Work Environment and Employee Satisfaction

We recently spoke to Aaron, of JUX Law Firm. A law office based in Minneapolis, U.S.A. that has installed the Celpax device to measure employee morale.

We spoke about how big changes in the law office recently had left the office with a lack of participation.

You might have read this article where we spoke about the changes Aaron’s firm went through.

Here’s a quick recap if you haven’t;

Aaron’s firm reevaluated their core values and saw some staff leaving and many new staff starting all at once.

These changes left the law firm preoccupied.

And employee engagement fell off the radar.

This left a large part of the new staff totally new to the Celpax and the existing staff not bothering to press the Celpax.

This is not something new to us, we’ve heard similar stories from other users.

One of the ways our successful users have increased participation is to start by reintroducing the Celpax and talking in meetings about how people feel at work.

What has made people press green lately? And red?

When asked if this was something he considered doing, Aaron gave me an interesting answer;

“I don’t want to start talking about our current results in meetings because I don’t know if people are actually participating and I’m not sure how credible our results are.”

In fact, this is a common misunderstanding. Our studies show workplaces should have a participation level of at least 10% for an accurate reading.

You could assume that low participation means that you simply can’t get a read on the office mood.

No responses = no data.

However, one thing to consider is that no pressing is a response.

What are employees telling you if they aren’t pressing?

Cultural fit

It could be a disconnect on cultural fit.

Scott, a user from Zerorez talked about the importance of hiring for cultural fit, “We do a lot of hiring” says the COO at Zerorez, busy building a strong corporate culture.

“Our employee retention made us realize we had to put more emphasis on our values while hiring”.

If employees are not actively participating with the Celpax, it could be that they aren’t on board with the company’s values and goals when it comes to employee mood.

Like Scott mentioned, it’s possible that this could result in high turnover. Even Aaron saw this occur when the law firm decided to revise their core values.

It’s easy to pin it on apathy but it might be more complicated- perhaps employees aren’t even aware that they should be doing something. This could be a breakdown in the training process.

Take Aaron’s case for example, with the turnover, newer employees might be indicating that they are simply unaware of the Celpax.

The most common reason for low participation is… not acting and sharing the results

Employees could be sending the message that they don’t think anyone is on the other side of the Celpax, listening to their feedback.

One of the things we’ve seen in the past is that some employees stop pressing, simply because they think, ‘why bother?’.

If no one is discussing the Celpax or the results, or even the office mood for that matter, then it’s easy to assume that no one cares about the work environment and employee satisfaction.

So why bother pressing?

These are all possibilities. But don’t take our word for it!

It’s important to ask the right question to your employees: why aren’t they pressing?

As our user Levi pointed out here, you need to uncover the truth behind the data by speaking with employees, don’t just jump to conclusions.

Having an understanding of what’s behind the numbers can help you get back on track on the road to increasing employee engagement.

Speaking of getting back on track, if you’re looking for resources to help relaunch your Celpax, why not get in touch? We can give best practice advice.

Firstly, check out our Communication Templates.

Secondly, read more on How to Improve Your Employee Morale Results.

Measure if your leadership actions are working.