Freedom, fun, purpose, personal development, engagement, work-life balance; we’ve got it all
After executing an extended and independent survey amongst our complete team, we are proud to announce that Talent Peaks is officially declared Happyholics Proof. This means that the majority of our colleagues feel truly happy and are passionate about their work. In this blog we’ll tell you more about our vision and the principles behind the Happyholics approach.
Happy People, High Impact
That is what we stand for. Because we know that if our ‘Talent Peakers’ feel happy in their work, they will be healthier, more engaged, and eager to get the best out of themselves and others. And that’s a proven recipe for really making a difference and contributing to personal growth and customer success.
Hence, from an employer’s perspective, it almost goes without saying that we highly invest in creating a supportive and pleasant working environment. To keep Talent Peaks a place where people can be themselves, and feel encouraged and appreciated.
Employee Happiness is key
Frank Gielen is Managing Partner and responsible for People and Culture at Talent Peaks: “From the early start, our culture evolved in a natural way. We started with a group of four highly motivated people, so it was relatively simple to make sure everyone felt happy and inspired. But as we gradually became more and more successful, our group of Salesforce consultants increased rapidly. And with that grew the need for a dedicated Employee Happiness strategy.
With the steady growth of our company, it gets more and more important to secure our unique company culture. We deeply treasure our DNA and our core values: Having Fun, Being a Guide and Making Impact. But what does it mean to every single individual? How do these core values contribute to our employee satisfaction? And what role do we play in this personally? That is what we wanted to get a clear view on.”
“I found the session we held with Happyholics very inspiring. We sat down in groups and were triggered to think about our own core values, the way we wanted to contribute, what we loved and what we wanted to improve. I gained a lot of insights, not only into myself but also into the team.” *)
Baseline measurement
In our project approach with customers, we always advise to first describe the as-is-situation, then paint a vivid picture of the to-be-situation and take a zero measurement of the relevant KPIs. For only then, you can objectively measure the impact of the transformation. And that is exactly what we did with Employee Happiness as well. So, we went looking for a toolkit to objectively measure the most important indicators for Employee Happiness. And in that search, we found a company called Happyholics. A company who literally made a slogan out of our strong belief: Happy people, high impact.
5 Pillars
Itamar Sharon is founder of Happyholics: “Research shows that employee happiness is based on five key indicators:
- Connection; connect with people on a personal level
- Recognition; feeling valuable and appreciated
- Freedom; being autonomous and empowered
- Purpose; having a meaningful contribution to the bigger picture
- Growth; personal and professional development
If people score highly on all five indicators, they have everything set in place for being a happyholic. We help organizations and teams to create an environment in which happyholics can thrive.”
No. 1 Happyholic proof employer
To measure the state of happiness and engagement of employees in their work, Happyholics designed a unique Employee Engagement Survey, based on the five key indicators. If a company scores an average of 7 or more on each indicator, they are worthy of the title Happyholics proof. Itamar: “In general – and in these times of corona, remote working and social distancing in particular – scoring a 7 is pretty hard to realize.
You can imagine how pleasantly surprised we were when it turned out that Talent Peaks scored no less than an average of 7,7. That is genuinely an extremely high score! So now it is official: Talent Peaks is the very first employer to be awarded with the Happyholics proof predicate.”
Let’s dive into the 5 individual indicators a bit more.
# Personal Connection
Itamar explains: “These times of COVID-19 more than ever proved to us all that this is one of the crucial factors in life. As human beings, we need personal connection to feel we belong. As such, it proves to be a crucial element in the employee experience because it provides us with a feeling of security, trust and wellbeing at work. When we experience a personal connection with someone, the production of oxytocin in our brain gets stimulated. This hormone gives us a feeling of belonging. We need that to feel confidence and to feel safe being the person we really are. A necessary setting to be able to thrive.”
“What I love in my job is that I can collaborate in a very pleasant way with a team of experts to create results that really make a difference for our customers.” *)
# Recognition
“Traditional studies advocated that employers should show recognition in the form of a salary increase, reward or bonus. Now we realize that this is a good base, but it isn’t the key to sustainable employee happiness. Intrinsic recognition is. People want to feel valuable. We all want to feel they are appreciated and acknowledged for who we are and what we do. Compliments for example are key in realizing this feeling”, Itamar explains.
“As a Talent Peaker, I feel valued both by the management and colleagues. We are often complimented and we listen to each other. Plus, we are involved in each other’s lives, both personally and professionally. It truly feels like a second family.” *)
# Freedom
“To be able to be our best self we need to feel the freedom to utilize our strengths. Everyone is unique, everyone has his/her own set of talents and preferences of how to work. Often we work in teams and need to conform to a certain culture and way of working within an organization. But it is very powerful to offer enough freedom within those constraints to make sure people feel free enough to work in their best way. That is why this indicator is one of the pillars in our survey”, Itamar explains.
“At Talent Peaks, I can do what I do best. I’m managed based on outcomes and I’m free to decide how I get the job done. That works great. Plus, we focus on professional development and personal growth, which is very important for me.” *)
# Purpose
Life is all about purpose. We want to feel that we are contributing to something that is bigger than ourselves. We want to feel part of a positive force that makes an impact in the world. Whether that’s for other organizations, for customers, colleagues or for society. We need to feel that we are more than a small cog in a big machine. We want to see that our day to day work contributes to something good. That’s why Happyholics made this topic central in their survey.
Frank: “The topic around purpose led to interesting discussions. We all agree that we find it important to contribute to the mission of the company as well as to our own purpose in life. Our shared values and a common vision is the base for internal and external projects, collaboration and personal goals. This is why we decided to dive deeper into the topic of our ‘Why’ in the coming months.”
“I want to help our customers advance in their digitization, so they sustainably improve their future. And while doing that, I automatically contribute to the future of Talent Peaks and myself.” *)
Growth
Itamar: “Growth is a driver for personal happiness. It’s the machine which makes sure all the other pillars can advance and improve. As human beings we want to feel that we are developing. And we need that development within our work environment. Not just regarding skills. We are talking about professional AND personal growth. This is how we become the best and happiest person we can be… and how powerful is it that an organization facilitates this.
Frank: “The fact that we are growing fast, also has its impact on the employee experience. At the start, we were with a small group of professionals. Lines were short, everyone was instantly informed and involved in all projects at all times. Now, since we left the StartUp phase and steadily entered the Growth phase, we face the challenge of streamlining our business processes, optimizing the structures, while at the same time maintain flexible and personal. We saw that one clearly come back in our survey as well: we all want to grow and professionalize, but also stay lean and mean, without getting hierarchical. This is always a challenge.”
“My personal mission is to internalize as many different business processes as possible. So I can be a multi-purpose expert who can valuably advise any company. And do all this together with fun colleagues with whom I can laugh and learn.” *)
Reach out and meet us
Would you like to get a deeper insight in what our unique DNA means for customers, prospects and candidates? Reach out personally to one of our Talent Peakers.
*) Since the survey was carried out anonymously, we weren’t able to assign names to the quote. But take a look at our team. Perhaps you can guess who is responsible for which quote 😉
