PensionBee gives employees a ‘Happiness! review’

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Leading fintech company, PensionBee, has not only offered a fresh take on pensions but has also introduced a new practice with its employees, known as a ‘Happiness! review.’

The company based in London Bridge currently has 37 staff.

TechRound caught up with PensionBee’s CTO, Jonathan Lister Parsons to find out more.

 

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What was the idea behind the Happiness! review for employees?

Jonathan Lister Parsons: “The idea was to create a support network within the company that focussed on team happiness as its primary goal. There was less need for it in early days when we were 6 staff, but as we started to grow in numbers, we wanted to make sure this pursuit of happiness was not lost. We believed that happy team members would result in happy customers too.”

 

How does the Happiness! review work?

Jonathan Lister Parsons: “Team members will have their Happiness! review every 6 to 8 weeks, and this is conducted by their Happiness! Manager – someone from their own team, not a HR person or even necessarily a senior member of staff.

We ask three simple questions:

  1. Are you happy?
  2. Do you feel connected to the mission, vision and values of the company?
  3. Can the company support you better in your happiness?”

 

Is this different to a performance review?

Jonathan Lister Parsons: “Yes, very much so. A performance review is often focused on criticism and feedback about how you’ve contributed to the company. Whereas the happiness review puts the employee first and asks what we as an organisation can be doing better to create an environment they flourish in and ultimately how we can make the individual happier at work.”

 

Do you and your co-founder also have happiness reviews?

Jonathan Lister Parsons: “Yes we do! In fact, we review each other’s happiness.”

 

And what is the outcome of a happiness review?

Jonathan Lister Parsons: “For employees, any requests or changes can either be dealt with there and then, or with a plan put in place over time. Or if necessary, issues can be reported senior staff and handled more formally. As an example of a change the Happiness! Managers can approve themselves, this might be shifting your work hours from 9 to 6 to something like 8 to 5 so you can spend more time with your kids in the evening, because that makes you happier.

The bigger picture however, is a more aligned workforce all driving towards the same company goals. Above all, we believe that keeping our team happy will trickle down in how they treat customers, making customers happy too. And visa-versa, making customers happy will make employees happy.”

 

PensionBee launched in 2014 as a pension consolidation platform – allowing you to bring together all your old pensions into one low cost digital pension. It has over 100,000 signups and 20,000 active customers. Customers can manage their pension and track the status of all of their pension transfers through their online portal and mobile app that was recently launched. For more information, visit: www.pensionbee.com