How To Succeed At Employee Engagement: Interview With Handy Networks

Congratulations to Handy Networks, the winner of the 2015 TINYpulse Raising The Bar Award! Not only did they lead the category for their Technology/Software industry, but they are also the overall winner across all industries.

The Raising The Bar Award recognizes the company with the most improved employee happiness scores. So if there’s any company that’s dedicated to employee engagement and satisfaction, it’s Handy Networks. Anthony Francis, Hosting Support Manager at Handy Networks, talked with us about the organization and how they succeed at making their people happy.

1. Tell us about some of the great things you do in your workplace that keep employees engaged and energized.

We always provide feedback to every suggestion and comment that our employees make. If we are not going to implement a suggestion, we tell them why.

One of the better suggestions a staff member made for team building was monthly happy hour staff meetings. We have implemented this and use the time to discuss issues and get to know each other better.

We have promoted the use of the Cheers for Peers feature by using it ourselves to give staff members words of encouragement so that they know how good it feels to receive the cheers, and thus are more likely to submit cheers for others and generally improve overall morale and camaraderie.

2. Tell us a little bit about what your company does and why employee engagement is so important to you.

We are a data center that specializes in web hosting. We want our employees to care about what they do and how they do it. One of the key elements to this is showing them that we care about them. TINYpulse is an excellent tool for this purpose.

3. How do you discuss your survey results with your employees? What have you gained from these discussions?

At our monthly staff meetings! We have gained a deeper understanding of what our employees’ expectations are and the key areas that we need to improve on in order to foster growth and build our team.

4. What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about your employees from your TINYpulse surveys?

That we needed to be even more transparent. We have largely done this and most of our employees are happy with our progress! The most surprising thing I have personally learned is how much appreciation staff have for what we were already doing.

5. How do you maintain engagement for employees during times of change and/or difficulty?

Constant communications. If no one is speaking out, that means it is time to start asking questions and finding the real pulse of the staff. When feedback numbers on TINYpulse start dropping, we work to remind folks that the tool exists and the reasons why it is so important.

Thank you to Anthony and Handy Networks for sharing their story! Keep an eye out for more interviews with TINYpulse award winners.

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