How Kollmorgen works agile to create an engaging work environment

Kollmorgen is a company that works with automated transport solutions. The global company is part of a group with thousands of employees. An engaged team is important for Kollmorgen, which focuses on working agile by picking up trends in real-time and then making decisions based on this data.

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Real-time insights make it easier to act

Kollmorgen started using Winningtemp about two years ago. Before Winningtemp, it was often difficult to identify trends in real-time to understand what could be improved and why.

"The problem areas and challenges revolved around the delay in engagement measurements, making it difficult to act quickly when it took time to get the data," says Martin.

Kollmorgen discusses problem areas through employee dialogues. Every three or four weeks, Martin's team looks at the results in Winningtemp. They then choose an area to focus on, either one where they are strong or where things can be improved. The team gathers to discuss what the desired state would look like and where they would like to be. Martin usually splits the team into pairs to first discuss how the best of all worlds would look. Then they regroup and hold a briefing.

By discussing the situation based on the data, you get a very good understanding of how your colleagues think. It's rare that everyone thinks the same way. The value of the data we collect in Winningtemp lies greatly in the discussions and dialogues among employees.

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Trends show what can be improved and why

Kollmorgen has an annual employee survey that goes out to everyone in the group. Winningtemp offers the company a convenient tool to measure engagement and see development over time, rather than waiting for annual survey results. In a global team spread across Europe, the USA, and China, an agile mindset is important to pick up on trends.

"We work agile, and being able to run regular measurements is valuable to us," says Martin. "We have also been able to link the large survey with the Winningtemp questions, so you can see what similarities there are. This also allows us to follow trends linked to another system. In this way, we have been able to use the data that already exists."

Martin explains that the data the company collects can be used in different ways.

"For example, we can use it when planning organizational changes in my team. You can use it to ask team members to be careful to enter data and answer questions so that if we make changes, we can follow the trends. If something then becomes worse than it was before, we will be able to see when and how it happened. For example, in my team, we had working methods that we tested and felt were not very good. The signs and information were there in Winningtemp, even if it wasn't the whole answer. The lesson was that we should use the data and talk about it when we get indications."

Generally, employees stay longer at Kollmorgen than at other employers. A concrete example of how Kollmorgen used data to increase engagement and reduce the risk of high staff turnover during the COVID-19 crisis. Martin explains:

"With the current situation, you notice that some things go down. The employees who normally travel a lot and help customers in the field, we haven't been able to perform that task in the past year. If you have the expectation when you are hired to do that, engagement can easily go down. Then we can talk about the areas that have been affected and ask employees how they would like it to be. Several say they would like to work more practically. Then we have been able to rethink and do our best to find tasks in the local area by asking our customers if we can come in and help them. Then you have to be okay with engagement going down and that you can't fully influence the situation."

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Working proactively is the key to continued results

Kollmorgen doesn't stop actively working for a good work environment even though engagement looks good.

"We are around the index as a company, and it's something we should be happy with, but we don't stop working on this just because of that," says Martin.

Winningtemp is part of that work.

"I would recommend Winningtemp because you can have an agile approach to employee engagement. You can follow up and talk about how you would like it to look if engagement were at its peak, and you can follow up on trends and see how they change over time."