When Everperform met with the Directors at Highview Accounting & Financial it was clear that there was one goal in mind, they want their people to know they care and that they have their back.
Highview has made the Australian Financial Review Top 100 Accounting Firms in 2021 for the fourth year in a row. With 84 employees across four offices in Cranbourne, Mornington, Prahran and Ringwood, the uncertainty of Covid and disconnection from staff, Highview Partners felt that now was the time to invest in their people’s wellbeing. But they wanted to take their level of support a step or two further than simply giving vouchers, hampers and running zoom events, and to actually set up a framework of support that they could have in place for a long time that not only provided data, but also insight.
Silvio Marinelli, Partner at Highview says it best, ‘How do we help our people if we don't know how they’re feeling?’
Indeed, it’s one of the great challenges leaders have when it comes to supporting their people, whilst simultaneously allocating resources to those who need it most in a way that is sustainable for the business. In the past, leaders have had to make these decisions off a ‘gut feel’ or through word of mouth, but things have changed and now we can leverage the Everperform platform and regular pulses to have a great understanding of how people are thinking, feeling and performing, in real time.
The desire to support his people would be of no surprise for those that know Silvio, a well-regarded business leader, who’s heavily involved in the local community and passionate about sport, coaching and mentoring. He supports over 15 grass-roots local sporting clubs each year, and is on various community boards.
When Highview commenced their weekly pulses with a focus on Wellbeing-Led Performance on September 7, 2021 the Everperform Performance Index was trending at 65.83 for Wellbeing. Fast forward to today and we see the industry average sitting at 67.98. Highview started behind the eight ball, validating a need to focus on staff wellbeing. The first pulse results came in and as expected they were almost 7% below the industry average with a score of 59.03. Within 3 months of focusing on wellbeing they have exceeded expectations by climbing 10.5% (69.54) and almost 2% higher than the industry average!
The insights that the platform has provided has simply provided insight that the leaders at Highview couldn’t have gotten any other way.
‘Everperform has been invaluable for us to be honest. If we weren't doing this (Everperform pulses) we would just have no idea of what's going on with our people.’
At Everperform we are often asked about employees' willingness to be honest with their pulse responses. A fair question given the perception around what happens with their data and how intrusive are the questions. Yet, a recent Josh Bersin and Microsoft study found that 70% of people are more likely to tell the truth to a computer than they are to their manager. Our solution is simple, we’re here to help people improve by building a baseline for their performance based on three key dimensions to high performance; Productivity, Relationships and Wellbeing. We find that if people know they have a voice that will be heard, then they are more likely to buy in and be honest and consistent with their participation. This is reflected in Highview’s compliance rate of 71%, which is right on the Everperform index average, the leadership team are leveraging the data for the right reasons and their people are responding. Additionally, Silvio mentioned, ‘The main thing that I think people like about this, is they understand the fact that we care about them. If you had to say that there was one thing that everyone's got out of it, I think it's that we care about our people. I think they understand that.’
When Silvio reflects on his decision to adopt Everperform to be part of the fabric of Highview he says, ‘If any businesses are interested in looking after their people, this is a great way of doing it. If you want to look after your people it can't just be lip service. And this is a really good tangible way that you can and that gives you instant data. If you want to know how your people are feeling, this is a great way to find out and in an industry that’s so data driven that allows you to drive more meaningful conversations.’
The future partnership between Everperform is bright with strong improvement even in the first 3 months working together, with many opportunities to collaborate more in the future, the journey has only just begun.