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People Mentality Inc will be featuring a series of HR Tech partners to share more about their background stories as well as how users can benefit from engaging them. No tool is perfect, but every one of them is unique in their own way which is where the value lies for the various users. Find the best tools that suit your needs, mix and match based on your context and grow your business from there!
In this week’s issue of People Mentality Tech Feature, we are excited to have with us Doni Priliandi, Founder of Happy5, to share his thoughts on his culture and performance management tool. Find out more about the story of Happy5 and how users can benefit from this HR Tech app.
Interview Summary
Sam: What made you decide to start Happy5? Where did you see the opportunity?
Doni: I believe that all problems and solutions in the world come from/are because of people. However too often, have I seen at my clients said that their current system couldn’t identify high performers accurately and this administrative process did not drive increase in productivity. At the same time hundreds of employees (that we have interviewed) said that they felt that their company performance review is not fair. I believe the system that BCG applies internally to continuously provide feedback, push employee development and make sure of employee wellbeing could be replicated to other companies. GE has researched internally that frequent feedback increases productivity to up to 5x. Gallup did another research that show employees that feel they are not taken care of at work cost on average USD 5,000 per employee from lost productivity or value destruction. When I look at the best companies to work for in the world, and those that continue to grow and beat expectations, they have one thing in common, they have a rigorous performance management system in place and they take care of their employees.
Helping companies increase their productivity, increase engagement and take care of their employees is a mission worth pursuing.
Sam: How did the name Happy5 come about?
Doni: Our legal name is Indonesia Untuk Dunia, which is Indonesian and translates to Indonesia for the world. Our aspiration is to become an Indonesian startup that not only creates an impact in Indonesia but also the world. We believe, though there are different cultures and management styles, everyone wants to be appreciated and given the chance to pursue continuous development.
Happy5 on the other hand is short for happy 5 working day employee.
So we built the company to improve the work lives of as many people as possible, starting from Indonesia and eventually the world
Sam: How did the idea of Happy5 evolve along the way? Why did it transform the way it did?
Doni: Though the company was incepted in 2014, we only got off the ground sometime in 2016. This was mainly due to finding the right value proposition for our buyers, which we will further elaborate in the next section. In short, it was an evolution from employee happiness, to social media, to measuring culture to our current mission, which is to build and scale high performing culture. It was just a continuous learning process of what CEOs and HR professionals value most. We identify the problems that they want to solve and we solve it together through implementation of new approaches, policies and of course the Happy5 solution.
Sam: What are your thoughts about the HR Tech space?
Doni: I think the HR tech space is starting to get hot with many new startups popping up and investor money starting to pour in. I see that some are trying to replicate working models from the West and implement in the East . But we haven’t seen a lot the realization of “simple and useful” HR solution for the employee. Something that employee loves to use on frequent basis. Reliable – rich – high quality people data are still not available. Let alone the use of Machine Learning inside HR system. That’s why Happy5 focuses in these areas.
Sam: Who would you recommend to use this tool?
Doni: Any business leader, CEO, CHRO, CFO, CCO, COO, anyone that wants to increase their productivity while retaining or even increasing their teams’ engagement levels. We have a proven 110% increase in productivity and 200% increase in engagement at existing clients.
On the other hand, any team members or employees who feel that the performance management system in their company is not up to date, focuses on punishment instead of coaching and is highly biased, can also recommend this tool in their teams or company. Happy5 enables high performers to stick out and allow employees to get direct feedback and real time coaching that is valuable for growth and development. All made possible by the true mobile – first platform.
Sam: Where can people find out more if they are interested?
Doni: We are still limiting media exposure, so if interested feel free to email my colleague, Dyota at dyota@happy5.co. We can chat over email, schedule a call or meeting to talk about how we can build and scale high performing culture at your organization.
Closing Thoughts
I had a great time learning more about the origins and purpose of Happy5 and I’m sure, you too enjoyed it. It’s inspiring to see a startup having the aspiration to become a nation’s pride and thereafter, conquer the world from there.
I’m a personal believer of constant feedback and real-time coaching. Only through such frequent dialogues can team members understand one another better and perform at a high level collectively. Besides direct performance, it is also an avenue to boost a sense of trust and belonging because it helps one feel normal and safe to share your views at work.
We have come to the end of this week’s People Mentality HR Tech Feature on Happy5. Stay tuned for the next one which will be out real soon!
Together we can create a better workplace for tomorrow.
