Automated platform for conducting employee surveys in the public sector (MUST).

Background

STAMI (The National Institute of Occupational Health) is funded by the Ministry of Labor and Social Inclusion. The organization's vision is to improve and protect employee well-being by contributing to the creation of positive work environments that prevent illness and promote good health. It seeks to identify connections between work, well-being, and health to pinpoint risk factors and provide preventive measures where necessary.

Each year, STAMI is involved in over 60 research projects and collaborates with various partners to cover the full spectrum of Norwegians' work experiences. One specific project related to HR research required a more sophisticated and technically robust survey solution. STAMI chose to collaborate with MI Pro to leverage its secure data collection platform, relieving pressure on its internal IT team.

The Project

Background

The Directorate for Management and Financial Management, commonly known as DFØ, works closely with public organizations to offer employee surveys. However, DFØ lacked the internal expertise to build a modern, scientifically sound survey that complied with current regulations and requirements, such as GDPR and universal design. They turned to STAMI for assistance in creating the necessary survey, utilizing the organization’s extensive knowledge in HR research.

Challenges

The key challenges STAMI needed to overcome included:

• Limited IT Resources: The organization has a relatively small IT department and needed smart solutions to streamline processes.
• Data and IT Security: Ensuring data security is crucial in all research conducted by STAMI; they needed a solution that adhered to all necessary standards.
• Changing Survey Requirements: The requirements for surveys were expected to change throughout the process.
• Accessibility Needs: The software needed to meet universal design criteria and apply this automatically when creating surveys.
• High Drop-Out Rates: Respondents were required to fill out all fields, leading to high abandonment rates due to the 70+ questions.
• Manual Input Risks: The existing solution demanded significant manual input from researchers, increasing the potential for technical and human errors.
• Repeated Survey Creation:STAMI had to create a new survey for each new project.

To address these challenges and deliver high-quality data to DFØ effectively and cost-efficiently, STAMI sought collaboration with a technology provider that could help modernize its existing solution.

Objectives

To build a modern, robust, and secure IT solution for HR researchers.

Requirements

STAMI set the following requirements for the software:

• Easy Implementation: To free up the IT department’s time.
• Automatic Consent Management: Through Altinn.
• Cloud-Based System: To integrate into STAMI's Secure Zone, a closed network for data storage.
• User-Friendly for Researchers: Minimal IT experience required.
• Automated Workflow: For sending reports back to DFØ.
• Self-Service Portal: For end-users and STAMI.

The Solution

STAMI and MI Pro collaborated to develop a new automated solution to:

• Integrate with Altinn through a custom module known as the Altinn Integration Point (AIP).
• Automatically transfer consent data granted in Altinn to the MI Pro platform.
• MI Pro then utilized its advanced technology to:
• Ensure that surveys and reports were universally designed, focusing on visualization to ensure all viewers could read and process the information. For blind respondents, a feature was included to read information aloud.
• Allow modifications to the survey post-launch, eliminating the need for manual adjustments via Excel.
• Enable surveys to be started on a computer, transitioned to a mobile device, and completed on a tablet, allowing participants to continue where they left off.
• Provide a self-service portal where HR teams could independently order surveys by:
• Selecting from various modules to automatically build the relevant questionnaire.
• Uploading an Excel file with employee information, including emails and departmental positions.
• Setting dates for when invitations should be sent to employees.
• Accessing completed reports.

Additionally, the system created automatic PowerPoint reports based on the organization’s departmental hierarchy, with different reports generated depending on the structure and size of the department. To maintain anonymity, the granularity and type of charts/slides would be automatically chosen. Customized reports could be generated in just a few minutes, with the potential for hundreds of reports depending on the size of the organization. The PowerPoint reports were designed to be visually appealing while adhering to WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). A collaborative effort with a design agency and a company specializing in universal access allowed all diagrams, tables, and figures to automatically receive alternative representations that screen readers could capture.

Illustration:

Examples of PowerPoint reports tailored to each individual's organizational level, as well as WCAG accessibility adaptations.

What have the results been?

Since the launch of the project in April 2022, several hundred organizations have completed the survey. By using the MI Pro platform, STAMI has been able to provide DFØ with the information it needed, quickly, easily, and to the high standard expected by the organization.

“The team at MI Pro is very solutions-oriented. Their experience is evident in what they deliver, and they are always willing to help wherever possible. Since we only have a small IT team, it's great to have this extension of support.

Ultimately, MI Pro makes us feel important; we get the attention we need, when we need it. It hasn’t been a traditional client-supplier relationship; it has been a partnership.”

— Einar Schøning, IT Director, STAMI

What’s next?

The main advantage of the solution MI Pro delivered for this specific project is its applicability. The flexibility, user-friendliness, and power of the MI Pro platform allow it to be used by other departments within STAMI, as well as by private organizations in Norway and beyond. The investment with MI Pro has proven to be very cost-effective for STAMI and enables them to explore other ways to expand the scope of this research, identify new trends, and provide greater impact for their clients.