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273 Prolonging working life by engaging employees in developing work wellbeing with total openness and transparency with the kivaq method
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  1. Näsman Ove1,
  2. Strandberg Erika2
  1. 1MD, KivaQ Ltd, Kimitoön, Finland
  2. 2MSSc, Municipality of Kimitoön, Kimitoön, Finland

Abstract

Introduction Employee wellbeing correlates with long working life. Every organisation should have a structured program for developing work wellbeing. The KivaQ method has been used in Finland in many successful projects.

The KivaQ method The KivaQ method consists of a questionnaire and a development workshop. The online questionnaire is fast, easy to use, validated, affordable and engaging. The seven standard questions are in 17 languages. All information is accessible at the website www.kivaq.fi including the questions and reference materials from different industries in the analysing module. The structured workshop has seven ppt-bottoms for the facilitator. A KivaQ method guide is available in English and Finnish. In 2016 a small municipality in Finland with 584 employees executed the KivaQ questionnaire with total openness. Every employee got the password and could analyse the results of the survey. In 2017 the survey was repeated with total openness. The openness was studied by constructing two additional questions in the 2017 survey.

Result In the 2017 survey 27,6% of the respondents reported, that they had used the possibility and themselves analysed the survey in 2016. Of the respondents 69,2% thought that the new way with openness in the personnel survey was good or very good. Only 1,5% thought the idea was bad or very bad. 29,3% had no opinion.

Discussion The results indicate that increased organisational openness also in surveys is welcomed by the majority of the personnel. This may increase the informal discussions on work wellbeing and result in increased investment in wellbeing. Some teams in the example municipality are already discussing participating in the KivaQ workshop. This may lead to prolonged working life. The authors call for more testing with total openness in surveys.

  • Questionnaire
  • economic
  • participation

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