{"id":34697,"date":"2023-10-20T14:34:34","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/happy-to-be-here-staff-get-a-chance-to-say-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:34:34","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:34:34","slug":"happy-to-be-here-staff-get-a-chance-to-say-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/happy-to-be-here-staff-get-a-chance-to-say-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy to be here? Staff get a chance to say – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Making sure all employees are happy should be a key concern in all startups, Bigcommerce co-founder Mitchell Harper says.<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s the reasoning behind the 2014 BRW<\/i> Young Rich List entrepreneur\u2019s latest startup which launched this week.<\/p>\n

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PeopleSpark is an online platform that allows managers to better monitor their workers\u2019 job satisfaction.<\/p>\n

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Harper points to the likes of Atlassian and Uber as startups that have fostered a positive office culture from the outset, and are now reaping the rewards, and wants the PeopleSpark tool to help other startups achieve this.<\/p>\n

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The platform asks employees to give weekly feedback about their job from a computer or mobile phone. Harper says it\u2019ll provide companies with a more accurate measure of their employees\u2019 wellbeing.<\/p>\n

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Satisfying staff is good for business<\/h3>\n

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Harper says employee welfare was always a consideration when founding Bigcommerce.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhether you are a tech startup in Sydney or whether you\u2019re running a BnB in the Hunter Valley, you want to make sure you\u2019ve got happy and healthy people,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe most important thing about the trajectory of Bigcommerce was who we hired and how we empowered them. We gave the receptionist just as much chance to voice their view as the VP of marketing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Harper says he wishes there was a tool like PeopleSpark available when he was starting Bigcommerce, saying it would\u2019ve helped create a stronger bond between managers and their team.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe had issues with managers who were cancerous,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe lost some good people as a result of not finding out about problems until it was too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

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PeopleSpark\u2019s weekly surveys mean employee concerns can be detected and addressed quicker than the more traditional annual and quarterly staff surveys.<\/p>\n

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Comparing his product to Instagram and Facebook Messenger, Harper says if people can use instant messaging and photo sharing apps to deliver information instantaneously, then staff surveys can also be distributed and completed this way.<\/p>\n

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Already sparking interest<\/h3>\n

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Real estate agent website OpenAgent has been using PeopleSpark for around two months.<\/p>\n

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Co-CEO Marta Higuera says the tool offered the company an easy solution to what is otherwise a labour-intensive task.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019d been talking about doing this for over a year, but we couldn\u2019t be bothered. It went in the too-hard basket,\u201d Higuera says<\/p>\n

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But she says PeopleSpark is an \u201cincredible\u201d tool that has immediately given her insight into how OpenAgent\u2019s personnel feel about their workplace.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s a conversation starter,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt puts the right things on the radar.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Harper says bosses can\u2019t address all their employees\u2019 concerns but should instead look for trends across their team, something PeopleSpark\u2019s analytics function allows.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf one out of 10 says \u2018I don\u2019t like the way we do x\u2019, it\u2019s probably not a priority, but if 7\/10 say they don\u2019t like \u2018x\u2019, then you can address it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut just by using the product, you do what 95% of company\u2019s don\u2019t: give them a voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

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However, Higuera says its management\u2019s response to staff concerns that really counts. If employees don\u2019t feel their voice is being heard, they\u2019ll walk away.<\/p>\n

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Just how honest should you be?<\/h3>\n

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Harper has a similar outlook. He encourages employees to be brutally honest when they have to be, but prefers constructive feedback.<\/p>\n

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Higuera says her company is a straight-shooting one, valuing those that \u201ctell it like it is\u201d without being nasty and the surveys haven\u2019t been a burden on her staff.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s truly user-friendly. People have compared it to Facebook because it has a really nice look and feel,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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Harper says the product is fitted with emoji and gif support to have the feel of Instagram or Twitter.<\/p>\n

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If Harper gets his way, there\u2019ll soon be a lot more people sharing what they think with their bosses. He\u2019s aiming to transform the workplace experience of 1 million employees with PeopleSpark, as well as improving leadership inside their companies.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI plan on making good managers great leaders,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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Do you know more on this story or have a tip of your own? Raising capital or launching a startup? Let us know. Follow StartupSmart on <\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/a>, <\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>, and <\/i>LinkedIn<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Making sure all employees are happy should be a key concern in all startups, Bigcommerce co-founder Mitchell Harper says. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34697"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}