couple of stark realizations – a lot of things on paper rarely translated in practice. Utmost good faith, one of the foundational principles of insurance was at times being shorted by the Insurer and at other times by the Insured. The fine print of the contract i.e. the wordings on paper were being robotically followed especially at the time of claim settlement i.e. the spirit of the contract was being overlooked in many a cases.
They felt their job was that of an intermediary who could interpret the fine print in the policy and thereby help the client select the right insurer – someone who was equally good at honoring the spirit of the contract as they were at underwriting it. Ethics was always the foundation stone that their business was built on; since they could not use ethics as their brand name, Ethika was the next logical iteration.
They have been sticklers for ethics in business. You could say their larger purpose is to debunk the myth that business and ethics cannot go together.
All our lives, we have been programmed that if we need to succeed in business, we need to learn to wear our ethics on the sleeves; they would beg to differ.
Their tagline says ‘Insuring the risk of insuring’. It signifies their attempt at trying to reduce the risk for the Insured.
Ethika – Hiring Funda
Starting with humble beginnings of 3, they have today grown to about 50 people. That said, they are a lean setup – companies handling the same amount of business employ anywhere around 100 people.
They are a bunch of 50 passionate people. They are a young company who understands how pivotal culture is to an organization’s success. To that end, they have a fairly open and considerate work culture. While it might sound simplistic, they try to foster a culture where all of their employees look forward to coming to office on Mondays; this despite them having a work from home right since inception i.e. 2016.
Learning and relearning are also deeply ingrained in their culture. They get a kick out of teaching new things to colleagues and customers, these new things could be skills they pick up from platforms like Udemy or something new they learnt while transacting business.
They hire for attitude and train for skills. While they do need technical expertise to facilitate underwriting of the product, their topline growth has benefitted from a diverse team of passionate people.
Insurance is basically spreading the risk thin. You try to insure as many people as possible and hope that calamity strikes the minimum number of these people; you charge a premium to insure their risk. When calamity does strike, you pay for the genuine claims out of the premiums collected.
Group Health Insurance, one of the prime offerings, is therefore not insurance in the true sense.
The renewal premium for Group Health Insurance is dependent on last year’s claims i.e. if the claims for a company amounted to Rs. 10,00,000 in 2020, the renewal premium would normally be about Rs. 10,00,000 + administrative expense for the Insurer (in extremely price sensitive markets like Insurance, administrative expense can go as low as 0). Therefore the renewal premium for the year 2021 would normally be Rs. 10,00,000; if the claims in 2021 amount to Rs. 11,00,000, the renewal premium for 2022 would be Rs. 11,00,000, so on and so forth. This essentially means that the company is just about getting the benefit of reimbursement since the claim costs for a year are being borne by the insurer in that year and are being recuperated from the company in the subsequent year. Essentially leaving very little margin for the Insurer to operate on. The Insurer does try to bring down the claims quantum by negotiating better tariffs with hospitals, but a lot of the hospitals do not abide by the tariffs. Moreover, new Medical Treatments coupled with the occurrence of new diseases keep pushing medical claims inflation exponentially every year.
Moreover, all of Ethika’s other offerings enhance workplace wellness and are offered within the insurance premium that is paid for Group Health Insurance.
They are therefore not only helping clients with risk placement, but are also helping them avoid workplace sickness, increase employees productivity and happiness – they are therefore treating the disease and not the symptoms alone.
They had started their journey, trying to solve the problems in the health insurance claim settlement vertical. They then graduated to addressing problems with buying group health insurance and then to employee wellness; they are now trying to create a framework to address employee happiness. They want to ensure that all of their clients’ employees look forward to Mondays and not Fridays. They want to make Monday blues a thing of the past.
Their weekly workshop ‘From HR to CEO’, is a step toward that. The title for the workshop came about from the fact that when employees start working like the CEO, the CEOs job becomes that of an HR Manager.
Susheel Agrawal would like to take this opportunity to urge you to keep an eye out for their new products Learning Management System targeted towards learning – how they can learn better and Sustainable Living targeted toward Happiness – how to live happier by walking the path of sustainability.
They think insurance gives you peace of mind.
Imagine a meticulous and diligent factory owner; his factory is struck by an earthquake and it will take about 3 months to get the factory back in shape and another 2 to get the first product shipped after the earthquake.
Imagine the kind of mental toll such a peril could take on the owner; some of the considerations he has to keep in mind would include – How to convince the Customers of the delay, How to retain his workers during this period, How to pay them, What about the recurring operating expenses (like land lease, machine rent costs) that would need to be borne despite the factory being non-operational. While insurance will not guarantee how long it could take for the Insured to get back on his feet, or the mental trauma the owner might have to go through, it will certainly take care of the financial burden that would have otherwise compounded his problems.
When most of the Brokers concentrated on premium reduction – which is a win-lose proposition and not sustainable in the long run, they went beyond and included the following services in their arsenal, absolutely free of cost.
Employee Assistance – where they offered psychological, nutritional, and doctor counseling as and when employees needed it. They hit a roadblock when their enrollment numbers plateaued. They did some introspection and realized there was still a certain taboo associated with seeking help and therefore focused on Employee Engagement.
Employee Engagement – where they had experts talking to employees about day to day life issues and delivering meditation sessions.
Group Insurance Software – the software that they built in-house is a rage with their clients today. It helps them keep a tab on their health insurance requirements and frees up one of their most important resources – time.
Red Carpet claims assist was life coming a full circle for them. The vertical they had started their journey with, still had a lot of room for improvement and they thought it was about time someone addressed this elephant in the room. Red Carpet claims assist helps employees with their claims processing while keeping them as the focal point of attention.
Employee Happiness is their attempt to make workplaces happier. All of the Ethika team look forward to Mondays with as much excitement as they look forward to Fridays. They want to help clients incorporate the same energy at their workplaces.
They have kept innovating at every step along the way.
Their USP remains their ability to garner relationships. They are proud of the fact that 95% of their clients have been with them for the last five year. They love the Japanese way of doing business. They are extremely diligent before getting into relationships, but once they get into one, they don’t fight over truffles.
They are one of the frontrunners, when it comes to leveraging technology to increase awareness. Their presence across social media has ensured their reach to the appropriate segment. That said, they do understand that if insurance is to percolate to the needy, the offline channel is as important as the online one. Toward that vein, they have their eyes and ears on the ground, all the time. They recently concluded an event where Ethika insured the journalist fraternity in Hyderabad.
When they got into insurance, their focal point was Group Health Insurance. They felt the vertical had a lot of room for improvement and they could add value. But every business is the business of trust, more so in the case of insurance. As they started providing solutions for group health insurance, their clients started asking them for more products. And that is how they increased depth in other lines of businesses like Motor, Liability, Fire.
While they haven’t pivoted from their initial product, they have definitely evolved to a place where delivering happiness forms a significant part of what they do.
They are in Insurance for the long haul; that said, they have realized the problem they are trying to address is a spoke of a bigger wheel – Happiness. Insurance does try to ensure your risks do not rob you of the joy of the present moment.
But they look at it more from a perspective of backward integration than a pivot – something like what Reliance did in the petrochemical space and is trying to do in the agriculture retail space.
Ethika – Business Model and Revenue Model
Insurance is a highly regulated industry and the brokerage (commissions) which are paid by the Insurers’ are capped by the regulator IRDA. In the absence of differentiators in profits or pricing range, service quality becomes the prime driver of sales.
A Broker’s technical expertise helps them underwrite a risk to perfection. The Broker however also needs trained manpower who can handle managerial and supervisory responsibilities.
They help clients identify the right insurer who can offer them the right benefits at the right price.
Ethika goes a step further by helping clients mitigate future risks by adoption of good practices and thus reduce their risk quotient at the time of renewal.
Ethika – Customer Acquisition
Their starting experiences were extremely humbling. They did not want to invest on office setups and were therefore working out of home, they did not have visiting cards when visiting clients, neither did they have a website. But, this humility worked for them with most of their clients.
Their zeal to help clients with health insurance policies probably came across.
While it was difficult getting the first 10 clients, word of mouth has been their best marketing tool subsequently.
In the initial days, when they were new and people didn’t know them, they were pretty straight forward about it – they used cold calling and told clients that they were new and would want to work for them.
While some didn’t even let them complete their pitch, some of the clients heard them out and gave the opportunity.
There was this one particular client who, when he did meet them, wanted help with settlement of about 17 of his pending claims. He was, as a matter of fact, reluctant to switch insurers just because he thought doing so would antagonize the current insurer and his claims would not be settled. Susheel studied the cases and realized, most of them were closed not on technical grounds but administrative ones i.e. there were delays with document submissions and things like that. Susheel wrote to the insurer and after sensing some reluctance on his part, looped the ombudsman in the conversation. This was when the insurer got serious and settled the claims, and he got a client, who by the way has been with Susheel, since then.
They reached about 100 clients in the first 3 years; a lot of these hundred clients came to them as referrals from their existing clients.
Introspection led them to the belief that educating people would probably work as a good marketing tool; and they started organizing a workshop on employee happiness on a weekly basis. This workshop has created wonders for Ethika. Given the fact that the industry works on so many intangibles, a workshop helps put in some tangibility to the equation. They owe one third of their new clients to these weekly workshops.
It is only of late that they have started investing in PR and have started with about 0.5% of their topline from the last year.
Ethika – Challenges Faced
The founders faced one of the biggest challenges, right when they were about to set shop. Then IRDA guidelines required own capital of Rs. 50 Lakh to be deposited as a security, before they could commence business. While Susheel had managed about Rs. 25 Lakh out of his own resources, that still left him with a shortfall of about Rs. 25 lakh. The only assets Susheel Agrawal and his wife Possessed back then were their home and a car. Susheel decided to sell both of these. All of his family, parents, and in-laws seemed to be against the decision of starting up and requested him to give up on the idea. But he did not. He managed the additional Rs. 25 Lakh within the next month and registered with IRDA for a license.
Getting the license however does not guarantee a steady flow of clientele. Moreover, the industry is plagued by outward appearances – in the initial days, they lost out on some prospective clientele purely on aesthetic grounds. their simplicity was construed as a weakness. But they pushed through, working on what they knew best, and the rest has been history.
Susheel Agrawal took this opportunity to try and leave his footprint on the digital space. In the hour that they conversed he tried to un-jargonize health insurance concepts.
Sometime during their interactions with HR Managers, Ethika realized how difficult mediclaim policies made their lives. Managers ended up spending about 40% of their time servicing stakeholders on mediclaim – this was wasted time that could have been otherwise used doing their actual jobs.
Ethika had its eureka moment and came up with the handbook for group health insurance, which has been a huge hit in the community. The handbook is available https://www.ethika.co.in/ebook-download-page/.
Despite being aware of his biases, Susheel thinks it is by far one of the most comprehensive handbooks on the ins and outs of group health insurance. So much so that it could make Ethika’s job harder.
While they are not looking for funds, they are always open to ideas for expansion. If someone can help them increase their happiness footprint, and reach a larger audience, they are always game.
They are a lean setup and the administrative tools they use are basic in nature. That said, they are a tech-savvy company and their clients use their inhouse software to manage their group insurance policies exclusively.
Ethika – Future Plans
Ethika has future plans to create NGO, happy living, keep employees happy and healthier, and add more value to sustainable living.
The pace at which technology changes is incremental in nature. The technology we used in 2000 was obsolete by 2010, but the technology that was in use in 2015 is obsolete today.
They are at the inflection point where insurance, as an industry, is going to keep leveraging technology, to the point where they could witness a Singularity event, borrowing from Ray Kurzweil, by the end of this decade i.e. to say, that by the end of 2030, technology would be inseparable from insurance. They would have seamless data exchange between gymnasiums, health providers, and insurers and this would translate in renewal premiums. The possibilities seem endless.
In the short term they would concentrate on equipping themselves with the right technical expertise, both on the insurance and the technology front, to help them become enablers for this technological transformation.
They also want to make employees of their clients live happier and healthier – this resonates with their idea of creating a happier India.
FAQs
What is Ethika insurance?
Ethika is a Hyderabad-based Leading Insurance Broker Company in India.
When was Ethika founded?
Ethika was founded in 2016 in Hyderabad.
Who is the founder of Ethika?
Susheel Agrawal, Sarath Reddy, and Sandeep Mukka are the co-founders of Ethika.
Employee monitoring software may conjure up negative images, but while previously it may have been used to help improve productivity by controlling which websites were accessible from work, these days monitoring is more about security. There’s a lot of distractions in the modern workplace, especially for employees who use internet-connected devices to complete their daily tasks. Most of the time, employees can be trusted to do the right thing, but there is always an opportunity for them to engage in unproductive behavior on company time. Worse yet, employees could exhibit reckless or malicious behavior that proves a threat to your business’s security. To help prevent these scenarios, employee monitoring software provides a way for you to monitor, record and manage your employees’ online behavior at work.
These breaches could be caused by anything from users forgetting to employ appropriate settings, to a user visiting a website infected with a malware, to malicious activity by disgruntled employees. So while some employee monitoring software is still used for time tracking and efficiency management, others work more like network monitoring tools by focusing on general activity in the IT network and looking for patterns that might suggest a security threat. This often means using artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect threats.
Whichever type of employee monitoring software you’re looking for, here we’ll feature a strong cross-section of the best on the market, according to your business needs.
Teramind
Pricing: INR 300 seat/month – 749 seat/month
Teramind
Teramind provides a user-centric security approach to monitor employee’s PC behavior. It streamlines employee data collection in order to identify suspicious activity, detect possible threats, monitor employee efficiency, and ensure industry compliance. It also helps reduce security incidents by providing real-time access to user activities by offering alerts, warnings, redirects and user lock-outs to keep your business running as efficiently and secure as possible.
The Simplicity of Teramind is great. The feature and functionality are powerful but the navigation is simple. Various dashboard addition via the widget on the fly is really commendable. It provides a lot of features like social media behavior, email tracking, a screenshot of user window, recording of audio and video of the user activity and exporting of the same for the documentation purpose. Productivity analysis on the dashboard by pre segregation of websites, apps, social media and other corporate policy – This way you can also use the outcome of the Teramind while doing employee performance appraisal.
Teramind is the best employee monitoring software for large businesses and enterprises. It offers multiple filtering and monitoring tools and has both cloud-based and on-premises deployment options. It’s also one of the few options compatible with Macs as well as PCs, and its advanced tools make it effective for easily monitoring many devices across a big company. For cloud access, pricing starts at ₹1,835 and self-hosted users pay ₹11,480 per month. It can be integrated into other applications like Redmine, NetIQ, and Radar among many others.
Veriato 360
Pricing: Starts $140/seat/month
Veriato360
Veriato 360 employee monitoring software provides unmatched visibility into the online and communications activity of employees and contractors. Veriato provides an integrated AI platform for monitoring user activity in order to reduce the chances of a data breach. It does this by following five main stages that involve monitoring, as the company prefers to describe it: Watching, Analyzing, Alerting, Seeing, and Reacting.
The Watching stage involves tracking employee activity across the web, emails, chat apps, and monitoring which websites are visited, applications are used, and what documents are moved around or uploaded. This produces a record of session times along with activities, and can track a single employee via their login credentials across multiple platforms and devices. Big data and AI is used to analyze patterns that might show a deviation from baseline behaviors, set by group or individually, and can additionally watch for outsiders trying to access the network or other digital assets using stolen credentials.
Once an alert is received, the security team can use a time capsule feature to check out a recording of the user’s screen as it was used, to determine if the alert was triggered by an error, whether the user made an error, or whether malicious activity was discovered. After that, the company can react accordingly, either dismissing the alert after being reviewed, or else in the more extreme cases, export any screen recordings if and as required to management, HR, security, in the event of disciplinary proceedings, or even to law enforcement if legal proceedings need to be taken.
Kickidler
Pricing: $9.99/user/month
Kickidler is one of the best employee monitoring software that allows keeping account and time supervision of employees at the working computers. Kickidler allows monitoring from 1 up to 10,000 workstations. It is used by IT-specialists, security teams, HR management teams, and top management. It helps in keeping control over employees and preventing insider threats.
HubStaff
Pricing: Free for 1 user, $7/user/month – $10/user/month
Hubstaff
Gain clarity and peace of mind with streamlined employee monitoring and time tracking from Hubstaff. Know your team is on the right track in real time through screenshot capture, activity monitoring, app usage, and reporting. Available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and iOS. Hubstaff runs in the background so your team can keep working without interruption. Integrates with over 30 business apps you already use, including Basecamp, Trello, Asana, Github, and Paypal.
The interface is user-friendly. Hubstaff captures 3 random screenshots every 10 minutes so it does really help a lot in catching workers who are doing unrelated things while they should be doing work. Apart from this, the admin can restrict the workers from deleting the screenshots but it could also be enabled in the setting, when screenshots are deleted, it also deducts the 10 mins. Both admins and users can add time manually depending on what you set up.
Hubstaff can be used to accurately monitor employees’ work hours. It can be very helpful to businesses that have employees that work on the field or remote locations. Employers can use it to track employees’ computer activities, location, and time spent on various applications whether you are offline or using your mobile devices. It can be integrated into payroll, project management, and many other applications. Furthermore, Hubstaff can be used to monitor invoicing, payroll, and employees’ schedules to optimize their productivity and to ensure they are timely paid. Based on the number of employees to be monitored, basic plans start from $5 per month.
Pricing: Free with limited features, $9 user/month – $15 user/month
ActivTrak
ActivTrak is a workforce productivity and analytics software company that helps organizations understand how and what people do at work. Its cloud-based user activity monitoring platform provides contextual data and insights that enable mid-market enterprises to be more productive, secure, and compliant. With more than 5,000 customers and over 100,000 users of its Free version, ActivTraks award-winning solution can be configured in minutes to provide immediate visibility and reporting.
ActivTrak offers a well-rounded free version for up to three users. The free edition of ActivTrak includes 3GB of storage, an analytics dashboard for reviewing data insights, web content filtering and real-time device monitoring. It is compatible with Windows and Mac devices, as well as on iOS and Android mobile devices.
ActivTrak also offers a cost-effective paid version that builds on the features available with its free edition. The paid version starts at $7.20 per user, per month, which is one of the most affordable prices we found. In addition to all the features included in the free version, the paid edition offers unlimited storage space, automatic detection of USB drives or other detachable devices, monitoring of file transfers, user risk scoring, real-time screenshots and a remote agent installer.
Spyrix Employee Monitoring
Pricing: $59/year – $479/year
Spyrix Employee Monitoring
This software is perfect for employee monitoring both for small firms and huge enterprises. It is used for detailed remote control over user activity. Besides, it has numerous amazing functions. Spyrix Employee Monitoring can be used to track keylogger activities, websites, apps, social media, and chats. Any printing activity or external storage such as USB or memory cards can also be tracked. Also, no matter where you are, you can monitor and control your employees’ as you will have access to logs via your email.
Besides, you can view all recorded data via your secure online account. You just need to log in to the dashboard from any device whenever you’re located. Spyrix software is unique as it also offers log delivery to FTP, LAN and cloud storages (GoogleDrive, DropBox). Further, the software can turn the target computer into kind of surveillance device. This means that you can monitor your employees via computer webcam and microphone, so you will always know what’s going on in the office when you’re absent.
The software allows viewing employees’ computer screens in real mode remotely. It can operate undetected and offers the hidden mode meaning that the staff members won’t be distracted by the program. The software offers a free trial during which you can decide if it meets all your needs.
Time Doctor
Pricing: $70/user/year – $200/user/year
Time Doctor
Time Doctor is an employee monitoring software with accurate time tracking that helps you know if your team is really productive. It’s especially suited to team from 20 to 500 employees. It is a web-based solution that provides time tracking, computer work session monitoring, reminders, screenshot recording, invoicing, reporting tools, integrations and so much more.
Another advantage is the growing list of project management tool integration. Well, TD is a project management tool already but if you’re using other tools like Trello, you’ll be happy to know that TD has you covered already. Another advantage is the fact that TD has added the Client View feature. That means you can invite your client/s to log in to a panel and view all the screenshots and work you’ve billed them. That’s a trust booster for you and your client especially if you’re getting paid by the hour.
It has a lot of options that help you manage staff and increase productivity significantly. Not only you can see captures, but also see the activity of their peripherals and the apps and programs they use. It is a very powerful tool which helps in order to track and monitor the tasks of the workers. It captures the different tasks performed all the day and the kind of tabs opened by the workers. This is also used by the remote workers who are providing virtual assistance on the hourly basis and get paid as per the report generated at the end of the day. One can also track the idle time of a person and shows the amount of time spent on a specific tasks.
Work Examiner
Pricing: Starts $79.90/licence/year
Work Examiner
Work Examiner was launched in 2006 by EfficientLab LLC. The firm says the software is now used by over 1500 companies. Amongst the benefits it promises are accurate tracking of when employees arrive at and leave their desk, the ability to schedule reports on users or departments (received via email), and the option to set flexible policies for controlling employee work time and ‘free’ time.
Work Examiner is broken down into three main purposes: web usage control, surveillance and work time tracking. The platform provides data on how an organisation’s web traffic is distributed between users, computers, user groups, departments, sites and website categories. It can be viewed by days, dates and hours. Detailed web access reports are provided and, as with other platforms, it’s possible to filter what websites employees can access. Users can receive notifications when specified websites are accessed and employees can be issued a customizable message when they access specified sites.
The surveillance functionalities in Work Examiner allow users to see screenshots of what a user is viewing in real-time, and there’s the option to capture screenshots at regular intervals and then play them back like a movie. All emails can be captured and saved and it’s possible to filter emails by keyword. Activity on instant messaging applications can also be recorded. It has many features like ready-to-use reports (user behavior) for monitoring and analysis, Real-time data, screenshots, app/web usage, email usage, keystrokes, etc. It also does web filtering for you.
Pricing: Free for 1 employee, $5.99/user/month – $19.99/user/month
MoniTask
Monitask is an online time-tracking and screenshot monitoring software as a service (SaaS) startup company. Monitask delivers employee monitoring solutions to boost productivity, efficiency, and accountability across your team. Advanced screenshot and activity monitors, as well as time tracking capabilities, keep teams focused on the task at hand. The software is powerful, yet lightweight, making it simple and easy to use. Managers can also access their dashboard on any of their devices to keep track of their team anytime, anywhere.
“As an entrepreneur, I often feel guilt that I’m not spending “enough” time working on various projects. Once I started using Monitask, everything became objective and my time has started to become more valuable. Things that get measured get improved. This objective feedback on how I’m spending my time has given me so much encouragement and motivation. I can see progress happen, and I’m able to feel better about the work I do”, says one of the user.
Monitask provides weekly reports by project which gives you a visual overview of how you spent your time. The software has a very easy interface to use. Its features follow most software formats which have all of the user capabilities on the right hand side. Visually the interface is appealing and easy to read. It provides all of the useful features needed in a time tracking software.
Berqun
Pricing: Starts $7.50/user/month
Berqun
Berqun gives quantifiable insight into how your employees spend their time at work. These insights allow you to confidently identify low performers and enable you to jointly take action towards higher productivity. Analyze trends over time and drill down into any unusual changes. Optionally, record screenshots of employee computers at any time interval that you specify.
With this software you can capture actual visited websites for any browsers and all applications used in the computer with their duration which gives ability to measure the work time easily whether it is productive or not. Beside that information, you can also capture work start time, work end time, total working time network usage and screenshots for an employee, and also agent application is so tiny, smaller than 1 mb, easy to install and configurable from the web application.
Berqun enables you to learn how high-performing staff (quality & sales revenue) achieves their results. Berqun offers a great combination. Whilst providing a full overview about the productivity, actual working hours, and relevant analysis, it also provides the required privacy (no keylogger & option to pause). This creates a general acceptance within the company. Staff doesn’t feel to be spied on.
Conclusion
Regardless of why your business needs this kind of software, employee monitoring tools should be handled with the utmost respect for privacy. For admins, the power that accompanies this kind of software should necessarily surface concerns when it comes to handling confidential or personal data, overseeing managerial access rights over whom they can monitor, and maintaining a level of transparency as to what constitutes “work hours” and whether employees are aware they’re being monitored. The technology at work in employee monitoring tools can provide tremendous benefits to businesses through comprehensive oversight, data gathering, data reporting, and automation. So, choose the software carefully which meets your expectations. If you are using some other software, please let us know in the comments section.
FAQs
What software is used to monitor employees?
There are many Employee Monitoring tools and time tracking systems that can be used to monitor employees.
Which are the top Employee Monitoring tools?
Some of the best Employee Monitoring Software are:
Teramind
Veriato 360
HubStaff
Kickidler
ActivTrak
Spyrix Employee Monitoring
Time Doctor
Work Examiner
Monitask
Berqun
What things can be monitored using Employee Monitoring Software?
Employee Monitoring Software can be used to monitor all the activities of employees done on the system. It includes:
GenZ employees make up about 25% of the workforce across the globe and the figures are expected to go up to nearly 30% by 2030. These tech-savvy individuals are considered to be the most diverse set of professionals to enter the workforce.
As these individuals are entering professional life, companies need to buckle up their seatbelts in creating an environment that suits their moods.
GenZ is the generation of people born in the mid-90s who have grown up during the swiftly changing times over the last two decades. They have witnessed the Great Depression, the ever-growing danger of environmental crisis as well as the recent global pandemic due to Covid 19 to name a few. They are also called the internet generation or iGeneration.
If compared with the previous generation, Gen Zers have a totally different perspective on life. What makes this iGeneration different from the other generation is their behaviour. Their interest isn’t focused on how much they are going to earn or what others think of them but is worried about work-life balance and mental well-being.
In the part where the previous generation always focused on working late till it drained them, Gen Zers are more attracted to having a paid leave from their organisation, and a day off for a mental break.
What Makes Gen Z So Different?
There are several characteristics of a Gen Zer that makes them unique from the others, especially from a millennial. These people love to have their own working space and do not like sharing it with others.
As mentioned earlier, this group was born during the recession time, which makes them more realistic and practical. Gen Zers are also believed to prefer learning through different educational platforms such as the live-classes, online tutorials or receive on-the-job training classes.
What Does Gen Z Expect in the Workplace?
The hype created because of these Gen Zers is what puts a lot of companies in a tough situation of hiring them. But why should organisations hire them? That is because they are young and smart, and believe in innovation and creativity.
GenZers are very expressive about their feelings and aspirations, so they usually expect lucid and transparent communication from the leadership.
Organisations need to put control and policies in place which ensure clear messaging across the hierarchy. They need to focus beyond traditional benefits and form a culture where they embrace Gen Zers as a whole person and not judge a person for what they can accomplish in eight hours a day.
How to Manage Gen Z Employees?
Here in this read, let us figure out an in-depth understanding of how can organisations manage GenZ employees.
Build a Sense of Community
One of the most important aspects of keeping a Gen Z employee is to give them the liberty to interact and communicate with one another on a digital medium. They are born in the digital age and love to be connected 24×7 through the internet.
Gen Z carries its smartphone everywhere and utilises social media in every way possible. They prefer communication through texts, video calls, and phone calls to face-to-face interaction.
They develop a platform or community where they discuss and share ideas with like-minded people who feel their effort has a purpose and work-life feels more enjoyable.
Accordingly, they expect the workplace to support them in working with innovative technologies. Research shows technology will be a crucial factor that Gen Z will consider while deciding on a job offer.
Reward Them for Their Hard Work
Gen Zers are true performers as they put a lot of effort into getting work done. For them, their hard work must be paid off. They expect at the workplace that whatever work they have carried out should be worth their effort.
They are not someone who will accept any amount of reward if it doesn’t match their performance. Organisations need to put in mind the negotiation part while hiring a Gen Zer.
They crave independence and like it under their control
Let Them Work Independently
When it comes to handling a project or any kind of work, Gen Zers expect their managers to listen to them. Since they have a knack for creativity, they want their ideas to be heard.
These young employees want managers to give them work without any help or support from other teams. Being one of the most self-sufficient employees, Gen Zers like to keep things under their control.
Embrace New Technology
Organisations must change themselves in the way they operate to meet the expectations of GenZ. They must indulge in launching such initiatives that reinforce the company assignment, and employees’ roles in achieving goals and permitting people a chance to speak up their minds.
They look for a platform that gives them easy access to information and resources. Two-way dialogue with leadership fosters a way for a greater understanding of expectations in the workforce for these young employees. To think that they were born during challenging times, these youths stand up for what they believe in.
Prioritize Mental Health at Your Workplace
These energetic individuals do not like stress at all. For them, mental health is an essential factor to stay productive and successful.
In a competitive world, these young employees find themselves lost most of the time, which is why their focus is on overall well-being to lead a happy and fruitful life. Moreover, they like to choose those organisations that are diverse and have an inclusive work culture.
Conclusion
Every generation is different from the other. It is time for companies and organisations to incorporate the things and adapt to the flexibility that these Gen Zers have been asking for all these years.
For a company to have high-performing results, it must indulge in the above-mentioned measures to manage these young employees properly.
FAQs
How do you motivate Gen Z workers?
Appreciate them for their efforts, Provide regular feedback, create a sense of community, and Provide growth opportunities.
What do Gen Z employees want?
Gen Z employees want a better work-life balance, growth opportunities, great work-life balance and improved mental health and wellness support.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by JOP.
Building an enterprise and maintaining the startup team to adhere to the business goal efficiently and effectively is one of the biggest challenges in the entrepreneurship journey. Entrepreneurs should always focus to create an environment where teams can perform to the best of their abilities and produce the highest quality work. It is an ongoing process of improving individual and team coordination. JOP provides a solution to boosting employee performance at the company. It offers automated solutions to goal setting and performance reviews.
Read the success story of JOP, its founders, business model, and more about it.
JOP is a SaaS startup founded in 2020. The products they provide at JOP are goals, engagement, feedback, performance management, agile collaboration, and insights. As for, the services that are offered by JOP are consulting and partnerships.
JOP – Core Belief
JOP enables a joyful culture and the realization of full performance potential. JOP, a synergy driven by the common desire to support organizations aspiring to thrive, brings an amalgamation of strong characteristics and values. The combinations of hues used in the brand best elucidate this magical mix of joy, ambition, and optimism – the ulterior values they wish to imbibe through the means of their solution.
At JOP, they aspire to enable agile collaboration among teams to facilitate strategy execution and performance enablement. Their primary focus is laid on all the core elements required to support agility, team collaboration, performance, and engagement.
There’s one passion that unites the JOP team – helping organizations that are willing to break the old rules in search of superior performance. They love supporting leaders that experiment with new agile structures and methods as they seek to dominate in today’s disruptive and demanding business environment. Business Performance Enablement should be about facilitating agile collaboration among teams to drive strategic achievement. Together they decided to create a world-class software solution to support aspirational organizations.
JOP – Founders and Team
JOP Co-Founders
Gaurav Sabharwal, Rakesh Sarin, Vibhu Satpaul, and Grant Crow are the co-founders of JOP.
Gaurav Sabharwal is the CEO of JOP. He is responsible for handling day-to-day activities related to operations, marketing, and fundraising.
Rakesh Sarin is the Chairman of the board. He is the Chief strategy officer who works on strategic planning.
Vibhu Satpaul is the Chief product officer. He is responsible for the entire product in terms of development, analytics, etc.
Grant Crow is the non-executive director and serves as an OKR expert and strategic planner.
JOP – The Idea and Startup Story
There are many areas from which they got the inspiration for JOP. Founders have been in the industries for a number of years now, supporting and providing digital services for companies in the US, successfully. They realized that strategically they will be able to put a lot more value if they will develop their own products. So it was their decision to create their own products and take them to the market.
JOP – Name, Tagline, and Logo
JOP Logo
The name of the Startup is based on the core values and culture followed at the startup.
Joyful and Energizing: There is joy in dreaming big, respecting the diversity of multi-cultural teams, and performing for meaningful growth. They maximize their energy by experimenting, collaborating, and aligning to boost stakeholders’ value. The Yellow in the JOP logo is a symbolic representation of the aforementioned values that they wish to advocate through the means of their personality and product.
Customer Success: They make a meaningful contribution for their customers to succeed. The inclusion of Blue in JOP branding is an accurate delineation of the confidence, trust, and wisdom that they wish to foster with their customers.
Aspirational: They aspire to be the best with a winning attitude, an innovative approach, and taking ownership. The Green in the identity signifies the ambition of growth and success – both for them and their partners/users.
JOP – Products
The products ensure alignment, clear ownership, and accountability and allow you to achieve outcomes. The product offers continuous feedback which improves employee engagement and helps retain the best talents in your organization. Their products will also help you have clear quarterly and annual goals. Furthermore, their products will help you be in alignment with company goals and insights into everyone’s work.
Their products give solutions to problems such as micro management, work-life balance, attritions, lack of vision, transparency, productivity, sales, customer satisfaction, and financial performance.
They catalyze growth for businesses (startups) and people by intensifying focus on high-impact goals, enabling strategy execution and employee engagement, hence enabling 3x growth with alignment. As for innovations, they have effective check-in, actions to manage, and parent linking KRs.
JOP – Business Model and Revenue Model
For Indian customers, the price is Rs 250 per user and for their customers outside India, the price is $10 per user. This does not include the consulting cost as they are separate and go straight to the consultant. An onboarding fee may also be charged and the payments are charged quarterly.
They got their first 100 customers through various mediums such as the founder network, referrals, LinkedIn outreach, and attending events where their ICP was present. Email marketing campaigns and SEO helped them as well in bagging the first 100 customers. They also had strategic partnerships with OKR consultants that helped them further.
JOP – Challenges Faced
Starting and scaling businesses is hard. Even after having an experienced startup team, there’s always a new challenge standing in your way while establishing a business. This is one of the reasons they founded JOP. Many companies fail when they are scaling up as they lack an ideal operating framework that is needed by a business to grow and thrive. This is where JOP comes into the picture. It requires a lot of hits and tries at the initial stages to see what works the best. But yes, following some good playbooks for GTM, Sales, Marketing, Product Engineering, and Funding proved to be quite helpful in increasing the chances of establishing a successful business.
JOP – Marketing Strategy
JOP has got most successful marketing through LinkedIn. Linkedin outreach helped the business immensely along with the events as they enabled them to get direct access to their ICP (high-growth SaaS startups)
They are still on their way to achieving their goal of success. My biggest achievement started with their drive to make JOP successful. Their passion to solve business performance problems makes the team keep going.
JOP – Future Plans
They plan to go hefty with integrations such as slack, notion, etc. In addition to this, they plan to develop the intelligence of their product with respect to insights and nudges.
FAQs
When was JOP founded?
JOP was founded in 2020.
Who are the founders of JOP?
Gaurav Sabharwal, Rakesh Sarin, Vibhu Satpaul, and Grant Crow are the co-founders of JOP.
It was the March of 2020 when the virus spread over the world and brought about a change across the globe. This instant change was not really instant, but it was for sure very sudden. The pandemic forced everyone to get inside, yes, crawl into their houses. Though the flow of the world did not stop completely, the deadly disease surely slowed it down by significant levels.
Technology was the only refuge that we got to dive into at our leisure, which seemed to be just the only happening part during the Covid-19 onslaught. It helped us to be connected with others, lead us to gain more knowledge, and instilled courage in us to bear the burden of work, which spurred us to stay motivated and look forward to the days ahead.
Technology literally took all the weight of every other field. Be it education or the work culture!
Two years into the pandemic and the world is changing drastically. Through technology is still trying to meet both ends for the world, it’s true that we have seen countless lockdowns. Out of all the side effects that the world saw due to the pandemic, there was this one unique ruckus that we all witnessed. This one thing was so uniquely attached to the pandemic and life, that we can’t explain. After the lockdowns and layoffs, what is currently affecting the world is the ever-increasing resignation that it has witnessed and is still witnessing today in all of the major walks of life.
Often abbreviated as “The great resignation”, this was so unique to the year 2020 and is still counting, amazing many. This article talks about the initiation of the “Great Resignation” and how it went viral all over the world. We will get to the skin of the matter and reveal some super important points in the journey. Hop on, to increase your knowledge about the greatest resignations ever.
As soon as the Covid-19 virus was out of Wuhan, it started traveling across the world on a destructive journey. One of the aftereffects of ruins is what we call the Great Resignation of the epidemic epiphany. The “Great Resignation”, which is also known as the “Great Reshuffle” or the “Big Quit” was coined by a Professor of Management at the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, in May 2021, who goes by the name Anthony Klotz. It was when he predicted a sustained mass exodus via numberless resignations that he named it thus.
Yes, the number of people who resigned from their respective jobs last year is tremendous indeed. The trend didn’t just stop there at the initial phase of the virus spread, in the mid of the year 2020, but rather stretched to the whole of next year, and still hasn’t stopped today. This magnitude of people leaving their jobs is not normal at all. This is the reason why the trend has captured the attention of market researchers, analysts, and others.
Every consecutive month there were more and more tides of resignations and this shook the whole world. Months were more troublesome in the United States and in fact, that was the place from which the resignations started, or the place where it was first noticed, to be precise. If we look at the numbers we will see that there were about 4 million people (Americans) who quit their jobs in the month of July only in 2021.
Number of People Quitting their Jobs in the United States
The story does not end here, it is quite the beginning. In April 2021, the resignation peaked. After April of 2021, the word became slang among people. The shift of resignation was huge. The number of open jobs went up to almost 11 million in the months following April. This made employers think about ways to improve employee retention and find ways to make the number improve.
There was this one common factor of resignations all over the world and that was the age limits of resigners. The resignation rates were the highest among mid-level (or Mid Career) employees. These are the employees that fall in the age group of 30-45 years. It is also reported that the average increase in the number of resignations in this age category has been more than 20%. This percentage of growth is seen from 2020 to 2021.
It is also seen that the turnover is the highest among the younger employees. In other later studies, it was found that the resignation number has decreased for the workers in the age group of twenty to twenty-five. This likely happened due to a higher level of financial uncertainty or dependency. It could have also happened due to the reduced demand for some jobs that are placed on the entry-level of an organisation.
Another interesting factor that the world saw was that resignation rates were falling for employees that were in bigger age brackets. For people in the age bracket of 60 and 70, it was a normal time for them in their respective jobs. The tides were only high for people who belong to the age group of 25-30 and those who are around 45. However, the most significant changes or resignations were seen in the age group of the 30s, people who are in their thirties or late twenties.
The Beginning of The Great Resignation
Until the beginning of 2021, the world was suffering in tackling the Wuhan virus. Every continent in the world was struggling to figure out a vaccine and then manufacture a vaccine. Efficacy was thought of again and again but soon we figured out “how to make a vaccine?” and eventually get everyone vaccinated.
In April 2021, the covid 19 vaccination rates increased manifold. Well, that was not the only thing rising. The thing that began rising too was the number of resignations. The first and by far the most noted waves were witnessed in the United States. That month, about 4 million Americans quit their jobs, reports say.
Then, it was thought that the resignations would come down. However, that hope was proved wrong and in the next month of June 2021, approximately about 3.9 million Americans quit their jobs. It was also noted by specialists that the situation was more prevalent in the southern part of the country. It alone accounted for about 2.9% of the volunteer resignations. It was followed by the midwest, which accounted for 2.8%, and then the west, where it was noted to be around 2.6%. It was reported that the northeast was the most stable region with about 2% of the employees/workers quitting in the month of June.
Microsoft came up with its own set of data and reports. The “Work Trend Index” strives to be a data-dense information bucket for workforces around the world. According to Microsoft’s Work Trend Index, in 2021, there were resignations that covered more than 40% of the global workforce. It is said that these mentioned people that are about 40% of the total workforce have some time or the other have thought of stepping down from their employment.
Another report said some more about the resignations in the year 2021. This time the report came from the PricewaterhouseCoopers survey. They conducted a survey in early August 2021 and found out that about 65% of the employees said that they are looking for a new job. It also entails that about 88% of the executives said that their company is witnessing a higher turnover than the regular turnover.
In October 2021, the United States Bureau of Labour statistics also reported that workers leaving the premises were clocked at a rate of 6.8%. The industry they were talking about was the food service workers industry. The resignation rates were higher than the normal average amount of 4.1%. The average rate has not changed much over the past 20 years and the highest it went in those years was a top 5% and not more than that. The retail industry has also witnessed some abnormal quits. They saw a quitting rate of 4.7%.
A similar report from Fortune Magazine also showcased some rising and alarming numbers. That was the Deloitte study of October 2021. It said that the top thousand companies fear a great resignation. Out of the top 1000 Fortune companies, about 73% of Chief Executive Officers think that these work shortages will disrupt their businesses in the next 12 months.
Out of those Fortune companies, there was a solid percentage of 57% who think that attracting talent is going to be the biggest challenge in the future. 35% of the total CEOs believe that they have already expanded the benefits to bolster employee retention. Another report mentioned that beginning from the start of the pandemic to November 2021, approximately 1 in 5 healthcare workers quit their jobs.
Amidst all the chaos that was generated by the great resignation, the world was hit by one more uncertain event. Popularly known as the Striketober. It was the time when about at least a hundred thousand American workers started a strike.
Protest in the U.S
They all participated in the strike, which was focused on the bad working conditions, ill-treatment of the workers, and low wages. Reporting the matter, The Guardian wrote that some economists described the Great Resignation as workers participating in a general strike against poor working conditions and low wages.
We just discussed that the event of the great resignation started off in the United States and it crashed against the whole world. The next few countries with vast damage were China, Europe, and India.
India is the second-most populous country in the world and any damage to the world can really magnify if entered inside the borders. India was in ruins too, due to the pandemic. The GDP was down, the work from home or anywhere was really hard to follow and manuals for remote work seemed blurred for most of the organisations in India. Having said that, let us see how the Great Resignation affected the Indians and the country of India.
Research reveals that the attrition rate of the companies is the highest in the last 20 years. Though the rate of attrition fell to 12.8% in 2020, it went up to 21%, the highest in 2 decades.
Reports from the past year can shock any Human Resource manager. This was the effect that was initiated by the great resignation. It prompted people to not only shift careers but to jump to new careers where they had little or no past experience at all. This was probably the most unique and ubiquitous trait of the resignations.
A study commissioned by Amazon India showed the coinciding results. The report that was conducted in September 2021 showed that about 51% of the potential employees (job-seeking employees) were looking for opportunities in industries where they had no or little experience. And about 68% of the people were looking to switch industries.
When it came to resignations, there was also a shot of increasing demand for people with skills. As the world went virtual and online became the new normal for everyone, the technology sector saw a boom. This was the time when technology skills were demanded the most and industries of all sorts began their hunt for talent in the sector. It was the first 9 months of 2021 when the demand saw the highest point in the graph. According to a report from Forbes India, the top 5 Information Technology companies hired as many as 1.7 lakh people during that time. The rate is not that high now but it is in the green colour of growth.
According to the report by the YouGov Mint CPR Millennial Survey, it was found that 24% of the post-millennials (Generation after the millennials) reported a job loss compared in 2021 to 17% of the pre-millennials. Those with poorer education backgrounds faced a higher burn in the face.
Out of all the people who completed their school level of education, 30% were laid off. About 16% of those with professional degrees faced the same consequence. In late 2021, in the month of December, it was reported that only 8% of those in the job market still remained unemployed at the time of the survey. The survey, which was conducted by the Mint, Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research (CPR), and the Indian arm of the global research firm, YouGov, covered responses of about 12,900 attendants across 206 cities.
As the difference between white collar and blue collar faded away in the pandemic, everyone landed on the same plane. Everyone was working through an electronic device. Be it working adults or be it, kindergarten kids. With that fading of the designated spaces for work, the difference between life and work faded too. This came with its own unique sets of problems and made a ruckus (like your baby hanging out in between a zoom call). This was a big reason why people of young ages decided to resign and turn their careers west.
However, when it comes to great resignation in India, the great resignation in IT sector is compelling indeed. Companies like Wipro, Infosys, TCS, and others have all witnessed a significant dip in their attrition rates.
According to the reports from the surveys, the pandemic situation has now turned near to normal, and hopes for jobs have also brightened. About 15% of the respondents believed that the economy had returned to its normalcy. The data can be compared with only 9% of people believing in the economy in the last year. Thus, the reports for two consecutive years (2020-2021) show that as the resignations turn up, there were also seen new hopes for jobs and economic normal workings.
The topmost sector to be hit by the pandemic was undoubtedly the labour market of India. It was devastated with long and continuous lockdowns. These lockouts were crucial but they also affected the poor labourers severely. Construction was affected and as a result, labourers were affected too.
After the first lockdown, as the situation worsened, it was getting better with the economy opening up in between. During that phase when people could see recovery signs, it was estimated that 60% of those who were forced to quit their jobs have found a way back into the organisation. It was also noted that urban Indians were trying to search for jobs in between the ruins of the pandemic. They are now also taking better control of their careers, the survey reported.
The effects were huge on the employers and the companies but the shift in resignations caused many surges. The rise in resignations came with a rise in the number of startups in India. It is a closely related metric that can be traced to get a clear picture. In 2021 alone, India saw around 33 Unicorns. Around the time of uncertainty and the pandemic, people who left jobs and others started up with their own ventures. They tried their luck and hard work in this unprecedented year. We saw the biggest surge in the Indian startup ecosystem last year.
What is Driving The Great Resignation?
The current trend of resignations has worried employers the most. They are not able to get things done and the effectiveness and efficiency of whole organisations keep ongoing. It is normal to minimise the damage by any means possible. This is why here we are discussing the reasons for the surging resignations. Later we will also point out some ways how an employer can save the retention rates and minimise the resignations rate. It is not a hidden fact now that people are quitting for one of the biggest reasons. The reason can be hard to lay out in one descriptive paragraph but let us try to get to the nerve of the issue.
As the pandemic started things turned challenging indeed. As the government frequented lockdowns, normal activities became hard to be done. Right from the stocking of our groceries and daily essentials to working at offices, nothing was regular as before. The most affected sectors included education and work. Everything became online and we all were staring at screens for most of our time. This was when the problem began. Earlier there was a designated place for education and corporate work, but now this was to be done within the same house boundaries. This created a big, bad mess.
We were ushered to a more congested work and life balance. Work-life balance became super hard to manage and that was the most probable reason why resignations topped the charts everywhere. This was the time when people got attacked with responsibilities both from the home and the workplace. This was when they felt congested and crowded with responsibilities and it seemed impossible to work their way up the pile of work.
People became more and more concerned about their life and their family. As the lockdowns and the virus gave them more and more reason to live more fully rather than just postpone things for tomorrow. This made them realise that they are not able to handle both ‘life’ and ‘work’ at the same time. This also made possible the transitions and the resignations feel easy. People shifted to their local lands (or suburbs) to get back their lost lives.
It was also seen that the pandemic made people more aware of their life. The pandemic confronted people brutally indeed to straighten things out. Rightly so, the stir caused by the Wuhan virus was so great that it made everyone rethink their life and careers again. It gave people a reality check on their lives. It showed them the fact that life is so fragile and anyone can die or be ousted from their workplace and/or normal setting/lifestyle at any point in time. Now, if you are wondering what led to the rise of the great resignation movement in India, the US, and the other parts of the world, then here they are:
A deluge of work and increasing burnout
The work considerably increased across departments. For instance, if we only see the resignation of the healthcare workers in the US, we find that 1 out of every 5 medical workers resigned from their jobs since the pandemic outbreak. Nearly 18% of the global medical workforce quit during the pandemic, which is huge indeed. Now, it is simple that with 1 employee resigning, it was the person beside him/her, who needed to shoulder the responsibilities of the other employee who had resigned. This increased the work pressure tremendously and fuelled by the lack of recognition and money, the employees started to be badly demotivated, which ushered the great resignation and the mass resignations at work that are still continuing. According to a recent report of June 2022, 86% of the employees might resign in the next 6 months.
Spending time with the family was much needed
They also were more cautious and concerned about the time they spent with their family. This began to grow and if their employers did not respect that, resignations followed. The great resignation is really close to being called a “Worker’s Revolution”. The reason is the fact that workers or employees from all over the work world, made enormous shifts in work and life.
Bad working conditions
Many studies found that transitioning employees reported bad working conditions in their workplaces. As the pandemic made everyone realise that life is more than ‘just work’, employees began realising their ill-treated jobs. They began questioning if they want this life of ill-treatment, or if they deserve a life of more freedom. As a result, most people chose freedom over their respective jobs that were more of ill-treatment.
Want of flexibility
It is evident from all the resignations that money is not the only thing that employees may want from their workplace. It is more about flexibility in their work schedules that interests them. Work flexibility is considered as the new-age money, and is eventually given more importance by today’s workers. It is the feature that allows employees to walk their pets anytime they like or drop their kids at school at 8 A.M. These are things that attracted people more now in the wake of the setting of the global pandemic. All of these things can be possible only through a convenient work-from-home or a flexible hybrid model of work. Therefore, people now want employers who respect their time and flexibility.
Lack of recognition
Employees work day and night for the offices of both large companies and startups, but they are hardly recognised at the day’s end. Surveys point out that over 65% of the employees did not receive any kind of recognition at all during the past 2-3 years where they have worked their sweat out for the companies. This lack of recognition was unfortunate for the employees and was recognised only recently, which has driven the great resignation wave across the world.
Poor payouts
It is evident from the study of the great resignation 2021 and the years preceding and succeeding the same that money is not the only thing when it comes to employees and workplaces. However, the salaries of the employees are still a big thing even in these changing times, where we are witnessing the great resignation of 2022. Poor payouts have also been a prominent reason that led to the quitting of many workers and employees globally. Thanks to the rising expenses and global economic breakdown that Covid-19 spurred, the employees ultimately realised how they are deprived of the payment that they deserve.
Increasing focus on long-term goals
The onset of the great resignation can also be viewed as a global shift of the employees’ sight. The employees who worked small gigs, at low payouts, those who worked at jobs they want to change if possible, or all of them who realised that their job markets would soon lose their place, started realising all of them at once. This led the employees to set long-term goals and look for jobs and markets that would be sustainable in the long run. As a result, the employers and the HRs discovered an unusual amount of resignations from the employees.
The growing fear of the Covid-19 disease
The Covid-19 disease can be right termed as one of the scariest diseases witnessed in recent times. Such a disease that made people disabled, killed them in numbers, and made them part with the people close to them, the people they love, is bound to be scary indeed. Yes, the great resignation of India and abroad was a result of the growing fear of the disease too.
Long Covid and its consequences
The Covid-19 disease was terrible indeed, with long-standing effects. Reports have found that the Covid-19 disease is even having long-term consequences that are persisting long after the convalescence period of the disease. Also known as the post-COVID-19 syndrome, post-COVID-19 condition, post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), or chronic COVID syndrome (CCS), the long Covid consequences are huge and common among people. Covid-19 has been found to have damaging impacts on nearly every organ of the human body. The respiratory system disorders, cardiovascular issues, metabolic issues, problems in the nervous system, and other neurocognitive disorders are some of the commonly reported problems of Covid survivors that are deterring their ability to work and live.
Due to such a syndrome, many working professionals and others are now reporting fatigue, headache, nausea, shortness of breath, loss of smell, distorted smell, weakness of muscles and bones, low fever, cognitive dysfunction and many other ill-effects, overcoming which is difficult. These have also materialised what we now see as the great resignation period.
Employees did not just shift from their jobs but they transitioned in their careers. Many chose an opposite stream of work with little or no experience. Many switched to freelancing as their way out of the rat race and accepted it as a full-time job. Many people moved back to suburbs (rural areas) from cities to their families. Most of these decisions allowed people to spend more time with their parents or kids and families. It is easily evident that people now would choose ‘life’ more than ‘work’ any day, in their work-life balance model.
The great resignation obviously ruffled the feathers of the employers and made them rethink employment and employee motivation. It was obvious that the old models had to be rethought. Here in this paragraph, we will see some proven tips that have helped employers and will help them in the future to deal with resignation, handle it better and minimize it.
First and foremost, employers have to identify that the threat is more of a qualitative sort. After realising the effect, they need to focus on the cause that rippled into such an effect. After discovering the cause, they should set up strategies to ease the problem, and would eventually try implementing the new solution. It can be anything that fosters retention.
The most common goal can include targeting specific problems first and after targeting these specific problems you can see quick results. This feedback loop that you will create will help build more and more feedback loops, which eventually affect the retention of the whole organisation.
When you go out to search for the root causes, it is important to not fear any depth. Addressing the root cause is in fact the best statistics to solve problems that seem difficult to solve. The path to the root cause often starts with a “why” in the head. There are also a few factors that can help to understand the question of why we are witnessing such numbers of resignations. Let us see what are the prompts that we saw last year, along with the tips that will enhance employee retention in the companies:
Offer proper compensation
Proper compensation is what the employees want but they hardly get it apart from some exceptions in a countable number of industries. Therefore, it is proven that employees today need to be more conscious about what they quote to the employees as their salary and would rather stick to it if they want to lift their retention rates.
Attend the employees always
Employee engagement is really important today, just as customer engagement is needed in all the major industries. Yes, it is true the employees also need proper engagement. Besides, they also face problems, which the employers need to understand and eventually mitigate.
Monitor employees and their performance
The employees’ works and their overall performance need to be looked at and appropriate feedback should be shared with them in a way that they would work on them. Monitoring the work performance and sharing feedback and reviews is not something that employers should rush in because that would make the situation far worse. Instead, the employers and companies need to deal with it systematically and would require professional trainers and quality managers to let the feedback percolate constructively and encouragingly.
Offer decent incentives and recognition
Work incentives are among some of the biggest impetus for the employees. Incentives for the employees can be arranged by the employers/companies, which might be in the form of money or gifts. This will make the employees feel valued and would also help them fight their bad economy or fulfil their requirements, be it at their homes or workplaces.
Make hiring practices strict
The hiring of the employees mainly has a huge say in making them retain. Often we see that such a process is done and wrapped fast. Though this makes the employees turn up for their roles rapidly and fill up the vacant places, it often leads them to nowhere, thereby adding to the great resignation movement. Making the hiring process strict helps employers get deserving employees, who are confident, smart, and hard-working, leading to growth.
Stay transparent
It is an urgent call for transparency globally. Startups and companies lack transparency at all levels, whether it is the salary package, the job role offered or the working hours and incentives. Such lack of transparency not only demotivates the employees but enrages them practically every time. All of these when repeated on more than one or two occasions, leads the employees to lower their productivity and even leave their jobs.
Install a bigger picture
An employee always loves to look up to his/her founder, manager or CEO, here if they fail to realise their work and don’t understand why they are doing it. Moreover, if the employees fail to see the bigger picture/growth of the company, and how they can occupy a central part in it, then it is obvious that they will resign and bring forth the great job resignation again. Bringing up a bigger picture that the manager/founder/CEO is looking forward to, can thus play a crucial role in retaining the employees.
Stay flexible
Flexibility at all points of work is crucial today, in the age post-Covid. In the wake of Covid, attaining flexibility was challenging indeed, but it was during the pandemic phase that we learnt how to be flexible and where we want to be flexible. All of these are certainly life lessons for the employees and others. Therefore, now, if employers and companies refrain from being flexible, then that would certainly cost them their employees.
Extend quality training for new employees
Researchers have suggested that proper training for the newcomers always helps them have a better understanding of their job role and the process overall. This was reduced during the pandemic and the quality of them went dipping all the time. Besides, many organisations have skipped or are skipping training altogether fearing the loss in their revenues after the pandemic. Such things hit their bottom line during the pandemic. It was easy to hire people with less or no experience at all, and then provide them with training in an offline environment but during the pandemic, it was raging difficult. However, with the pandemic almost cornered now, the employees must make a definite training period mandatory for the employees. This will help the new employees understand the work and the flow of it better, and will also help them cope with new environments and people, leading to better productivity and increasing retention rates.
Help employees with their career
Covid-19 has certainly exposed the employees to what they were lacking all the time. This includes their self-evaluation and long-term career goals, which they have done and set, and are wanting to pursue. Extending a career-oriented culture is thus, what can help the companies and employers of today to retain their employees. Apart from the usual work that the employees do, the employers can decide on some knowledge-sharing sessions, and arrange for certifications, degrees, and other opportunities for higher studies, which will help the employees in their careers and beyond.
We all know the uncertainty that the pandemic caused and the effects afterwards. So, it is said that the rising number of resignations could also be a sort of stifled resignation. These resignations were postponed earlier in the pandemic and it was venting out just somewhere in the middle of the consecutive year of 2020 or 2021. It is also likely that these workers may have simply reached a turning or breaking point after months and months of high workings. It can include hiring freezes and other pressures causing them to rethink their work and life goals.
The second thing that the world noticed was the resignation rates in some specific industries. It was noted that the technology and healthcare industries saw the biggest jump in the number of resignations. Both these industries and other industries saw turnover rates that were different than on the usual occasions.
In the manufacturing and finance sectors, resignations actually decreased slightly. In the health sector, the number of people who resigned was 3.6% more than the previous year. In the technology industry, there was an increase of 4.5% from the previous year of the pandemic.
In general, we got to know that the resignation rates were higher among employees who worked in fields that required some experience and more skillsets than others. It is generally assumed that they left their workplaces due to extreme demands and increased workloads that they faced. Yes, burnout was a huge reason for such great resignations.
There are more questions that people can ask themselves. Here we are talking about employers. This new dynamic is a sure challenge for all the employees as well as for the employers. Beginning with it, if you are an employer ask yourself-
Did the productivity of the employee fall during the quarantine?
Do you need employees that work all the time in the office? The nine-to-five culture?
Are you willing and can you afford your employees to work from all or any part of the world? This question addresses the flexibility of work offered.
Employers also have seen one more thing work for the employees. That method is to develop tailored approaches. Personalised approaches can be provided to each and every employee or team can work in that fashion too. It is just a fact about effectiveness.
If you have a marketing department that can work at the same efficiency as before in a remote fashion, then make it remote. Accordingly, identify those departments and teams, and areas of your organisation that can work independently or remotely. This way you can better handle the efficiency of the whole organisation by categorising teams as remote, workspace, and hybrid setups.
The lockdown also has caused much of an attack on the mental health of the employees. An employer should note this down very seriously. Employees were stuck at home and working for the organisation did loads to get things done in time. They had to adapt to their surroundings and they did that. If there was one thing that the pandemic organised to the whole world, it was a sense of missing out. We all suffered from FOMO at some point or the other. Theatres went online, work happened over zoom calls. However, now that the employees are balancing their work and life together and simultaneously, they need now to see a smooth shift back to offices with the least resistance and also a pat on the back.
The U Turn after the Great Resignation
The u turn now after the great resignation is yet another aftermath of Covid-19, together with great resignation. Yes, the “u-turn” is used here to represent u-turn of the employees. This u-turn not only reflects the employees’ inclination to work more and better and join their respective companies but also indicates the will of the employees to go back to their former employers.
Also referred to as ‘infant mortality, the great resignation letters that the companies received earlier, are now turning to join and offer letters for the same companies. The big resignation instilled courage in the employees and made them realise the loopholes and pain points of their offices and work culture, thereby driving them to resign. However, it also forced a large number of employees to join alienated industries, and offices/cultures, the disadvantages of which were felt by them eventually as the Covid-19 slowly receded. This has called the new phase of the great resignation u-turn after a period that showed mass resignations at work. Thus u-turn of the employees after the great resignation phase is anticipated in all of the major industries where a significant number of industries and companies working within them are already getting to witness the same. Though the great resignation continues or will likely be continuing for some more years, many employees would also return to their roots by joining the workplaces that they had to leave during the pandemic. NASSCOM studies reveal that around 90% of the executives expect hirings to remain the same or exceed that of 2021, which is significant indeed and is a major step for the companies to toward seeing more employees and expect a period of growth ahead.
Advice for Companies Shifting to Remote Work
GitLab follows a DRI approach to WFH decisions and it is very uniquely identified by the company. DRI stands for Directly Responsible Individuals. This means, that at the software company, everyone can make a suggestion to the point of discussion, but the person who is actually making the decision can choose whatever he/she wants without having to explain themselves. This ensures that responsibility and decisions are not vanishing at any point in time and it is all over the workspace. Otherwise, there would be just too much work and the responsibility and accountability will be separated.
Despite its many advantages, all-remote work isn’t made for everyone. It can prove to be disadvantageous for many employees depending on their lifestyle and work preferences, and also for their companies. If the arena is different, the rules should bend too.
After all, it is a new dynamic work view. So, the replication of the office experience will lead to turmoil. It is vital to reorganise and recalibrate at this point. It is also important to note that the shift to remote will not happen automatically and rapidly. It is a slow process, where everything needs to be checked twice before relying totally upon it.
Conclusion
The world has seen enough of the pandemic and its side effects. The pandemic was devastating for every one of us and it totally and permanently changed our lives. As our lives get affected, work gets affected too. Pandemic has mixed the two aspects of a person’s life, the work aspect, and the life aspect.
With this mixing, many people are getting a reality check about their lives and how they should be lived. People are reconsidering their life decisions and eventually choosing options that allow them to spend time with their family and with themselves. This has brought the resignations piling and led to huge transitions in the world of companies and startups across the world.
After the great resignation, not only the employees but every workspace is reconsidering their work schedules. It is amazing to witness that change happen on a large scale. This is true for people and for organisations as well.
Modern skilled employees now demand fewer work weeks and more flexible working conditions. This is not something that we can call ‘unfair’. It is just that the pandemic accelerated hope in all directions. We have arrived at a point where everyone has to respect others’ time and energy. This is how we measure life fundamentally. So, neither the great resignation nor the great resignation u-turn is a myth. Though they arrived suddenly on the path of normalcy, they changed and are changing things for good!
FAQs
Who coined the phrase the Great Resignation?
Professor Anthony Klotz coined the term “Great Resignation”. Klotz is a Professor of Management at the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University.
When was the term the great resignation coined?
The great resignation was coined by Anthony Klotz in May 2021.
How many people quit their jobs in 2021?
Over 38 million people have quit their jobs in 2021.
What is great resignation?
The mass resignation that came during and after the Covid19 pandemic is known as the great resignation, where employees from all around the world, across industries, resigned from their offices.
Why is the great resignation happening?
The great resignation that has happened and is happening even now, is due to some common factors and realisations that the employees experienced globally. Some of the main causes that propelled the great resignation in India and abroad are::
Covid-19 and its fear
Lack of proper compensation
Increased work pressure
Long Covid-19 effects
Multiplying burnouts
Distasteful workcultures
Lack of recognition
No incentives or OTs
Stringent leave policies
Lack of flexibilities
Is the great resignation continuing?
Though there is a certain u turn after the great resignation, which many employers are noticing, the great resignation continues, where according to the reports, nearly 86% of the employees may resign in the upcoming 6 months.
What is the great resignation in IT sector in India?
The great resignation unfolded in India and beyond, and affected all the major industries including the IT sector. The great resignation in IT sector in India reveals that all the major IT giants – Wipro, Infosys, TCS, and others saw a significant dip in their attrition rates. While Wipro saw a whooping 22.7% attrition, TCS and Infosys followed, with 15.3% and 22.7% respectively.
Pratyusha Srivastava
