Introducing Friday Pulse to People Managers

Good communications to People Managers are essential to kick start Friday Pulse successfully! Share the benefits with them – for their team, themselves, and the organization as a whole – as well as what’s expected (and what’s not expected!) of them. Make sure you let them know key dates- including when communications will be sent, your launch date and when questions will close- and the results People Managers and their teams will be able to see in Friday Pulse.

See also: Our Guide to Launching Friday Pulse in Your Organization Introducing Friday Pulse to Leaders Introducing Friday Pulse to Employees

People Manager benefits of Friday Pulse

  • Build happy teams by discussing what is going well and what can be improved
  • Identify the strengths of the team’s culture (Culture Profile)
  • Get fresh insight into how the team is feeling every week (Happiness KPI)
  • Hold quick, regular & meaningful team conversations using the weekly customized results presentation
  • Improve team dynamics with weekly happiness conversations– especially empathy, communication, appreciation & support

Calls to action for People Managers

  • Share the responsibility for happiness at work with the whole team
  • Be ready to explain how you will use Friday Pulse in your team
  • Model good participation - thank colleagues, celebrate successes, share ideas & frustrations on the platform
  • Share what good looks like –response rates over 70%!
  • Schedule 10-15 minutes to run through the results with the team each week

Common questions to answer in your communications to People Managers

  • But we’re already really busy…?
  • What’s the benefit to me / the team?
  • What do I need to do?
  • How will Friday Pulse help me?
  • Can we trust the results?
  • What about negative feedback?
  • Why can my team see team and organization results?
  • What is happening when?
  • How can I get help if I need to?

Example email to People Managers

From: Kelly Kapoor
Subject: Looking after team morale and performance at Dunder Mifflin
Date: 18 September 2019 at 14:10:32 BST
To: Team Manager Group members

Hi everyone,

We’re going to start working with Friday Pulse to measure and sustain happiness at Dunder Mifflin!

Friday Pulse will support you and your team to look after happiness at work, without taking up a lot of time. Happiness at work is a win-win – it’ll help drive individual success, team performance and the company’s competitive edge. Friday Pulse will help us measure happiness every week and the key drivers of happiness every quarter, capturing how everyone is feeling.

What does this mean for you? You have an essential role to play – encouraging participation and making space to discuss results each week as a team. Friday Pulse is designed to help teams, and support you as a Manager:

  • The Happiness KPI (measured weekly) gives you a heads up on team morale
  • The emphasis on team discussion using the weekly customized results presentation from Friday Pulse helps the team share responsibility for happiness at work
  • The Culture Profile (measured quarterly) shows the strengths and challenges in your team’s culture

Anonymity and transparency

  • You and your team will be able to see your own individual results in real-time and, as long as more than three people have responded, the team’s results and the results for Dunder Mifflin as a whole
  • Privacy for all individuals’ scores is crucial - everyone needs to feel safe to answer honestly
  • Publicly shared Notes (Celebrations, Thank-yous, Frustrations and Ideas) encourage people to share compassionate and constructive feedback on their week
  • Transparency of team and organization level scores is an important signal that happiness is the collective responsibility of everyone in the organization

What will happen next?

  • Friday 20 September: our employee-wide email about Friday Pulse will go out
  • Friday 4 October at 2pm: Friday Pulse launches! Everyone will be asked about their weekly happiness as well as have the first opportunity to answer the quarterly Culture Profile questions. Questions close Monday 7 October at 2pm.
  • The opportunity to answer questions on our weekly happiness and experience at work will continue each week, 12pm Fridays (questions open) to 2pm Mondays (questions close).

Please schedule a time to talk with your team about happiness every week. If you’re busy, 10 minutes is all you need to run through the results presentation provided by Friday Pulse each week. It’s more important to have a quick regular check-in than to miss it for weeks because you don’t have results to view or don’t feel you can give it long enough.

HR and senior leaders will explore our Culture Profile scores and Happiness trends once a quarter. We’ll provide regular feedback to everyone on the things we notice and decisions we take.

Help is on hand We know it’s not your job to fix people’s problems. Your job is to create a safe and supportive space for people to share and help one another. If issues are raised that feel bigger than the team, then we (HR) are ready to help.

We suggest you take a look at this help and advice from Friday Pulse on how it will help your team perform, getting your team ready to use Friday Pulse and their other resources for teams.

If you have further questions, please get in contact - kelly.kapoor@dm.inc.

Thanks – and please champion participation in Friday Pulse with your direct reports!

Kelly KELLY KAPOOR HR Director | Dunder Mifflin