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Matt Phelan is the co-founder and co-CEO of The Happiness Index (THI). A seasoned entrepreneur, Matt launched a advertising and marketing company in 2008 which turned integral to constructing THI. The staff has been in a position to develop to over £1 million in annual recurring income, with a 95% buyer retention price*. Now with plans to broaden internationally and have extra workers comfortable and engaged, they’re fundraising on Seedrs to a goal of £475,007. We felt this was the correct time to get to know Matt and his mission.
You’re a second time entrepreneur and creator. Inform us about your profession earlier than launching The Happiness Index?
I began my first enterprise, a advertising and marketing company, in 2008 proper earlier than the final huge monetary disaster. Though I can’t suggest beginning a enterprise when the world is in melt-down, we definitely needed to study loads of classes in a short time on the time!
My first enterprise was really integral to constructing The Happiness Index. Not solely did the thought come from certainly one of our prospects (who’s now our Chief Advertising Officer), however our CTO on the time constructed V1 of our product. It was initially an in-house resolution we used! Rapidly our prospects began asking to make use of it too, and now we offer a platform that’s utilized by hundreds of individuals throughout over 100 international locations.
What’s The Happiness Index and what drawback does it clear up?
In a nutshell, we offer a SaaS platform that helps HR and Individuals professionals measure their staff’s happiness and engagement. Historically, feelings are disregarded of the office, however neuroscience reveals us that we have to unite each the pinnacle and the guts. By understanding how workers are pondering and feeling, companies will thrive.
How does your enterprise mannequin work and what are your income streams?
As a SaaS firm, we cost to be used of our platform. Sometimes, prospects join a 3 yr contract which we discover is the most effective time-frame to implement large-scale cultural adjustments. We cost on a sliding scale by firm dimension.
We additionally supply a management coaching academy, which permits bold professionals to become familiar with our neuroscience mannequin to allow them to assist construct thriving cultures.
What does your aggressive panorama appear to be and the way does The Happiness Index differentiate itself?
In contrast to different measurement firms, we have a look at each happiness and engagement. Inside these broad strokes, now we have a proprietary neuroscience mannequin which makes use of 8 key themes. Collectively they assist create a cheerful and engaged staff, a thriving tradition, and, in flip, a productive organisation.
We have now over 20 pre-built surveys which concentrate on all points of the worker and organisation lifecycle. In addition to an always-on listening device which permits our prospects to gather worker suggestions because it occurs.
Our know-how is designed to indicate organisations which key neuroscience themes your enterprise is at present performing nicely in and areas to enhance. This may permit firms to take greatest apply and apply to completely different areas of the organisation, for instance between groups or places.
Might you inform us about a few of your largest achievements so far?
Final July we launched our Neuroscience improve. This revolutionised how we are actually in a position to benchmark and analyse knowledge inside our platform. We additionally launched our closing the suggestions loop operate. A device which permits managers to enter into conversations about suggestions whereas sustaining full anonymity on behalf of the worker.
Nonetheless, our largest achievement is that we’ve managed to construct our firm with out sacrificing our principals alongside the way in which. For us, all the things is about #FreedomtobeHuman. We don’t need to do something if it’s not proper for our individuals.
How do you intend to create a scalable and worthwhile enterprise?
I need to begin by telling you about my favorite happiness research.
In 2012 Michael West and Jeremy Dawson printed a paper with The Kings Fund that also shocks me a decade later! Their research aimed to look right into a hyperlink between worker engagement and job efficiency. They checked out a variety of metrics to measure efficiency. These included issues which might be fairly particular to the healthcare business, corresponding to mortality, but additionally some which might be related to different industries, corresponding to security measures and affected person (or buyer) satisfaction. They even checked out some which might be arguably related to each worker – absenteeism and turnover.
West and Dawson proved that there have been many clear associations between happiness and office efficiency. Strikingly, the info confirmed that an enchancment in worker engagement of 1 commonplace deviation led to a lower in affected person mortality of two.4%. This implies if there have been two hospitals, and all the things else was precisely the identical, however one had comfortable workers and the opposite had sad workers, extra individuals would die within the second hospital!
We run a enterprise, not a hospital. However by listening to our individuals, and measuring the happiness AND engagement of a whole bunch of hundreds of workers throughout 90 international locations, we are able to see that the identical is true in enterprise.
I’ve seen numerous knowledge factors that spotlight how specializing in tradition and happiness has modified companies and altered lives. You possibly can learn extra about it in my guide right here. However protected to say, what I discovered was that caring about how your workers suppose, really feel and behave is vital to operating a thriving enterprise.
Past this, certainly one of our huge objectives for the approaching yr is to change into B-Corp licensed. We consider that scalability is all all the way down to sustainability. In the event you’re not sustainable, you’re not scalable.
What do you intend to do with the cash you increase?
It’s crucial to us as founders that we create a enterprise with a sustainable development plan. For that purpose we’ll proceed to steadiness our funding throughout:
- Rising and growing our staff
- The event roadmap of our platform
- Increasing our world development gross sales and partnership functionality
What do you like to do in your free time?
Spending time open air with my youngsters, I like taking part in in nature with my son and daughter every time I can.
I additionally run daily for my psychological well being, and have been recognized to kick a ball about with my mates. Different issues I like embody taking my son to the park or my daughter to observe Spurs girls play within the WSL.
In the event you weren’t constructing The Happiness Index, what do you suppose you’d be doing?
I grew up on a working farm and I used to assist my dad and mom out while rising up. So if I wasn’t operating The Happiness Index, I’d be engaged on a farm attempting to determine the way to sustainably feed the world.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learnt to date constructing The Happiness Index?
After we alpha examined The Happiness Index approach again in 2011, we made happiness a goal. However making happiness a goal is like telling somebody who seems to be sad to cheer up. As an alternative we discovered to view happiness and emotional knowledge extra like a climate report. For instance, if it’s going to rain, pack an umbrella. If it’s going to snow, be sure to have packed the snow chains.
At this time’s feelings are tomorrow’s efficiency. Emotional knowledge is intelligence firm board and management groups can use to make higher choices.
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To affix Matt and The Happiness Index staff on their quest to enhance worker wellbeing, try their marketing campaign right here.
*Primarily based on unaudited administration accounts.
