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HusCompagniet II

Urealistisk mål: At opnå 40% fejlfrie afleveringer på huse efter 12 måneder

Resultat:  300% forbedring på 9 måneder

Løsning: Målsætning, strategisk prioritering og eksekvering af Best Practice

Udfordringen:

HusCompagniet er kendt for at have en høj kvalitet i husene de afleverer. De lægger vægt på at husene skal være ens i kvalitet, hvilket har betydet at de altid scorer højt i kundetilfredshed. For at kunne opretholde denne kultur udforsker HusCompagniet derfor altid måder, hvorpå de kan forbedre sig.

HusCompagniets huse færdiggøres altid som aftalt. Dette betyder dog at en del huse færdiggøres endeligt, som aftalt, efter at kunderne er indflyttet. Man leverer altså som lovet og aftalt, men man har til opgave at afslutte arbejde, efter at huset nu er beboet og efter at nye huse parallelt er igangsat. HusCompagniet besluttede derfor i 2020 at øge antallet af fejlfrie afleveringer, med formålet at øge kundernes tilfredshed yderligere, sikre aflastning af byggelederne, samt forbedre økonomien på projekterne.

For at løse opgaven involverede HusCompagniet konsulenthuset Qeep. Step 1. for Qeep blev at involvere en stor del af HC byggeledere til at opsætte klare ambitioner for afleveringerne, for derefter at kunne finde de processer og adfærdsmønstre som skulle justeres. Målsætningerne der blev opsat var følgende:

•       40% af alle huse afleveres fejlfrit i 2021

•       70% af alle huse afleveres med maksimalt 1-5 fejl

•       90% af alle fejl (ved aflevering) er udbedret efter 4 uger

 

Forløb:

Fordi man i HusCompagniet gerne vil kunne stå stærkt på kvalitet skulle målsætningen tilsvarende være ambitiøs. Man kom frem til, at man inden for to år skulle opnå at 40% af alle afleveringer er fejlfri.

For at kunne nå det ambitiøse mål, krævede det først og fremmest en analyse for at finde frem til en “Best Practice”. Der blev derfor lavet interviews med 20 byggeledere for at undersøge deres adfærd ved afleveringer, og om de arbejdede ud fra at deres huse skulle være fejlfrie ved første aflevering.

Ved at kigge nærmere på svarerne fra gruppen kunne man se bestemte mønstre. De byggeledere der havde en høj grad af struktur samt en proaktiv tilgang, opnåede fejlfrihed oftere end resten. Efter analysen blev der igangsæt en designproces for ”Best Practice”:


Fra analyseprocessen blev der defineret 3 kritiske faktorer til flere fejlfrie afleveringer.

1)      Fokus på grønne huse

Qeep fik sammen med byggelederne opdelt  husene i tre kategorier; røde, gule og grønne huse ud fra kompleksiteten i huset og hvor svært det var at aflevere fejlfrit.


Ved at kigge nærmere på de forskellige kategorier kunne man se, at selvom der var langt flere grønne huse end røde huse, blev der alligevel brugt langt mere tid på de røde. Hvis bare lidt mere tid blev allokeret til de grønne huse, kunne mange flere af dem blive fejlfrie afleveringer. Det handlede om at plukke de lavthængende frugter!

2)      Byggeledere foretager tidlig fejlsøgning via faser

For at lave den mest effektive fejlsøgning blev byggeprocessen inddelt i faser, hvor man kunne lave checklister til hver fase.


Udover inddelingen i faser blev der også skabt en meget specifik rækkefølge for de forskellige opgaver, da man herved kunne undgå langt flere skader. For eksempel var det vigtigt at aflevering startede så snart når køkkenmontage var færdig, da man så mange skader her.

3)      Alle følger fælles definition på begreberne “fejlfri” og “aflevering”

Et problem der også blev tydelig var, at der herskede personlige definitioner af fejlfri og aflevering. Det var derfor essentielt at lave en definitionsafklaring af især de to begreber ”For-aflevering” og ”Endelig aflevering”.

Gammel vane:

·         Man brugte alt for meget tid på de huse, som alligevel ikke kunne undgå at have fejl ved aflevering

·         Der var forskellige practices hos de forskellige byggeledere

·         Der var en attitude blandt visse byggeledere, at fejl lige så godt kunne udbedres efter aflevering,

Ny adfærd:

·         Prioritering af grønne huse

·         En klar proaktiv fejlfinding på baggrund af fase inddeling og proces, hvor byggelederne beholder kontrollen helt indtil afleveringen

·         En stærk motivation til at opnå fejlfrie afleveringer ved definerede målsætninger og tracking af resultater  

Resultatet:

Fra november 2020 til August 2021 forbedrede man antal huse afleveret fejlfrit med 300%

Som følge af flere fejlfrie afleveringer sparer HusCompagniet betydeligt på serviceomkostninger, og kan samtidig give en endnu bedre kundeoplevelse ved nøgleafleveringen.

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Cases

HusCompagniet

Urealistisk mål: Gå fra 1500 til at sælge 2000 huse 

Resultat:  Fuldførelse af målsætning efter to år

Løsning: Klare mål, ejerskab og ansvar for eksekvering på alle niveauer


Udfordringen

HusCompagniet er en stor succes på det danske marked. HusCompagniet er Danmarks største producent af en familiehuse, med tilfredse kunder, et vidt forgrenet afdelingsnet og branchens måske dygtigste sælgere. Alligevel vurderede ledelsen tilbage i start 2019, at der stadigt var et uudnyttet salgspotentiale som de manglede at eksekvere på.
De enkelte HusCompagniet afdelinger arbejdede med udgangspunkt i lokalt tilpassede salgsprocesser. Processer der var udviklet af og forankret hos de lokale Afdelingsdirektører. Direktører der tog udgangspunkt i deres erfaring hos HusCompagniet, hvor de fleste tidligere havde været sælger og senere salgschef. Der var således kun i meget begrænset omfang en strømlinet salgsproces for hele HusCompagniet, der var baseret på Best Practice.
I et marked, hvor kunderne har meget forskellige ønsker og behov ønskede HusCompagniet at transformere sælgeradfærden, for bedre at matche kundernes fremtidige ønsker og behov.
Opgaven var i første omgang at skabe en fælles national salgsambition i salgsledelsen på tværs af lokationer og afdelinger. For derefter med udgangspunkt i ambitionen at fastlægge den overordnede vej, som alle afdelinger skulle følge i jagten mod målet. Et mål som HusCompagniet aldrig tidligere havde kunne eksekvere på. Slutteligt skulle de enkelte sælgere lokalt involveres i realiseringen af ambitionen.

Forløbet

Samtlige salgschefer blev samlet til en workshop, hvor de blev udfordret på: ”Hvad burde en virksomhed som HusCompagniet, med dennes markedsposition, geografisk repræsentation, veludviklede processer og ikke mindst Danmarks bedste sælgere, kunne opnå”. Resultatet blev et ”urealistisk” mål om at sælge 2000 huse. Et tal, der ville være inspirerende for alle i organisationen. Men som krævede en ny tilgang til måden HusCompagniet solgte i markedet.
Ikke nok med at der blev fastlagt et ambitiøst mål om at sælge 2000 huse, så skulle de enkelte salgschefer også tage individuel stilling til, hvad deres afdeling skulle bidrage med i 2019 for at påbegynde rejsen mod de 2000 huse. På samme måde skulle den enkelte sælger efterfølgende tage stilling til, hvilke af de besluttede afdelingsmål vedkommende ville bidrage til at opnå. Dertil skulle de enkelte salgschefer og sælgere identificere hvilke forhold de individuelt oplevede som kritiske for at nå disse mål, og slutteligt, hvilke aktiviteter der skulle sikre at de kritiske faktorer blev adresseret, så målet blev opnået.

Gammel vane

De enkelte salgschefer og deres team af sælgere blev traditionelt vurderet ud fra deres evne til at levere et antal salg, der matchede afdelingernes tegne og produktionskapacitet, samt det budgetterede dækningsbidrag. Hvordan dette skete, var mindre væsentligt – ”Hvis man leverede på de opsatte mål, blev man ladt i fred”.
HusCompagniet havde ikke et samlet salgsteam men et fragmenteret team af sælgere, der ikke mindst grundet HusCompagniets stærke koncept og markedsposition lykkedes med de opsatte mål, og derfor blev ladt i fred. I fred til at udvikle en personafhængig salgsapproach. Hvad der fungerede i én salgsafdeling, forblev en ”hemmelighed” i denne afdeling. Der var en opfattelse af, at man ikke kunne lære af hinanden på tværs af afdelingerne, og kun i mindre grad indenfor afdelingen. Hver sælger var optaget af eget resultat.

Ny adfærd

Gennem involvering og coaching af sælgerne i de enkelte afdelinger skabte projektet en interesse for, og vilje til, at udvikle salgskoncepter og dele Best Practice for salget på tværs af hele HuscCompagniets salgsorganisation såsom:

  • Øget forberedelsestid før ”første gangs møder” sikrede en højere hitrate end de øvrige kontorer

  • Teknikker til at acceptere ikke at få tegninger udleveret før underskrift

  • Undgåelse af at præsentere priser i de indledende trin i salgsprocessen

En af løsningerne blev en opdeling af kundeemnerne i tre kategorier, afhængig af hvor kunden var i købsprocessen. Derved sikrede HusCompagniet, at alle kundeemnerne fik en service, der svarede til deres forventninger og samtidigt muliggjorde en optimering af sælgernes ressourcer


Udover at processen med sælgere og salgschefer om at udvikle nye salgsprocesser, formåede projektet via personlig coaching at fremme mod og vilje hos den enkelte salgschef og sælger til at sætte ambitiøse mål for sig selv og for teamet. Dette ud fra Qeeps tese om at eksekvering i højere grad drives af specifikke aftaler mellem leder og medarbejder, samt kolleger imellem, end ved brug af ledelsesret og kontrol.

I alle dele af salgsorganisationen er ledercoaching og ugentlige resultatmøder blevet en integreret del af HusCompagniets salgsarbejde. Dette har øget den enkelte medarbejders personlige ansvarlighed og styring efter resultater frem for aktiviteter. Dialogen mellem salgschefen og sælgeren er ligeledes blevet gjort datadreven, faktabaseret og konkret.

Resultatet

Resultaterne af projektet med salgsorganisationen hos HusCompagniet kan sammenfattes i:

  • Løftet salg i Q1 2019 med 25% over 2018

  • Øget salg samlet med 11% i 2019  

  • Transformation til øget kundecentrisme

I processen mod at realisere ”Tour de 2000,” lykkedes man at etablere:

  • Klare mål, ejerskab og ansvar på alle niveauer

  • Sammenhæng i mål og planer, såvel inden for de enkelte salgsteams, som i forhold til den fælles salgsorganisation

  • Et nyt fælles sprog og bevidsthed om metoden for planlægning og realisering af Tour de 2000

  • Hurtigere beslutningstagen gennem direkte dialog og afklaring

  • En fælles proces og tilhørende ledelsesadfærd for styring af eksekvering


Virksomheden

HusCompagniet hjælper hvert år 1.600 danske familier med at bygge drømmehuset

Ikke to familier er ens. Derfor skal huse heller ikke være det. HusCompagniet bygger individuelle huse, som passer til kunden, kundens familieliv og budget. De er med kunden hele vejen – Lige fra idé til overtagelse, så kunden kommer trygt i hus.

Med 1.600 danske drømmehuse er HusCompagniet nordens største husbygger. Kunders hjem bliver bygget på et fundament af mere end 40 års erfaring. HusCompagniet har 16 lokale kontorer med showrooms, 10 udstillingsbyer og over 50 forskellige udstillingshuse fordelt rundt i Danmark.

HusCompagniet er ejet af nordens største kapitalfond, EQT, der har mere end 20 års erfaring. Bag EQT står en lang række danske pensionsselskaber og virksomheder.

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Updates

Webinar: Ud af corona med kundetilfredshedsundersøgelser/NPS

Qeep har lavet et webinar, der går i dybden med hvordan kundetilfredsundersøgelser/NPS kan styrke kunderelationer og kundeloyalitet. Customer Journey Ekspert Lasse Hansen og Executive Director Gitte Lasnier giver med afsæt i erfaringer fra Estée Lauder en gennemgang af:

✔️ Hvorfor tilfredshedsundersøgelser/NPS er vigtige på vej ud af Corona
✔️ Hvordan du skaber en kunde-centrisk kultur ved brug af NPS
✔️ Hvordan du nemt kommer i gang med en simpel digital løsning

Time stamps:

00.00 til 03.14: Introduktion

03.14 til 05.22: Hvad er NPS?

05.22 til 06.43: Hvem har Estée Lauder lavet NPS-målinger på?

06.43 til 08.55: Hvor ofte skal man bruge NPS?

06.43 til 11.14: Hvad kunne Estée Lauder bruge NPS dataen til?

11.16 til 13.44: Hvordan kan man nemt indsamle NPS data?

13.44 til 15.05: Hvad er andre måder at bruge NPS data på?

15.05 til 18.51: Hvem i din virksomhed kan bruge NPS data?

18.51 til 21.20: Hvordan kan du handle på en lav NPS score?

21.20 til 23.39: Hvordan handlede Estée Lauder på deres NPS score?

23.39 til 27.18: Hvordan kan NPS skabe en positiv kulturforandring i din virksomhed?

27.18 til 30.09: Hvad skal man ikke gøre?

30.09 til 33.10: Hvordan kommer du bedst i gang med NPS?

33.10 til 33.43: Hvor kan man kontakte os for at høre mere?

33.43 til 35.50: Opsummering og afrunding

Du kan også læse mere om NPS i dette link.

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Updates

We announced Denmark’s most recommended Company

On November 14th, Denmark’s most recommended company will be announced. The event will offer exciting and inspiring talks from Danish business executives about their experience with measuring customer and employee satisfaction using NPS and eNPS. Anders Grønborg, CEO of LaserTryk A/S and Stine Bosse, full-time board member at Alliance, TDC and BankNordik, will present on how they work with customer experience and how companies can create life time customers.

Afterwards, the winner will be announced and participate in a discussion about the linkage between customer and employee satisfaction hosted by Lasse Kjær Hansen, CEO of Qeep A/S. The discussion will include Per Iver Nielsen, Business Unit Head Nordic from Alcon Vision Care and Ayoe Anker Lausen, HR Director Nordics fra Esteé Lauder. Both have vast experience and knowledge on the subject and you will hear about the possible pitfalls, opportunities and challenges of creating a customer-focused organization.

It will be a great opportunity for you and your company to be inspired and acquire new, valuable knowledge and working tools. Furthermore, it will be a great opportunity to network in a laid-back environment.

Does this sound interesting? You and your company can attend the event for free!

Contact us on info@qeep.as

The event will take place in Mogens Dahl Concert hall, Snorresgade 23, 2300 Copenhagen on the 14th of November from 12-16.30 pm.

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Updates

The effects of gamification at one of the worlds largest employers

In 2014, ISS, a facility management company and one of the world’s largest employers, launched a gamified mobile application for employees called Share@ISS. The application engages ISS employees to be proactive by incentivising the sharing of ideas for potential facility improvements that they encounter in their daily work. After a three-month pilot project ISS saw a doubling of proactive employees at the sites where the application was tested.

Share@ISS provides a case study that demonstrates the advantages of gamification and digitalisation, and provides valuable insights into how users perceive gamification effort that are designed to support their existing workflows.

As anthropological investigation identified ISS employees’ workflows, internal processes and associated behaviours and was the foundation of ISS’ gamified platform. In this paper we examine how it is possible to create a sharing culture through a platform that derives its value from game elements and social features, but also simply makes work easy and more effective. With a clear business benefit found in incentivising ISS workers to become more proactive in their sharing of opportunities, we present the application of gamification as a means by which to make the work of employees more engaging while also incentivising behaviours that are in line with the commercial side of ISS’ business.

After a positive pilot project, the application has turned into a popular work tool within the organization and continues to grow. It is already in use by ISS in Denmark, UK, Israel, Sweden and the United States. While Share@ISS is in continuous development, the data collected demonstrates the positive effect of the application on user behaviour as well as diversity in how users perceive of workflow supporting gamification initiatives.

1 Introduction

1.1 Pro activity

 Let’s gamify this paper and start out with a little role-play.
you’re a cleaning lady. You’ve just gotten off the bus and you’re walking up to the headquarter of a global IT manufacturer. They’re your client. You’re working for the global facility service company ISS and together with your colleagues you make sure that the IT manufacturer can focus on what they’re best at – manufacturing IT products – by taking care of facility services such as cleaning, catering and maintenance. Though cleaning the floors and restrooms can be a bit tedious you actually like your job. Your colleagues are good friends, the pay is decent and the career options are good within the company. Today’s cleaning isn’t the easiest. You probably stayed an hour too late at your friends birthday party last night and on top of that, your boss, the site manager, asked if you could finish up 15 minutes early, as the catering supervisor needs to brief everyone on something. As you’re about to enter one of the conference rooms on your cleaning route you notice that the door know has gone loose. What do you do? Should you tell someone? You do a quick calculation: pros: you know it would be a good service to notify your site manager so he can ask the client if ISS should fix it. Cons: you’re a bit tired, you’re a little busy, and you’re not sure where the site manager is right now. You could write a not; however you’re not sure what happened last time you put a note on his desk about something that needed fixing… too many cons.

 Most of us probably recognise these moments where we stop for a second and ponder if we should do that little extra or just continue doing what’s expected. It was a wish to influence these types of moments that started the gamification project at ISS.

1.2 A key ingredient to premium service

ISS is, with more than 500.000 employees one of the world’s largest employers. With 114 years of experience they’re a renowned and solid name in facility services around the globe. More than anyone, they know that a key ingredient to providing premium service is to be proactive. It’s simply a fundamental part of what keeps their clients happy – that the client can focus on what they’re best at – while ISS takes care of facility issues before the clients notice themselves. However, ISS also knows that being proactive is a behaviour amongst employees that you can’t take for granted nor easily recruit or incentivise. In their efforts to develop and drive a culture where proactivity is recognised, ISS already has a global incentive program where you nominate fellow colleagues who’ve shown an outstanding example in generating value for the client. As this resembles more traditional programs, like getting a medal in the military for a significant and outstanding performance, it became apparent that there was still room for incentivising on a more “micro behavioural” level; to focus on those everyday moments where someone considers reporting that loose doorknob.

1.3 A clear business case

Focusing on a micro behaviour that realistically tends to happen more often, rather than extraordinary achievements, makes the business case quite obvious – especially when you’re dealing with more than 500.000 employees. Also, not only is proactivity a service essential that keeps the client happy, it’s also a natural part of the commercial side of the business; if the client gives ISS a go on fixing that doorknob it naturally adds to the revenue. This perhaps makes it less of a surprise that it was Thomas Zeihlund, a CFO at ISS, who sensed a potential when he first learned about gamification. It was clear that there could be a significant business potential and an opportunity for providing better service for the clients in motivating proactivity on a micro behavioural level amongst employees by making it motivating and maybe even fun for them to find potential facility improvements. ISS invited Orchard MBC, an agency specialised in micro behavioural change, gamification and digital design, to do a pilot project that would answer the question: Can we motivate our staff through gamification to be more proactive by making it fun and easy to report potential facility improvements?

2. The process

2.1 Ethnographic research

In an effort to include different cultures and facility types, the Orchard team invites five ISS locations to participate in the pilot project; two in the US, one in the UK, one in Israel and one in Denmark. Parallel to refining the conceptual approach to the solution, a series of ethnographic field visits were carried out. The ethnographic approach made it possible to get into the mindset of ISS ground level employees and understand practices around reporting potential facility improvements (Eriksen & Murphy 2008; Hammersley & Atkinson 1983). During the visits, the team conducted interviews with the site management as well as participant observation with a range of personnel, including custodial and maintenance workers.

The field visits provided the team with an in-depth understanding of several central questions such as; under which circumstances is pro-activity happening and what are the reasons when it’s not? How does an idea for an improvement travel from person to person and into work order systems until it’s fixed? Is it even realistic in a practical sense to motivate a busy cleaning lady to pull out a smartphone and share an idea for an improvement she sees one?

2.2 The importance of feedback

One of the most important initial findings, that also had a notable impact on the subsequent application’s concept and design, was that an absolute essential circumstance in order for the proactive behaviour to happen was that feedback also happened. Those who experienced a strong sense of purpose, for example through colleagues or clients recognising their extra effort, were indeed proactive and took pride in performing that behaviour – positive feedback was important to them. Several works support this view (eg. Burke 2014; Pink 2009) and shows how finding purpose in certain activities will increase motivation in performing that activity. Those who weren’t as pro-active had less sense of purpose, as they had usually tried being proactive but hadn’t experienced feedback as a result. From a gamification standpoint, one could likely consider various graphic responses, progress bars, leveling up etc. for providing feedback to employees (Werbach & Hunter 2012). However, a key finding was that many of the employees were specifically driven by the feedback from their peers. There was nothing more satisfying for a maintenance worker than to gather a few colleagues to discuss an issue and how to fix it. This wasn’t just happening offline; the facility managers from sites across Israel had simply set up a group chat on WhatsApp, as they needed a place for discussing ideas and giving each other feedback – but most of all to socialise.

For most of the staff, attempts to simply replace the social feedback and interaction with something like a virtual badge would be a straight up insult. “So you’re gonna give me a bloody gold star for doing my work?” A maintenance worker in the UK asked with a twinkle in his eye. This remark stayed with the team as a constant reminder of how delicate a task it is to apply play to other people’s work lives. Your best intentions can fail so miserably if you don’t make sure you get into the mindset of your future players – are they motivated by the intrinsic factors such as doing their job well, or by the extrinsic “Bloody gold star”? Having too much focus on adding points or extrinsic rewards is a risk as this may shift the focus from the real purpose of the activity and in extreme cases make users “addicted” to the reward rather than enjoying the activity itself (Deci & Vansteenkiste 2004; kohn 1999). This was a crystal clear reminder to avoid managerially-imposed mandatory “fun” (Mollick & Rothbard 2014) and instead design a solution where gamification was subtle and optional.

The team learned that a social component should be central in facilitating peer-to-peer feedback, as getting recognition through comments and likes on the ideas for improvements would be a motivational driver for many. Initial ideas about gamifying that an employee simply reports the ideas to the manager would therefore hardly do the trick. The ideas needed to be shared with the trusted colleagues on site, with the site manager invited to this “Employees’ forum” rather than employees reporting to the boss. This is why it was decided to design a shared feed, in some ways similar to Instagram’s, with pictures of ideas for facility improvements that all ISS employees on the site could see and interact with. The UX was therefore reworked in an effort to master the balance of being a useful work tool in itself, where you could share an idea in no time but also have a gamification side to it that wouldn’t disturb those who just wanted to use it for quick and easy reporting. This also influenced the way the Orchard team eventually introduced it to the pilot users; as a work tool that they were welcome – but not obliged – to use. A work tool that could balance the intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, providing the user with a choice when using the application (Deci & Vansteenkiste 2004).

2.3 Gamifying a fun core

During the field visits the team saw that many of those employees who were proactive actually found joy in finding these potential facility improvements as they went about their daily work. It was as if some of them practiced the famous movie quote from Mary Poppins (1964) “In every job that must be done, there is an element of fund. You find the fun and ‘snap’, the job’s a game.” It was almost like a scavenger hunt, but just very single-player based. This finding was extremely important to the concept development as it underlined that the team was onto something if the core of what they wanted to gamify had a fun element to it already. This also meant that it was possible to gamify not only a desired behaviour but also a specific work process and that finding these improvements and sharing them could be the game itself. Whatever ideas that were about creating a fun game that perhaps taught employees how or why to find facility improvements suddenly seemed silly when it was possible to gamify the actual work process.

From here on the conceptual focus was on gamifying and incentivising the various steps in the work process. So naturally, in the app you gain points by sharing an idea, points when the manger registers the idea and even more points of the idea is carried out. As we know from the game design literature (eg. Salen & Zimmermann 2004), how points are gained usually indicates what the game is all about, indicating the rules of the game, but here specifically they also had a function in communicating and rewarding that the “work order” had progressed in status and thereby fuelling a sense of purpose; “Oh, someone went along with getting that door know fixed!” Early in the pilot phase the team saw what they expected to see, some picked up on the game side of the app and others didn’t. some were very vocal about it: “I’m second on the leaderboard, so come and get me!” as a service navigator in Sweden expressed proudly, and some were less vocal like the maintenance worker in California who indicated that their colleagues in Texas must be cheating since they had that many points.

2.4 Share!

These finding moved the Orchard team from an initial understanding of a need to gamify reporting to a concept of gamifying a social sharing of ideas. And the desired behaviour therefore also crystallised itself to sharing ideas, which offered a straightforward name for the application by simply using the imperative clause: Share!

2.5 Global gamification

ISS were quick to let the team know that they are indeed a global organisation and therefore cultural differences are significant. Not just across regions, but also on the specific location since you’ll often find immigrants from all corners of the world getting their first job opportunity in a new country with ISS. This multicultural reality had a direct influence on the design and gamification. First of all, it became a goal in itself to avoid as much text as possible as the users would naturally speak different languages, but also because the team was advised that there would be several illiterate employees. Completely avoiding text wasn’t possible but the designers put an effort into creating an icon-based navigation, guiding users with an app-tour, introducing the interface when the user opened the app for the first time and using design references from other popular apps, so that if they knew those apps they would pick up on this one more easily. The field visits revealed the site manager as an essential player in the game. The site manager and assisting supervisors on larger facilities are the ones who know If an idea for an improvement should just be fixed straight away as it might be covered by the contract with the client, or if the client should be presented with an offer. The site manager appeared to have a rather challenging role in guiding the staff in what potential facility improvements to look for. Say, if a couple of employees had suggested paint jobs to cover those black marks on the walls from the chairs in the meeting rooms and the client didn’t want to prioritise that expense right now, he should then put quite an effort into both appreciating the proactive effort but also inform all staff on site not to suggest more paint jobs right now, but to please keep looking for other ideas. This can be a challenge on a busy day.

The insight of the facility manager as kind of a playmaker in the “improvements hunt” together with the multicultural challenge gave birth to the idea of having missions as one of the central game elements. Not only can the manager initiate missions to add fun challenges to the game and through that guide everyone to, for example look for potential energy saving improvements, but they can also incentive employees by setting up rewards in line with the local culture. This ensured that there was flexibility in the perceived value of the reward and the motivation for achieving the reward (Pihl 2013). This gave the Israeli cleaning supervisor the option to include a more tangible reward like the pad breakfast at a local restaurant for the whole family, that earlier had shown itself to be very appreciated by the winning Ethiopian cleaning ladies with their larger immigrant families. By contrast, another manager in Denmark might choose an intangible reward if he felt that would trigger competition.

2.6 A lean Startup approach

Unsurprisingly, it proved difficult, if not impossible, to ask the employees- the future players- if the game would be fun. How would they know? On the basis of that- and for financial reasons- it made sense, as it often does, to apply a lean startup approach (Ries 2011) to the process. It was therefore decided to build a more basic version of the tool with just the concept critical features on order to be able to release it sooner and thus quickly learn what worked and what didn’t and then adjust. What if the employees found it fundamentally inappropriate or silly to gamify their work? What if it turned out that they disliked competition and the team spent several weeks programming an advanced leaderboard? It made sense to create a minimum viable product (MVP) – or could we call it minimum viable gamification? – in order to learn quickly what resonated with the users and what didn’t. what they found useful or motivating could then quickly be developed further, and those features that didn’t provide value could be skipped without looking back on months of wasted design and programming.

2.7 Development and testing

In the spirit of the MVP, a mobile application was developed for Android only – after a series of iterations on the concept, UX and design. Following a 3-month development period the mobile application together with a web application for the facility managers was soft launched at one of the sites for a 2-week period followed by a 3-month pilot testing period on all five locations. The users were unboarded with assistance from the team and weekly status meeting were conducted with the facility managers as they played a central role in managing the suggested improvements, providing feedback to the employees and generally supporting a culture where sharing ideas is appreciated. If site managers didn’t play along, the game would end.


an overview of the Share@ISS concept.

an overview of the Share@ISS concept.


the App tour, the user sees when opening the app for the first time.

the App tour, the user sees when opening the app for the first time.

3. Results

 One of the highly valuable outcomes of the Share@ISS pilot project was the Proof of Concept, which has moved the organisation from imagining to knowing that a gamified mobile application like this one generates positive results on the facilities where it’s being used. Perhaps the most important result was that there was significant pre-post increase in the number of employees submitting ideas for improvements. On average a location experienced an increase of more than 200% of employees being proactive in sharing their ideas for facility improvements. Of 116 relevant users across the pilot site, 94% (111 users) were unboarded (taught to use it) by the end of the 3-month period, 71% of those were using it actively (+5 logins). A total of 916 ideas for improvements were shared (average across sits = 9 per employee) and of the 916 ideas shared, 667 (73%) were the desired proactive behaviour. 249 (27%) were proactive ideas for improvements that were not automatically covered in ISS’ contract with the client, meaning additional revenue opportunities. These numbers are based on the fact that not all 111 users were active users for 3 months; they were gradually joining during these 3 months.

4. The Future

 Share@ISS can be viewed as a typical example of consumerisation of IT (consumer IT standards spreading to the business world). Outside work, people get off the sofa to battle their friends on fitness apps, and Facebook is approaching 1.5 billion monthly active users – so why shouldn’t a traditional company like ISS seize the opportunity in integrating these proven motivational formats if they can go hand-in-hand with the core of the business? Indeed, not all work processes or digital business solutions can be turned into a super easy and “fun to use” app, but share@ISS has proven that in some cases, a work process can indeed be gamified and made easy and fun to do. The ethnographic approach ensured that the app was built on already existing intrinsic motivational factors such as the positive social feedback of doing a “good job” and earning recognition from peers and managers. For this reason, the application was not just some add-on to make things fun but at heart a useful tool, which eases the workflow, gamification or not.

During the pilot testing the Orchard team saw that several employees used the social feed to discuss and ask questions around the shared ideas and issues. As a consumer this is obviously not turning heads, since this is how it works on social media. However, as a global company it puts things in a very different perspective as these kinds of companies have traditionally been searching for ways to make knowledge sharing happen. How do you make sure that a great idea in one corner of the world is seen in the other? Internal newsletters, intranets and even newer corporate social media platforms haven’t entirely solved the problem. Perhaps Share@ISS, which combines a useful work tool that you need frequently with a social component and gamification to help drive motivation, could put an end to ISS’ 114 years of struggling with getting knowledge sharing to really work.

Share@ISS Is currently being requested by new accounts within ISS without any PR, and continuous development of the app and program is ongoing. The next step is to extend Share@ISS to facilitate knowledge sharing in general and not just ideas for improvements. The first behavior to investigate and to gamify is: when employees face a new problem or a problem they know but there might be a smarter way to fix: ask!

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Since our establishment in DK in 2002, Qeep has worked with some of the leading companies within their fields on a variety of different tasks. Have a look at our Case book!

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Updates

Goodbye to middle management as we know it

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Middle management is no longer a personalised line of control between top management and employees, but a support function to the employees that takes the dialogue directly with top management themselves 
— Lasse Kjær Hansen, CEO at People 4.0

That’s how it sounds from Lasse Kjær Hansen who has advised Danish and international companies in performance enhancing leadership for 15 years and who sees great opportunities in the use of new technologies to enhance employee satisfaction and engagement. Lasse Kjær Hansen has recently gathered four consultant companies under one collective “umbrella” called People 4.0 and together they work on developing solutions that matches the new leadership demand in business.

Traditional middle level management is a consequence of an analogue and the non-digitalised world where top management need a daily representative to lead, direct and control the employees. This form of middle management can no longer meet the demand that employees have anno 2017. Everyday new employees that are characterised with being technical comfortable, well-educated and clarified in regards to their goals and values step into our companies. These colleagues, young as well as adults are already effective in their work methods. They communicate quick and effectively and they want freedom to solve tasks individually. These types of employees need a new form of middle management and it is the top manager’s responsibility to give it to them if they want to keep the talented employees and secure the future of their organisation

The new type of employees have the following characteristics:

  • A wish for autonomy in their work tasks

  • A wish for real-time feedback

  • A wish for meaningful relations

  • Need for professional support and recognition

  • Need for a clear goal in their function

People 4.0

Lasse Kjær Hansen has advised senior leaders in multiple Maersk companies, Estée Lauder, H+H and many others. He is an entrepreneur, founder and majority owner of four consultant companies that are now gathered under one common umbrella;” People 4.0”. This has been done to improve the advisory of clients within leadership of the new type of employees and to better offer concrete and (often) digital solutions that can help customers execute the new form of leadership in their organisation.

The four companies that are brought together  in People 4.0 are Qeep Denmark (founded in 2002) who advises company leaders within performance leadership: Qeep Sales Excellence (founded in 2010) who advises companies in sales process optimisation: Orchard (founded in 2014) who designs digital solutions to drive behavioural change among employees on the background of anthropological studies: DataDrivenCulture (founded in 2015) who gathers, processes, analyses and presents employee data using artificial intelligence and other tools.

The Fourth industrial revolution sets the stage for companies

The need to view middle managers in a new way is closely correlated to the technological development that society and companies are facing. The new era has been named the fourth industrial revolution, where technologies like the internet, smartphones and artificial intelligence creates an infinite amount of possibilities to work in new and better ways, benefitting customers, employees and organisations as a whole. Automatization has made production quicker and less dependent on manpower, but as such, it hasn’t changed the approach to production and what is to be produced. With information technology, entire new methods are available for understanding and doing things where employees are not superseded, but work differently. We should embrace this and take advantage of it, because it will increase the employee satisfaction and create better results

Background

Lasse Kjær Hansen is Cand.Merc from Copenhagen Business School and has taken an Executive MBA program at Kellog Graduate School of Business. He has been employed as CEO, Marketing Director, Strategy Director, Sales and – Marketing Director in companies such as OAG, Celemi, Budget and Rent a Car. He has worked more than 11 years outside of Denmark in Chicago, London and Malmö and has throughout his career done projects and business in more than 30 countries. Lasse Kjær Hansen is an entrepreneur and started his first company in 1987 called Stud Hat, which conquered 30% of the Copenhagen market Copenhagen in just 2 years.

Privately, Lasse Kjær Hansen lives in Malmö with his wife Kristina Kjær Helgstrand who is a psychologist. They have two 19-year-old twin daughters and a 13-year-old son. In his spare time, Lasse is a passionate snowboarder, which he enjoys doing with his family, often off-piste if the conditions allow it. He loves nature and goes hunting, fishing and sailing as often as the calendar allows for it.

For further information:

Contact Lasse Kjær Hansen on his cell phone 24 88 11 20 or by

mail: Lasse.hansen@qeep.as

Visit https://www.engage.as


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Categories
Cases Perfomance Management

DCC Energy Denmark

Five-fold growth in new customers

Unrealistic Goal: 5,000 new customers in 6 months

Outcome: 100% achievement of the goal

Solution: Performance Culture Program


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We had a strategy, but we doubted our ability to execute. We heard about the results Qeep had achieved in a similar situation for another company, had a talk with them and initiated the transformation of our company. What we didn’t realize in the beginning was how strongly we were influenced by the old Shell culture. We can see now how that would have been fatal in the long term in an energy market under pressure. My mandate as CEO has grown, my managers have grown as a team, and the company is ready for the energy fight in the Danish market
— Christian Heise, CEO, DCC Energy Denmark

The Challenge

The challenge for DCC was to attract more customers in a recessive energy market – without negatively impacting earnings.

For some time, the company had seen weak and unsatisfactory growth in market share in the Danish energy market. The introduction of gas distribution had not resulted in the desired customer influx.

The Process

Each employee at the company set very ambitious goals. The employees in corporate and private sales, in particular, set extreme goals for growth in new customers and they carefully considered what it would take to achieve them.

Everyone agreed that the results couldn’t be achieved. At least not without new thinking and putting an end to the old “Shell paradigms”.

The managers were challenged to their very cores in terms of leadership style, ability to work cross – organisationally and internal communication. Responsibility, prioritisation and focus on the end result took over the agenda, pushing aside the old Shell culture. Following up on activities that yield results became an integral element in achieving success.

Old Habits

First, it should be nice to go to work; second to that comes results. That was the culture at DCC – with the results to prove it. It was always someone else’s fault if something went wrong; employees subconsciously resisted each other and took a reactive stance to internal and customer-related challenges.

As a result, productivity remained unsatisfactorily low.

New Behaviour

After massive resistance from management in the early stages of the project, every manager now drives the company towards the end goal via weekly or biweekly results meetings. Responsibility for achieving goals now rests solidly with the individual employee. The “impossible” goals are achieved by focusing on the results, something that managers and employees thought to be impossible just nine months earlier. Consistency has become a trademark of top management and innovative thinking combined with process optimisation are part of daily life for the vast majority of employees.

The Results

  • Five-fold increase in the first 6 months:
  • 5,000 new customers in 6 months
  • 5 new sales channels established in the market
  • 5 new products introduced to the customers

And all with earnings on budget for the period.

The Hero

Operations Manager Kirsten Ramsing has always had a good handle on the business, always knowing what needed to be done. In the beginning, she resisted the “rigid results-oriented method which doesn’t suit our business”. But as the process progressed, she embraced the results-oriented method and began coaching her employees to help them achieve results instead of giving them directives. The outcome is “win/win”, in Kirsten’s own words. She is now a better boss, while her employees assume responsibility and profit from the good results.

The two middle managers in marketing and private sales who report to Kirsten have both exceeded their targets for new customers. Together, the three of them have established a fantastic results partnership.

The Unrealistic Goal

For DCC Energy Denmark to grow significantly and gain market share in an energy market under pressure.

To grow from approx. 1,000 new customers in the first half of the year to 5,000 new customers in the second half. The vital result, however, is how the corporate culture at DCC Energy Denmark has transitioned from a reactive energy supplier into an agile, proactive and results-oriented distributor in the energy market.

The Organisation

DCC Energy Denmark has approx. 70 employees and is an energy distribution company seeking growth in the Nordic market. DCC specializes in the distribution of heating fuel, diesel, natural gas and lubricants to private customers and businesses.

DCC Energy Denmark is owned by DCC plc Ireland, which employs approx. 9,500 people.

Categories
Cases Perfomance Management

Hillerød Hospital

Unrealistic Goal: To reverse a budget shortfall and reduce waiting lists

Outcome: Budget deficit turned positive and waiting lists are shorter

Solution: Performance Management Program – Stay on Budget


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In the beginning, I thought it was really irritating because they were so damned persistent. And they would sometimes interrupt things that were planned in meetings and such. But after a while we could see that it really helped us drive the process. Because as health professionals, we have a tendency to say: The patients come first!
— Annelise Bertelsen, Chief Nurse

The Challenge

In 2005, the OB/GYN department at Hillerød Hospital, located north of Copenhagen, exceeded a budget of DKK 100 million by the enormous sum of DKK 15-18 million. This made it difficult for the department to function smoothly. Thus the challenge: To stay on budget!

The Process

Qeep helped and coached the department management throughout the process. The managers began to set goals and keep close tabs via progress via weekly results meetings.

Old Habits

The patients received proper treatment, but spending exceeded the budget.

New Behaviour

Everyone at the hospital began to view their job as not just to meet the patient needs but to do so within the given budget. Proactive planning and follow-up on expenses for temps, material consumption, occupancy, etc. ensured that the staff assumed responsibility for patient satisfaction and budget compliance.

The Results

  • Budget shortfall of 15% transformed into a profit
  • Staff sick days reduced by 2%
  • Waiting lists reduced by 12%

The Unrealistic Goal

The projected budget shortfall of DKK 15 million made it difficult for the department to function smoothly, leading department management to set a goal of reversing the budget shortfall.

The Organisation

Hillerød Hospital serves 310,000 people in Northern Zealand. The OB/GYN department provides prenatal and birth care, fertility treatments and female pelvic medicine. The department has 283 employees.

Categories
Cases Commercial Excellence

Alm. Brand

Unrealistic goal: Sales growth of 10%

Outcome:  Sales growth of 48%

Solution: Performance Management Program


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I have come to understand the importance of having a highly structured workday with operational results goals to guide my way. The follow-up process keeps me sharp! You only go unprepared to a Results Meeting once. Anyone with a result they need to achieve can benefit from a Results Process. Suddenly, you can achieve the impossible
— Henrik Høy, Key Account Manager

The Challenge

The competition’s sales resources are three times those of Alm. Brand. The sales organisation was thus satisfied with limited annual growth. Then, Carsten Rothmann, head of distribution, decided that slightly better was no longer good enough. Thus the challenge: To perform a lot better!

The Process

Qeep was brought in to help the sales organisation perform a lot better.

Each member of the sales staff – and the organization as a whole – set a number of extremely ambitious goals. There was follow-up at brief weekly Results Meetings attended by every member of the sales staff. All the old excuses were replaced by a strict requirement to focus on achievable goals for each individual.

Old Habits

The sales staff at Alm. Brand had a variety of habits and convictions that kept them from achieving the ambitious goal. Initially, they didn’t believe they could do any better. Sales were already up by 9% – which in their view was good enough. They also believed that increased sales efforts would have a negative impact on quality. Finally, they didn’t collaborate much – a common phenomenon in sales organisations. Sales representatives have a tendency to think it’s everyone for themselves.

New Behaviour

Alm. Brand put an end to all the old habits and convictions.

The sales staff and managers worked hard – together with Qeep – to achieve the seemingly unrealistically high goal of boosting sales by 28%.

Consequently, the sales staff and the sales organisation had to think outside the box! The sales staff took a critical look at all activities based on one simple criterion: Does this activity improve sales? If it didn’t, it was abandoned.

Meanwhile, managerial involvement in the daily sales efforts increased by means of weekly sales meetings. As a result, long explanations and excuses were replaced by demands for action and results.

The Results

  • Qeep worked with three centers – located in three different Danish cities – and helped them to achieve growth of 48%.
  • The growth rate of the three centers was 38% higher than for the other centers that did not participate in the Qeep process.

The Hero

With the vision that his sales team could perform much better, Carsten Rothmann initiated the comprehensive growth process at Alm. Brand. He was ready to break with both his own paradigms and with those of his team. He kept his eye on the goal when the team’s courage waivered. He supported those who fell behind and praised those who succeeded. He is a true results hero! 

The Unrealistic Goal

The sales staff at Alm. Brand could use the excuse that the competition had three times the sales resources. They and their managers could thus be satisfied with only limited growth each year. But they weren’t. Instead, they set the unrealistic goal to do much better than their strong competitors.

The Organisation

Alm. Brand is a Danish financial institution that provides insurance, banking, life insurance and pension services. Its 1,700 employees generate revenue of around DKK 7 billion a year.