Our Guides

Your organisation wants to prioritise employee engagement and build a workplace experience your people really love. Exciting!

Now you’ve been tasked with researching employee engagement tool vendors and building the business case for investment. It’s true that making the case for new technology can be tough, especially against a challenging financial backdrop.

But a great business case makes investment feel like an easy decision.

In this interactive workbook, we’ll walk you through an easy four-stage process to build a business case. Throughout you’ll find practical exercises to work through and cheat-sheets with data and guidance to bolster your case.

You'll learn how to:

• Lead with the need to show how your proposed technology helps address your biggest challenges or capitalise on your biggest opportunities
• Outline possible solutions and analyse the different approaches you could take
• Grade your preferred vendors in order to narrow down the options and present a shortlist
• Detail next steps including implementations
• And more!

Winningtemp recently launched five new question categories to enhance our employee surveys and ensure they reflect the new challenges faced by organisations since the pandemic.  

In fact, the sudden shift to remote work did not hurt performance as many leaders had feared, and many employees excelled in remote settings. But as time passed, new struggles with mental health and well-being surfaced. Organisational issues became more common – budget cuts, poor economic outlook, hybrid working models, scarce and expensive talent, to name a few.  

We asked ourselves: are our employee surveys keeping pace in such a fast-changing environment?  

With our vision of helping our customers to succeed together, we identified a need to develop new survey question categories which allow progressive organisations to gather feedback and employee insight on:

- Psychological safety

- Cross-functional collaboration

- Person-job fit

- Transparency  

- Subjective well-being

Once again, these new science-based categories are the result of our extensive collaboration with PhD researcher Leif Denti from the University of Gothenburg. Our efforts allowed us to understand more about what data really matters when it comes to predicting employee behaviour.

This white paper aims to define the categories and compile the research literature on the predictive ability of the categories in relation to different types of outcomes and effects on psychosocial health and the psychosocial work environment. The focus has been on various types of outcomes including employee turnover, sick leave, performance, commitment, job satisfaction, customer satisfaction.

The outcomes predicted by the five new categories are summarised in this white paper.

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Our 2023 Calendar is the perfect tool to help you keep track of the employee engagement dates every HR professional should know, such as awareness days, holidays and other special occasions.

Filled with top tips to help you boost engagement and retention, it allows you to stay one step ahead and promote employee wellbeing while improving company culture.

You’ll get:

- A detailed overview of the most relevant engagement dates throughout the year in a clear and vibrant layout

- Practical ideas on how you can use these days to plan engagement initiatives

- And more!

Inside you’ll learn eight practical tips to build a culture of feedback—eight actionable tactics you can adopt right now, to build a happier, higher-performing team that trusts and respects you as a manager.

Read the guide now to learn:

- How to deliver difficult feedback constructively

- Why you should show your own vulnerability as a manager

- The warning signs that an underlying issue is about to explode

- A way to make 1:1s less time-consuming but more valuable

And much more…

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Alongside 60 example questions for your annual survey, our guide will also cover the key areas which should be in your annual survey:

• Flexible work
• Diversity and inclusion
  
• Professional development
  
• And more
  

Strengthen your employee experience and improve performance. Start reading to learn how.

‍What's inside?

• Exclusive Winningtemp data showing how the pandemic has impacted engagement and stress levels over the past two years.  
• Examples of solutions companies have put in place to avoid burnout and boost engagement.
• Break downs of hot engagement & wellness trends like the 4-day work week, office nap pods, and mandated paid leave.
• Innovative ideas to support personal development and a sense of purpose amongst your employees.
• ...and a lot more!

LIFT ENGAGEMENT & WELLBEING

‍About the guide

In this guide, we review and explain the science behind 9 factors that we at Winningtemp developed together with PhD Leif Denti at the University of Gothenburg. We provide specific suggestions about what you can do to implement each of these factors in your organisation, to support better performance, increased motivation, and a higher level of effectiveness.

You will learn about:

• How different types of leadership impact employees
• How autonomy can enhance creativity
• Why personal growth is so important for wellbeing
• How you can increase employee participation
• Why your employees' wellbeing depends on their work situation
• How to maximise job satisfaction
• Why team spirit is the key to success
• How meaningfulness can increase business success

Research studies show that:

• Companies that focus on wellbeing can increase their profitability by 25%.
• Organisations with an engaged workforce are 21% more profitable.
• Companies that invest in employee experience are twice as innovative, have twice as satisfied customers and 25% higher profitability.

Download our free guide and start implementing the science-based keys to a thriving and effective organisation.

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Success Through People - the factors

The transport and logistics industry continues to play an integral role in supplying the country with essential goods and services during a worldwide pandemic. As many industries were forced to close indefinitely, logistics companies have conversely been working harder than ever before to meet the increased demands placed upon them.

Transportation and logistics companies also continue to experience problems in recruiting and retaining talent. This is in large part because they are not seen as employers of choice. Employer brand, particularly within SMEs needs to be proactively managed if the sector is to attract the right employees for the future. In 2020, the DfT reported that the sector employed over 2 million people in the UK, roughly 8% of the total workforce. Despite this, new entrants and those looking for a change of career often do not consider a career in transportation and logistics, simply because they are not aware of its size or importance. There is also a general lack of awareness regarding the broad range of careers available in the sector. Supervisory roles often prove particularly problematic to fill and general managerial skills are at a premium.

In the following industry overview, we discuss these challenges and each of the 9 factors that science has shown to determine success through people. Join us as we explore these in the context of the unique challenges currently being faced by employers in the transportation and logistics sector.

Success Through People - the factors

The food manufacturing and processing sector is undoubtedly experiencing some of the biggest repercussions from the Covid-19 pandemic. As the UK prepares to return to some form of ‘normal’ life, Deloitte report that an overwhelming number of employees are planning to spend only 2 days a week in the office confines.

Issues that were already concerns for the food industry, particularly around employee safety, productivity and talent retention have only been exacerbated by the COVID 19 pandemic. Change has accelerated and a recent survey by Food Industry Executive found that 72.5% of food manufacturing and processing businesses report having had to adapt their business strategy or operations in response. In order to emerge from the current situation in a better position than before, the sector must be successful in dealing with a number of HR challenges.

In the following industry overview, we discuss these challenges and each of the 9 factors that science has shown to determine success through people. Join us as we explore these in the context of the unique challenges currently being faced by employers in the food manufacturing and processing sector.

"Employee engagement and wellbeing are key to organisational and employee success."

The global pandemic brought disruptions to the usual patterns of working for most. How can HR help to create new ways of working that benefit both employees and employers? How can employees achieve a good work-life balance and feel strongly connected to their teams?

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Build a reputation for being leaders that listen

Discover the impact that Covid-19 has had on employee engagement and what you can do to support your people throughout the ongoing pandemic, and beyond. Here’s a glimpse of the topics we’re covering inside this eBook:

• The mental health and wellbeing effects of your people from Covid-19
• Effective leadership in times of crisis
• Work-life balance amidst a global pandemic
• Why compassion is your biggest Covid ally

and more insights into how a global pandemic has turned employee engagement on its head shining a spotlight on what’s most important, our people and how we can possibly go forward from here.

Relatable began life in 2016 as a small company with big ambitions; they are now established across continents stretching from London, to Stockholm, New York to LA.

With an $11m annual turnover Relatable understands what is at the very heart of a successful business. For them, it is unequivocally, the people. Integral to their rapid success was the belief that if they invested in their people, the rewards and growth would come too. That meant truly looking into the company itself with an unrelenting honesty and openness that allows for conversations and trust to develop. For feedback that is not only encouraged but eagerly anticipated.
To disrupt a business model that has scarcely changed for centuries is brave and it is bold. But this is a new world that we are part of, and the business models of yesterday are no longer enough to survive, let alone thrive.

Effective leadership, enhanced wellbeing, and an environment that stimulates innovation are integral to any business. What binds them together, and what Relatable recognised from the outset, are humans.

THE RESEARCH BEHIND WINNINGTEMP'S SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

About the whitepaper

We have identified 60 factors divided into 9 categories that are important to keep track of, amongst other things, to predict staff turnover and sick leave.

• Autonomy
• Leadership
• Job Satisfaction
• Meaningfulness
• Work Situation
• Participation
• Personal Development
• Team Spirit
• Engagement

Inside the whitepaper:

• An account of predictive validity - and why it has been the main focus when the question batteries were selected for Winningtemp's model.
• An account of distal and proximal factors - and why it is important to keep track of them.
• How Winningtemp's 9 categories correlate to predicting sick leave and staff turnover.
  

MODERN PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

‍Practice ongoing conversations

Discard the tradition annual/bi-annual performance reviews and make the process more dynamic for increased engagement and productivity. Being agile and flexible in your approach enables you to connect with your people on various levels and crucial touchpoints to provide a smooth employee experience throughout their lifecycle.

Ongoing conversations and systematic progress updates help both the manager and the team members work more efficiently and with better focus. On the other hand, employees feel heard and they feel invested in the success of the organisation as a whole.

Segment one-on-ones into different types of dialogues based on their purpose and duration and choose the right talking points to get the conversation going.

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ART AND SCIENCE BEHIND OKR

‍Objectives and Key Results

“Every company needs to interpret and adopt OKR differently. What worked for Google may not work for others, so it’s pointless to try and copy how Google used OKR, but rather draw inspiration from their way of thinking and customise OKR to the needs of your company.”

- Cecilia Westerholm Beer, CHRO at Bisnode.

Cecilia, and other modern HR professionals who believe in the agile way of working and driving the business forward, resort to OKR to align the entire organisation with one common purpose - the business objectives that matter.

To understand the art and science of OKR, and most importantly, how it can be adopted by SMBs and large enterprises of varied capabilities, we sat down with Cecilia for multiple knowledge-sharing sessions.

What's inside

Learn from the experienced team who succeeded in implementing OKRs into a traditional organisation. Here's a glimpse of the topics we're covering:

• The OKR framework with examples and templates
• Why getting executive sign-in is of utmost importance
• The effect of OKR on company culture
• The OKR magic that Bisnode witnessed
• The challenges of goal-setting
• How the hierarchy affects OKR
• The connection between OKR and incentives
• How to get rid of irrelevant OKRs
• How to implement CFR (Conversation, feedback, and recognition)
• When to drop OKRs

and more insights into how different organisations, irrespective of industry, size, growth rate, and capabilities can implement OKR by tweaking and tailoring the ideology to suit their needs.

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AGILE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

‍Transform your employee experience

Employee disengagement is costing businesses across the globe billions, every single year. In a Hays survey of 2,000 employees, almost half (43%) said they’re looking for a new job, and corporate culture was the main reason.

The financial damage is staggering.

Catalyst found that for entry and mid-level positions, the cost to replace an employee is between 30% and 150% of their annual salary. For executives, this figure can rise to 400%.

Put simply, it is critical to the company that every aspect of performance management is taken seriously. Company culture, employee mental health and the sheer survival of the business depend on it. Read the guide to dig deeper into the integral factors that contribute to a modern and agile performance management framework.

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THE KEY TO PRODUCTIVITY AND GROWTH

Employee Engagement

According to Gallup, disengaged employees cost organisations between $450 and $550 billion annually. Unhappy employees who are stressed, burned out, under-appreciated, bullied, or distracted are naturally not productive. They do not associate themselves with the company's vision and feel less accountable for their actions. On the other hand, employees who are engaged are willing to go that extra mile and reach their potential. They consider the organisation's goals as their own and are deeply invested in its success.

Keep your talented workforce engaged and proactive by building stronger relationships, acknowledging their efforts, and providing them with the right tools needed for their personal growth and success. Implement these seven crucial yet low-cost strategies to start fostering a happier, more productive and engaged workplace.

Scrap the annual employee surveys

The age-old annual employee satisfaction surveys have been rendered meaningless in this rapidly shifting labour market. Managers struggle to glean insights from the outdated data collected through these surveys and most of the time, the results end up in a never-to-be-seen-again pile of irrelevant information. It's time for organisations to leave this old practice behind and use modern, automated tools to understand their employees better and work on issues that affect their experience and satisfaction, in real-time. With ready-to-use insights and suggestions in their arsenal, managers can address any dissatisfaction, keep track of employee development, and eliminate any threats that can affect the well-being of the organisation.

In this guide, we are going deep into

• The factors that affect employee experience
• The correlation between employee experience and profitability
• The role of HR in improving the employee experience
• How promoting the culture of transparency, meaningfulness, and regular feedback cycles can boost employee spirit

What's inside

Understand how positive employee experience can lead to a more productive workplace where every employee performs to the best of their capabilities to improve the business bottom line.

• Factors that affect employee experience
• How positive employee experience generates profitability
• How HR can improve the employee experience
• How Google works to create a meaningful employee experience
• The role of OKR and modern goal management
• How leaders can get better at providing feedback

and more insights into how factors such as transparency and meaningfulness help improve job satisfaction and reduce the attrition rate.

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Small talk, deep talk... it's all there! Learn about your colleagues from fun angles and build the foundations of some awesome working relationships.

PREVIEW! A few of the question squares:

• Ask a colleague what they are looking forward to the most this year
• Book a time to have coffee with a colleague from a different department
• Ask a colleague who their biggest role model is
• Find a colleague who likes to create home-made holiday gifts

Success Through People - the factors

Staffing challenges in domiciliary healthcare are compounded by direct competition for talent from the NHS as well as the private sector. In many cases, alternative employers can offer more regular working patterns and less anti-social hours. They may also be able to offer higher wages and better benefits. The highly skilled staff who take care of some of the most vulnerable people in society often do so on the minimum wage. In the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic, which has placed unprecedented pressures on everyone, there is increasing recognition that caring professions have historically been under-valued and under-rewarded. Despite this, the recruitment and retention challenges affecting the sector are likely to persist at least for the short to medium term. With pre-COVID annual turnover rates of nearly 39% in the sector, employee churn is likely to be a pressing issue for many years to come.

For the first time, a spotlight has been shone upon the sector, highlighting these obstacles, and the challenging conditions people continue to work under. COVID 19 and the combined ill-timing of Brexit, has meant this already severely strained sector, is now at breaking point.

In the following industry overview, we discuss these challenges and each of the 9 factors that science has shown to determine success through people. Join us as we explore these in the context of the unique challenges currently being faced by employers in the healthcare sector.

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Success Through People - the factors

More than one year into the pandemic, the pharmaceutical industry continues to play an essential role in the response against the virus. Alongside developing tests and vaccines against the coronavirus, the industry has also had to consider and respond to other areas affected by the pandemic. For instance, ensuring medical supplies and treatments unrelated to Coronavirus continue to reach patients has been of the upmost importance.

But pharmacists, as extraordinary as they are, are not super-human and for many, the pandemic has taken its toll. A study by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and the charity, Pharmacist Support, found that the pandemic has had a significant and detrimental impact on the wellbeing of the pharmaceutical workforce.

Burnout and mental health concerns are becoming significantly more prevalent with 72% of people admitting that their work is having a negative impact on their mental wellbeing. Additionally, more than one-third (34%) said they had considered leaving the pharmacy profession because of the stress caused by the pandemic, with 89% stating they were close to burnout.

Furthermore, for organisations in the Pharmaceutical sector, the war for talent isn’t just with other similar employers, it is a global battle against organisations across a range of sectors, tech companies and startups. Faced with a scarcity of key skills, companies that fail to focus on the latest people management practices will fall behind. The traditional transactional HR needs to be replaced by a more strategic function. Focus must be on reskilling in response to technological disruption while maximising the quality of employee experience, involvement and engagement.

In the following industry overview, we discuss these challenges and each of the 9 factors that science has shown to determine success through people. Join us as we explore these in the context of the unique challenges currently being faced by employers in the pharmaceutical sector.

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Success Through People - the factors

The shift to e-commerce, which was underway well before the COVID 19 pandemic, has greatly accelerated due to the prolonged closure of high street retailers. In 2020, UK Retail e-commerce exceeded 30% of total retail sales, a massive 35% increase from 2019. There is little doubt that these changes will be irreversible. This means that the required skill profile of employees in the retail sector has changed for ever, with the need for traditional sales roles greatly reduced and a range of more niche expertise in high demand.

Furthermore, the increased amount of people shopping online has put significant strain on retailers and e-commerce platforms. Throughout 2020 there were multiple occasions when supermarket apps simply could not cope with the demands of the population vying for scant deliveries slots.

In the following industry overview, we discuss these challenges and each of the 9 factors that science has shown to determine success through people. Join us as we explore these in the context of the unique challenges currently being faced by employers in the online retail sector.

Success Through People - the factors

Working within the private healthcare sector has not been without its challenges this past year. A contentious subject at times, any disputes between the NHS and private hospitals were set aside in early 2020 as the Government pledged to secure extra bed space for patients affected by the pandemic.

Overall, few sectors have seen the shocking consequences that Coronavirus can have to human life as those working within healthcare. Fatigued and displaying signs of distress, the BMJ (British Medical Journal) warn that healthcare workers are at increased risk of moral injury and mental health problems due to working at the forefront of the pandemic.

The way that Private Acute Hospitals operate in future will change radically. While the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the invaluable role that staff across the healthcare system play, an aging population and the enormous backlog caused by COVID 19 both mean the NHS increasingly needs to work with the independent sector to take on a proportion of the workload. Even before the pandemic, bed occupancy rates in NHS hospitals were high and the additional capacity and the expertise of independent providers will need to become part of a holistic and integrated system of care. With every day of the pandemic the backlog continues to grow.

In the following industry overview, we discuss these challenges and each of the 9 factors that science has shown to determine success through people. Join us as we explore these in the context of the unique challenges currently being faced by employers in the private acute hospitals sector.

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