For business owners and managers, running a successful company depends on a lot of factors: productivity, organization, marketing, quality products, and customer service, just to name a few. But one factor important to company success that can often be overlooked is team communication and happy employees.
SaaS provider 15Five aims to solve that problem with its constant employee feedback and communication system. The system gives business owners a snapshot of the inner-workings of their company from their employees’ perspective within a cloud-based platform, while helping employees feel happy and engaged with their company.
CEO of 15Five, David Hassell, said:
“No employee is going to care about their work if they don’t first feel that the company cares about them and values their contribution. Putting a system like 15Five in place immediately sends a message to employees that their input is valued, that the company wants to hear their ideas, support them with their challenges, and make sure they’re happy and engaged.”
The company, which just completed a $1 million seed-funding round to improve its product development and marketing, is so named because it takes employees about 15 minutes to fill out the feedback form and just 5 minutes for supervisors or business owners to review their responses.
Each week, employees fill out a short feedback form that includes updates on success, issues, morale and ideas for improvement. Then managers or supervisors review the short reports and round up the important points into their own reports, engaging in conversations with employees if necessary. Those supervisors can then pass along the highlights of these reports to the business owner or CEO. The photo above shows a small snapshot of employee feedback and updates.
The company says that the benefits to this program include informed CEOs, improved communication throughout the entire company, minimal time commitment from supervisors, and employees that feel valued and happy with their workplace.
Said Hassell:
“We’re now inundated with more and more communication and information these days, but quality of that information is declining. Gathering continuous feedback like this in an efficient manner that doesn’t take much time or effort makes sure that everyone always stays focused on what’s most important.”
Hassell said that what sets 15Five apart from other systems for employee feedback is its simplistic approach. Many other systems require managers to create surveys or other forms that allow for limited responses, while 15Five gives employees the freedom to offer unique ideas or other feedback. It also opens up constant communication channels so that supervisors can get regular updates instead of only getting answers to questions when they are asked.
The system costs $49 per month for the first 10 people and $5 per month for each additional person, with volume discounting available for larger companies. The company also offers a 4-week free trial.
15Five was originally founded in May 2011 and the system launched in March 2012. This latest round of funding comes from Richmond Global and several additional investors including 500 Startups.
Because the needs and ethos of various companies differ, so will techniques they will employ and the resources they would have available to pursue employee communication/engagement. Ultimately, a lot of the decisions companies take would depend on the amount of business funds a company has at its disposal, and this becomes even more glaring in a recession-economy. 15Five’s offering is nonetheless a useful and invariably affordable inexpensive initiative for the majority of businesses.
What a great way to celebrate the accomplishments of individuals and the team. At Kira Talent we are constantly finding ways to track and celebrate the accomplishments of our team.