Meeting with Salonkee, a start-up that is making its entry into the list of the Best Workplaces™ Luxembourg 2022. It's a great success since they got the 1st place at their first participation. 

Salonkee's mission is to digitalize our clients' business, so that they can focus on what matters: their work. Salonkee achieves this through its management tool that allows them to better organize their time and appointments, their customer database, their inventory and their accounting.

96% of their 24 employees think that Salonkee is a great place to work.

Discover Salonkee: For this interview, we met Sofia Lezcano, HR & Talent Acquisition Manager at Salonkee.

1.What are your 3 priorities for reactivating employee engagement in 2022?

The way we work as a company, there was no engagement to ‘reactivate’ because it was never ‘deactivated’ in the first place. However,

• Team Meetings: Through team events and team meetings, we encourage social and personal bonds to feel involvement in the company. Feeling genuinely happy or concerned about your colleagues creates authentic engagement with the company and its team.
• Office Space: It’s been important to us that these team events/meetings happen in person where safely possible. Screen-fatigue is real and people have learnt to really appreciate the value of in-person interactions. Making the office space a desirable place to be (as well as safe!) is one of our top priorities in order to foster engagement.
• Communication: we’ve expanded how, what and when we communicate to our teams. Whether it’s about current challenges or future goals, the message is shared in an easy and comprehensible way for everyone.

 

2.Can you give us an example of an action you have taken to improve the level of well-being at work?

Definition and dissemination of our company culture. We always had an implied culture with “do’s and don’ts” but putting them down in on paper in black and white really has helped keep the wellbeing of our team at the centre of every interaction and work task.

These points can be found here: https://salonkee.slite.com/p/note/3FtWcJqBLZnzdYirMVkdh2

All other actions taken to improve well-being in the workplace centre around these points.

3.In your opinion, what are the obstacles and advantages of teleworking?

A disadvantage is that efficiency is compromised in some cases. It is slightly more challenging to directly exchange with each other in an open and informal way in some cases. For example, having a quick 30-second question for a colleague working remotely requires a message, a call and screensharing - resulting in 5-10 minutes being spent on a small clarification which was needed.

An advantage is the possibility to complete tasks which require a lot of focus, concentration or time in a comfortable setting. While we consider working in the office as extremely beneficial, some roles require more time away from the collaborative atmosphere at work. Also, we are lucky to have parents in our teams and understandably, they greatly feel it is an advantage to work remotely and flexibly. The better they feel, the better it is for the company.

4.What is the best practice phrase in your company that you think differentiates you from others?

We are an asshole-free work environment. We don’t hire assholes, even if they are brilliant or the best in their field.

If a current team member infringes on this value, they are reminded through respectful honesty (one of our other values – honest communication) that this is not the way we interact with each other.

 5.What was the main benefit you received from participating in the survey and recognition program?

Since we just received our participation results it’s hard to tell what impact this will have on our employer branding and recruitment. However, the survey has given us real tangible proof of areas we are doing very well in and others which could use more work. We already provide an anonymous feedback ticket system but the GPTW survey really helped us focus that feedback in a clear and analytical way.

We’re so grateful to our teams for having taken part and taken the time to contribute to the company being an even better place to work!

About you…

1.What is your motto and/or quote?

This too shall pass : whether it’s good or bad, everything passes. If it’s good, enjoy the ride! If it’s bad, better times are coming – focus on getting there!

2.How do your employees describe you?

That would be for them to say but I can tell you how they describe the company.

A collection of direct quotes from the GPTW survey below:

“Working at Salonkee feels like being part of a movement all striving in the same direction and accomplishing one misson”

“Like-minded people with a common goal”

“At Salonkee, everyone is super excited to talk to everyone else. There is a culture fit in place which allows for this passion, open exchange and discussion to become extremely interesting.”

 

Discover the company page of Salonkee :https://www.greatplacetowork.lu/fr/certification/profils/salonkee-s-a

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