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Avalon Innovation use digital HR solutions from Simployer
With humble entrepreneurship and business plans with HR metrics, Avalon Innovation thrives in an industry with tough competition for employees.
Avalon Innovation is a different kind of consulting company. They develop its clients' products. Spread across eleven locations throughout Sweden, they assist industrial companies with all parts of the development cycle. The Avalonians, as they call their consultants, have expert in areas such as mechanics, industrial design, system development, and project management.
– We will not become the largest company, but we always want to be the best company. Being the best involves solutions for customers, how people thrive in the company, the type of leadership we have, work environment, and corporate culture, explains Johanna Bergquist, Head of People & Culture at Avalon Innovation.
"If engagement decreases at Avalon, it reflects in poorer customer satisfaction too."
Johanna Bergquist | Head of People & Culture | Avalon Innovation
Successful CEO
Among Avalon's guiding principles is humble entrepreneurship. In 2022, this led CEO Helene Högberg to be nominated as CEO of the Year by the leadership site Motivation.
– Innovation is crucial for us in everything we do. Even in the HR team, we constantly seek new, innovative solutions to our problems, says Bergquist.
One of the solutions for Avalon Innovation has been to purchase Simployer Employee Surveys, in the app named &frankly.
– Everything is great with &frankly! We had a pulse survey tool before, but it was a classic employee survey once a year, which required a lot of HR effort to manage these surveys, says Bergquist.
Thus, Avalon Innovation embarked on the journey to find a new tool. Bergquist explains:
– Employee engagement has always been important, but &frankly has made it incredibly easier. It has a user-friendly and sleek interface where everything we need is in the graphics. There are articles to read, actions based on results for both managers and employees to take part in, many ready-made question pulses on different themes to rely on, and also the possibility to create our own pulses.
– Engagement is strategically important for us at Avalon! We need to be able to measure it and continuously work on it to ensure that the company is doing well. HR is part of our annual business plans, something the management team set, and the board approves. Each unit of ours has its own business plans, and everyone mentions &frankly. We want to improve our results in specific areas, such as well-being or leadership, and what actions we as a company need to take to get there. I don't know where we would be if we didn't measure our employee engagement. There is incredible competition for technical consultants, and many tries to attract our employees, says Bergquist.
How does Avalon succeed?
Avalon Innovation conducts three major pulse surveys per year, where leaders follow the responses. The management team also works with the results.
– A key question for us is to investigate how our employees perceive the direction of our company. That's why we ask the question 'Do you feel Avalon is heading in the right direction?' It is a check that the direction we have chosen is correct. The result of that question is 95–97%, which is a figure we are very proud of, says Bergquist.
On questions about learning and development, the results were lower. Avalon Innovation created a strategy for competence development and planned to improve its results within 4 years. With training for leaders and development plans for employees, the company managed to achieve the result within just 1.5 years. Bergquist comments on this:
– It is important to select and discuss the results we want to improve, but equally important is to celebrate our successes and highlight the areas we excel in! It is easy to get stuck in the negative. If we achieve 90–95% in teamwork or leadership, that's really exciting!
Best practice
What do we do with the result?
Sharing and discussing results from pulse surveys are crucial for long-term change. What do we do with the results we have? Aim to provide feedback on the agendas you already have today – make it an integrated part of the existing work. Follow up results at several levels to gain perspective. Feedback at the team level is crucial – employees have more influence and can contribute to change.
Organisational level
The management team and/or HR follow up on common denominators and KPIs. At this overarching level, it is about ensuring that the entire organisation is moving in the right direction, following up on common goals, and identifying needs.
Team level
The manager is most familiar with their team and provides feedback at the team level. The manager plays a crucial role in initiating ongoing dialogue around results with the aim of collectively influencing daily work to create high engagement. The manager helps the team to prioritise focus areas and actions, as well as relay feedback to other parts of the organisation as needed.
Can act quickly on dissatisfaction
Avalon Innovation has grown significantly in recent years and has managed to combine this with good survey results in &frankly.
– We can quickly act on dissatisfaction and be proactive, which in turn has a direct impact on important key figures in our operations, such as staff turnover. Through &frankly, we could, for example, pick up that our employees felt we could improve the employee benefits. With these insights, we were able to act immediately and develop new policies for extra vacation days, benefit bicycles, and increased wellness, concludes Bergquist.
How Avalon Innovation maintain a high response rate
- Managers address the importance of responding to surveys
- Discuss and act on the results within the teams – "you answered, we acted."
- The CEO communicates "Thank you for responding to this" at all meetings where the organisation gathers
- CEO perspective: "Employee input is crucial for Avalon to become an even better workplace."
- Pulse surveys in &frankly are an active part of onboarding new Avalonians
About Avalon Innovation
Since its inception in 1997, Avalon Innovation has assisted over 1,000 companies. The consulting firm has 160 employees, its headquarters in Karlshamn, and 10 other offices in Sweden. The core expertise lies in product development and system development. Avalon Innovation is part of the CIMON Group, where Avalon Innovation is the largest company.
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