How Balkan Bet is fostering a positive workplace by listening to their employees

As part of its core business, the company has its own production and offer of good odds for betting on sports events - with more than 14,000 odds on more than 500 events per day. 

What challenges did you face before you started using the Heartcount software?

High productivity and employee retention are our main goals, and their realization directly depends on the level of employee satisfaction. When it comes to the factors which influence the employees’ satisfaction, the situation was not that easy, especially taking into consideration that Balkan Bet was a big system with a large number of employees (almost a four-digits number of employees). This is why we continuously keep track of our people’s pulse, making an effort to have a clear picture of all of the things that make them feel fulfilled - fulfilled at work, and, therefore, in other aspects of their lives. 

The results of annual surveys on the level of job satisfaction among employees which we have conducted so far, gave insight into individual aspects of doing business and working conditions which need to be improved. However, we also faced some challenges. 

Conducting surveys once a year really is not enough. Employees often face specific challenges at work, no matter whether these are related to interpersonal relationships or work processes. However, in case the challenge is solved in a timely manner, it is inevitable that employees will start looking for and probably find a new job in the period of four months. We think that it is not a good practice to reveal the reasons for someone's dissatisfaction on the exit interview. If, only for a second, we neglect people side of the story and consider the fact that the the expenses coming from hiring, selection process and onboarding significantly exceed the expenses of investment in the existing employees, then this is a one more reason why we need to continuously and carefully keep track of how our employees feel.

How did you overcome some of the challenges using the functionalities Heartcount offers?

By implementing the HeartCount tool, we continuously listen to how satisfied all of our employees are. The fact that the survey is conducted once a week provides us with the opportunity to question different aspects of employees’ job satisfaction, to understand the company in a better way, and have better insight into each department separately. 

With this in mind, we are in a position to act on the results in a timely manner, regardless of whether these are potentially smaller tensions which can escalate to something much bigger or praises which should echo throughout the entire company. The fact that the tool collects and processes large amounts of data is a big relief, which leaves the HR department enough space and time to dedicate themselves to specific actionable steps which follow after every conducted survey.

What kind of solutions did you achieve by using the HeartCount tool?

We believe that we will see the real results only after a longer period of time. After two months of using service, it is important that all of our employees are familiar with the new tool and that they clearly understand why they will be receiving SMS messages each Friday at 11 a.m. through which they will be able to evaluate their working week in Balkan Bet, as well as in what way this survey could contribute to better working conditions both on individual and group level.

The culture of giving feedback is something we nurture in Balkan Bet, and HeartCount is another channel of communication in which our employees are beginning to place a lot of trust. They already felt the first benefits of continuous communication and expressing opinions. These reflect in the salary increase up to 15% for the employees working in Balkan Bet betting shops, introduction of flexible working hours and a one-hour shorter working week for employees who work in the main office.

In case you had to single out one benefit of using the HeartCount tool, what would it be?

This would be an excellent user experience. Employees easily answer the survey, approach their portal and compare their results with the results of other departments, completely anonymously. On the other hand, by using HeartCount, human resources departments have the ability to gain invaluable information much more easily and faster.