How Erste Bank continues to empower employee voices with HeartCount

22 April 2024
The satisfied woman who implemented an employee experience platform at Erste Bank.
Estimated Read Time 6 minute read

CHALLENGES

Maintaining contact with employees 

Before we started using HeartCount, the biggest challenge was maintaining frequent contact with employees and having the opportunity to discuss current topics. 

Trouble gathering feedback 

A lot of information came to us informally, often altered during transmission. Obtaining feedback on numerous topics from a large number of employees was also challenging.

On the other hand, we received specific improvement suggestions through HeartCount that would have taken much longer to reach us through, and applying these suggestions was straightforward and easy.

Bojan Vračević, Chairman of Executive Board at S-Leasing doo

It is crucial for me to understand my own emotions and dedication, and even more important to recognize the emotions and dedication of my team. HeartCount has helped me significantly broaden my insight and overcome limitations that exist in larger organizations.

SOLUTIONS

Introducing HeartCount

Before implementing HeartCount, Erste Bank attempted to create a framework for working with the data. We use HeartCount semi-transparently, with only part of the HR team having access to the data, while other employees can only view overall statistics. 

Initially, we aimed to ensure that employees felt secure to express their opinions and provide comments, fostering trust in the tool and the process.

Sandra Savatić JovanovićHead of People and Culture

In Erste Bank, we say and believe that – the Bank is people. People are the ones who make a difference, add value to clients, and shape Erste into the organization it is. HeartCount helps us continuously listen and monitor how our colleagues are doing, enabling us to recognize what needs to be done to improve the working environment. As a team manager, HeartCount helps me every week to understand how my team members feel and to react promptly if and when needed.

Each HR business partner monitors data for their sectors, closely tracking teams and reading comments on a weekly basis. Weekly action steps for the upcoming period are also defined. Employees who pose questions or have additional comments in the comment section are contacted by business partners to assist, respond, or direct them to someone who can help. 

Dissatisfied employees are contacted to understand the issues and whether they would like a meeting on the relevant topic. Board members and sector directors are involved in the entire process. Besides receiving quarterly reports, they actively participate in resolving challenges. HR occasionally attends sector meetings to discuss the tool and team results.

RESULTS

Erste Bank: From remote work to salary increases

Here are specific improvements implemented in the previous period:

  • Remote Work: Structured and formalized the option of remote work based on insights that it was a gray area, and many eligible employees were not utilizing this opportunity. The policy is now clearly defined – who has the right to work from home and under what dynamics and conditions.
  • Parking: Addressed comments about parking shortages around our administrative buildings by forming a working group to explore options and provide feedback.
  • Learning Hub: Created a Learning Hub in response to queries about learning and development opportunities at Erste Bank.
  • SAP Enhancements: Implemented a suggestion to have “Remote Work” as a predefined option when entering leave in the HR system, upon one of our colleagues’ suggestion.
  • Daily Employee Challenges: Many of our employees use this tool to suggest or complain about something that is bothering them at work and every week we address various challenges together with colleagues from other teams.
  • Development for Coordinators/Supervisors/Team Leaders: As these positions are not usually treated as managerial, they have not been included in the evaluations and training for managers until now. Thanks to feedback on the platform, we changed that, which we believe will make the coordinator part of the job easier, but also improve the experience of their team.
  • Retail Earnings: Although not only because of the comments on the platform, they contributed to faster implementation of the salary increase system for colleagues in branches.
  • New Workspace for Colleagues from the Service Center Department: Colleagues from this department expressed through HeartCount the need to get a larger and more spacious workspace, and a space where everyone will be together. We are currently working on this upgrade.

The most significant benefit and improvement from using HeartCount is direct communication with HR, creating an environment where employees feel they can express themselves freely, and someone will read their answers and do everything possible to help them. 

This form of communication has helped us identify challenges that would have taken significantly more time without HeartCount.

Jasna Uzelac Braunović, Head of Communications

HeartCount is an exceptional tool that helps us know literally at every moment how our people feel because at Erste Bank – everything is about people. It helps us react in real time and, consequently, cuts all possible uncertainties at the root, preventing them from growing into dissatisfaction. The opportunity to thank the colleagues who helped us overcome a challenge is priceless!

Since introducing HeartCount at Erste Bank, we have actively encouraged employee engagement through various initiatives. We created a specific branding for HeartCount to promote the tool. To bring the entire initiative closer to colleagues in different branches, we sent gift boxes to each branch with a letter about the initiative, coffee, and heart-shaped chocolate lollipops symbolically.

Image: Example of one of the activations they came up with for their employees

Stickers reminding employees to respond to surveys were placed in kitchens and elevators in administrative buildings. The initiative was promoted with the slogan “You Count.“

After six months of use, we rewarded branches with the highest response rates, colleagues who wrote the most praises, and those who received the most praises. We shared a six-month report from HeartCount with colleagues and communicated all initiatives initiated through HeartCount. The latest activation is a video composed of praises colleagues wrote for each other, which we promoted internally.

Written by: Jelena Petrović, Organization and People Development Senior Expert