Context
A number of employers underestimate the financial impact that mental illness and poor organisational culture has on their bottom-line. Poor work culture as well as mental illness in the workplace leads to decreased productivity, increased sick-related absenteeism, poor work quality, loss of key staff and even compromised workplace safety. Despite the significant financial loss to employers, many of these crucial issues fly below the radar in the workplace and go unnoticed by leaders.
Untreated mental disorders cost our economy more than R35 billion each year, with one in six South Africans suffering from depression or some form of mental disorder within their lifetime. Furthermore, bullying, conflict, unreasonable hours / demands, overt sexism, and racism are all clear signs that the culture of an organisation is potentially toxic and likely that productivity and the well-being of people in the organisation are affected. During this unprecedented period of change and increasing financial constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative that staff feel engaged, valued and supported at work, in order to protect against mental illness as well as to encourage a healthy organisational culture. Therefore, it is more crucial than ever for leaders to listen closely and deeply to staff feelings and issues, which directly impact their everyday experience within the organisation and the organisation itself. Designing and maintaining structured, well-organised, and deliberate opportunities for employees to share their honest thoughts is an absolute necessity to create an atmosphere where a workforce feels valued, connected and engaged, and enables leaders to be far more in-tune with all dynamics and possible risks within their teams and organisation.
Our solution
Sentience Health was founded as a response to this identified need. A team
of clinical psychologists and technology specialists combined their
expertise to develop an innovative and proactive programme and service to
gain insight into employee wellness as well as obtain employee feedback
around organisational issues and needs. Sentience Health, has used a
unique combination of psychology and technology to create an employee
feedback program to serve as an effective platform to allow leaders to
hear directly from staff and gain insight into organisational culture as
well as monitor staff wellness. Without open employee feedback, management
might not even be aware of issues that could be eroding employee
productivity and negatively impacting workplace relationships and culture.
Effective guidelines and courses of action can be generated based on the themes of psychologically analysed feedback captured by the employee feedback systems. Deeply rooted in psychological theory and practice, Sentience Health’s approach recognises employee experiences collected during employee feedback programs can often be limited in their range of openness due to fear of being misinterpreted, judged for their personal feelings and opinions as well as fear of negative repercussions based on the honesty of their opinions and feelings. Therefore, Sentience Health has developed and used the latest technology to allow for anonymity of employees in providing feedback. This, therefore allows employees to state and vent their true and honest feelings, which might otherwise be difficult to openly discuss or ‘unknown’ altogether.
Providing staff complete anonymity not only provides a cathartic venting experience for employees but also enables the responses provided to inform and effectively shape organisational policies, procedures and interventions. Sentience Health’s anonymous employee feedback programme ensures maximum engagement with employees. Psychological analysis of feedback allows for leaders to gain insight into unknown dynamics affecting the organisation's culture or potential mental health issues and the risks that may be facing employees, thus allowing for necessary intervention to take place
Effective guidelines and courses of action can be generated based on the themes of psychologically analysed feedback captured by the employee feedback systems. Deeply rooted in psychological theory and practice, Sentience Health’s approach recognises employee experiences collected during employee feedback programs can often be limited in their range of openness due to fear of being misinterpreted, judged for their personal feelings and opinions as well as fear of negative repercussions based on the honesty of their opinions and feelings. Therefore, Sentience Health has developed and used the latest technology to allow for anonymity of employees in providing feedback. This, therefore allows employees to state and vent their true and honest feelings, which might otherwise be difficult to openly discuss or ‘unknown’ altogether.
Providing staff complete anonymity not only provides a cathartic venting experience for employees but also enables the responses provided to inform and effectively shape organisational policies, procedures and interventions. Sentience Health’s anonymous employee feedback programme ensures maximum engagement with employees. Psychological analysis of feedback allows for leaders to gain insight into unknown dynamics affecting the organisation's culture or potential mental health issues and the risks that may be facing employees, thus allowing for necessary intervention to take place