“Since we are already using Glint to collect feedback from our employee voice program, we now have the opportunity to combine those insights with the data collected from 360s. This will really help us set our strategy for our leaders by diving further into areas of focus.”

Michelle Colbert, Head of Leadership Development, Global Talent Management, Ericsson

Background

Founded in 1876 by Lars Magnus Ericsson, Ericsson is one of the leading providers of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to service providers. The organization creates game-changing technology and services that are easy to use, adopt, and scale. Ericsson was the inventor of Bluetooth technology and is now leading the implementation of 5G worldwide. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Ericsson employs over 95,000 people and operates in more than 180 countries.

Challenges

A long-time believer in listening and gathering feedback from employees to drive improvements, Ericsson previously surveyed employees annually using a lengthy survey that took many weeks to get results into the hands of managers. The organization was also using a traditional approach to employee 360s, including outdated questions that didn’t align with the organization’s five focus areas, and most critically, the data being collected wasn’t being fully utilized.

In 2016 and 2017, Ericsson went through two major re-organizations and the employee survey was put on hold. During this time, the Organizational Development team reviewed the company’s people success strategy, determined that they wanted to take a more modern, agile approach and needed a cultural transformation to match the new strategy.

Solution

Ericsson partnered with Glint in 2018 with a goal of pulsing employees more frequently and using shorter surveys. They began pulsing employees twice a year, with an optional quarterly cadence for teams that wanted to try an even more frequent approach.

Results

During the company’s cultural transformation, Ericsson knew that it needed to prioritize culture and behaviors in order to be successful. They began to create focus areas for the company and turned to feedback from the employee voice program, along with other feedback channels to create the final five focus areas. Results from the surveys have confirmed that Ericsson was focusing on the right areas, and therefore the company continued to pulse employees twice a year to receive employee feedback.

In early 2020, when COVID-19 became a global pandemic, Ericsson once again turned to its Glint survey to gauge how employees were feeling during the challenging times. About 90% of Ericsson’s employees were sent home to work remotely and the company wanted to understand how employees were doing and what support was needed. They worked with their Glint People Scientist to quickly set up a crisis-related pulse to receive that open and honest feedback.

“We were surprised how positive our employees were, both about how Ericsson was handling the pandemic, as well as how employees were managing. We already had ongoing initiatives addressing the situation, but the feedback from employees gave us quick validation of actions we were taking,” said Ova Schulze, Head of Organizational Development.

To help gauge what employees need during the pandemic and when returning to the office, Ericsson pulsed employees again in September. This feedback serves as a critical input for well-being initiatives and return-to-office plans.

At the same time, Ericsson decided to further its partnership with Glint by switching over to Glint’s 360s with the goal of having all employee feedback data in a single platform. The Global Talent Management team worked with their Glint Customer Success Manager and People Scientist for a quick rollout. The team appreciated the ease of set up and admin configurability, while leaders appreciated the ease of use and simple layout. Within 6 weeks, the first cycle was launched and then duplicated 50 times, with each cycle including 100-150 managers.

“Since we are already using Glint to collect feedback from our employee voice program, we now have the opportunity to combine those insights with the data collected from 360s. This will really help us set our strategy for our leaders by diving further into areas of focus,” said Michelle Colbert, Head of Leadership Development, Global Talent Management.

Looking ahead, Ericsson is set to release its third crisis-related pulse in March 2021, which will have a further focus on returning to the office. The team is also looking forward to combining data points from onboarding surveys, the voice program surveys, and now 360s to drive business decisions, and develop more managers.

Ready to see what Glint can do for you?