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Resolute triumphs with five HeartCount performance awards
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The happiness algorithm: our unique way of creating happy teams
Businesses measure their success through various KPIs - developing a highly successful innovative product, revenue increase, profit increase etc. However, they often forget one KPI that is invisibly linked to all of the above and overturns the KPIs – Happiness. At Resolute Software, things look differently! We are honoured to be among the best places to work at for second year in a row!
16 Jun 2021
9 min read
The recognition is awarded by the Danish AI company Heartcount, which measures the happiness of teams worldwide. Throughout the year, the company conducts surveys among hundreds of organizations’ employees to establish the perfect satisfaction coefficient.
How did we become a People-First company again? Get to know the reasons here:
Happiness can be measured
Did you know that happiness can be quantified? To come up with the most accurate happiness rate, one should focus on components and calculations intended to assess job satisfaction against objective criteria.
A major contribution to the scientific methodology for measuring happiness is made by the Danish researcher Alexander Kjerulf, whose ideas are implemented in the Heartcount surveys.
While researching organizations globally, Kjerulf realizes that salary, benefits, and bonuses are only a small part of the satisfaction pyramid. More important is the feeling of self-progress and personal satisfaction with achieving the results. Also, very highly ranked is the sense of autonomy and the freedom to work in your way without speechlessly performing tasks imposed by the management.
Third, sound relationships with colleagues and a true friendly attitude are far from being achieved through teambuildings only.
How do we manage to meet these criteria ourselves?
Resolute Software’s founders Hristo Georgiev, Veli Pehlivanov, and Atanas Simeonov make a significant differentiation between external and internal motivators. The external motivators are those of material well-being, which, of course, we fully meet as a requirement. But the truly important factors are the internal ones – the formation of synergy among the qualities of employees and the achievement of the ideal synergy of characters. This is where most companies struggle.
Analyze this
Our hiring process starts with a genuine psychological study. This is indeed a very time and effort consuming method for both parties, but it certainly proves how critically important it is for us to determine the compatibility of characters, principles, and values within the team. The applicants go through an IQ, EQ (emotional intelligence), behavioral and personality test, as well as a human design profile analysis.
Yes, all this extends the process in the time, but the results pay off: the candidate sought is not the one who is ideal per se, but rather the one who is in harmony with our company’s culture. The communication preceding a possible offer takes about two weeks and includes at least two personal meetings. Proving expertise and professionalism is followed by personality traits as a hiring standard, therefore the applicants who get through to an interview are 15%, and only 10% of them receive offers.
There is this principle saying that the career path is not an individual route only. And that it’s best when you have like-minded people and friends there when being at the finish line.
The goal of the tests is to find compatibility among employees. We are looking to find someone who will naturally flow and grow in our existing team dynamics. In this sense, the tests have no wrong answers - they just show what kind of personality you are and whether you can be harmonious with the other people in the company. The decision-making process we follow is based on science.
What distinguishes us from typical software companies is that they put current technical skills at the forefront. Of course, we also assess the hard skills, but we consider the soft skills emotional intelligence, and character as equally important.
99 people who are 100% happy
Resolute Software was founded with the idea that it will never exceed 99 people. Wonder why? The management team share that they don’t want our business to be a numbers game where one is measure by the number of programmers they have. They’d rather prefer to focus on building a company in a sustainable way - attracting the right team and keeping it happy by having the highest level of talent tenure at place.
An interesting fact is that we’d prefer to be measured by the number of long-term partnerships we create. Thereafter, the projects to be signed are also assessed by the team. The screening mechanism assesses the extent to which a client could benefit from Resolute Software’s consultations and the probability that it becomes a long-term strategic partner.
Indeed, our desire to have 100% happiness of the 99 team members at work, is based on the belief that every battle should be chosen carefully. Fortunately, we have built the right skills, agile ways of working and the right set of progressive technologies, which took us to the level where we can pick projects and clients, abstaining from only the financial side of things.
Hybrid work model and socialization
Our team is free to work remotely and working time of non-fixed duration even before the pandemic times.
We have always offered unlimited home office - it is part of our culture. But when Covid-19 struck, we saw that social isolation was becoming a problem. We have made it possible for meetings and talks to be distributed flexibly so that our employees feel they are working in a team. Recently we started to gather back to the office again.
Over time, we have developed habits for socializing that prove even greater efficiency.
We realized that going to extremes in one direction or another - either working in the office or working at home - is not necessary. We continued motivating people to go to the park, to gather in small groups. We started organizing more events together. For example, we planned our work while walking in the park, we went on picnics in the mountain. We have colleagues who went to Bansko and others who worked from the seaside. Other colleagues who are not from Sofia, for example, preferred to visit their teammates in the capital for a few days and worked in a friendly atmosphere together with them. We cover all such costs so that the team can often be physically gathered.
The recruitment process we have reflects our philosophy - creating value for our clients thanks to our stimulating working environment that cares about happiness at work. I believe that the hiring system we have developed brings not only value to the company as a business organism but also to our people who are much more conscious about their great personal qualities which they bring to the office every day and much more aware how those benefit the whole team.
The great leader: autonomy
We often take decisions through a broad discussion within the team. The process is not tied to seniority or any hierarchies. Titles are considered mostly as for “the professional resume” than a mandatory weight of opinion. To build healthy relationships within the company, we choose to treat all team members equally with their absolute freedom to speak up.
The reason for which we highly value the autonomy of our team is that autonomy is considered one of the main pillars of happiness at work. According to our philosophy, there is no way for someone at work to be happy unless they discover their way to contribute to the team. Therefore, the great ‘leader’ in the company is not a specific person but is rather the freedom to organize our work through our talent and desire.
I firmly believe that the greatest difference between the internal company culture of Resolute Software and that of the other places where I have worked are the people. Here, in Resolute, people are selected using several different criteria, one of which is their psychological profile. This results in fewer or no conflicts personally, which in turn unites the team better and improves their work together. Additionally, we promote a kind and humane attitude towards every team member.
The company uses a unique tool to track the mood of employees, and, if there is a particular problem arising, the team leader initiates a personal meeting to identify the causes and to help its quick resolving.
Everyone from the team is periodically consulted on important issues, and their opinion is considered when decisions are being made. Regardless of a person's title, there is no difference in the attitude towards him/her. The company is still young, but it forms part of a larger group of companies. This conduces to additional financial and non-financial benefits for employees, better access to information, care for employees' health and well-being, and organization of social events bringing employees together in an informal environment.
Final words...
Taking your employees happiness into consideration when doing business is an important and quite responsible decision. But believe us, this pays off. Happy teams create far better results. And the workplace is not the office you go to every day waiting for the clock to tick the time till the end of the day. You go there to enjoy yourself while knowing that you create value for the whole organization!
Resolute team
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Happiness
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