In 2019, Synoptik’s annual employee survey showed a level of satisfaction & motivation that fell short of expectations, when compared to the previous year. However, with specific initiative areas, ongoing advice and dedicated employees, Synoptik’s level of satisfaction & motivation is now higher than the Danish average for the retail sector.

At the beginning of 2019, Synoptik initiated a number of different change initiatives, which had a direct impact on the working days and day-to-day work of the employees. The results of a subsequent employee survey showed that there was a large dispersion in satisfaction & motivation despite an increase in 2018. According to Synoptik’s HR director, Tina Thomsen, the results of this large dispersion in satisfaction and motivation did not reflect the desired or expected level:

“The results of the measurement were surprising and clearly showed that we had failed to implement the change initiatives we had commenced at all levels of management in the organization.”

It was therefore clear to Synoptik that – to a greater extent than expected – there was a need for a focused approach to anchor the new initiatives of the executive board in the organization.

A structured tool generates specific action plans

The employee survey measured a number of different parameters which provided transparency and visibility with respect to determining the focus areas where Synoptik benefited from targeting its efforts to improve satisfaction, motivation and loyalty. According to Regitze Gerlach, HR partner and person responsible for the internal implementation of the employee survey, the overview of these beneficial initiative areas offered useful insight, enabling the departments to identify the primary areas where improvements could be made:

 “The recommendations of the measurement have been very good for us. It made it easy for our managers to explain to the employees in the departments which focus areas that action plans could be made for – and this led to a high level of engagement among managers.”

Apart from gaining this insight from the measurement, it was important for Synoptik that the action plans were run by the employees themselves. Therefore, the employees were also encouraged to focus on the separate factors that generate satisfaction & motivation for each individual, as this would generate more engagement and ownership among the employees with respect to the specific initiatives that they had to work with.

Understanding the relationship between the results and more dialog

The employee survey gave Synoptik numerous and different results, and therefore, it was important for Synoptik to understand the relationship between the results, explains Regitze Gerlach:

“We benefited greatly from Ennova’s advice and their platform because it helped us understand what the results were actually showing. It was necessary for us to understand the context of the result in order to implement just the right initiative for improving our satisfaction, motivation and loyalty.”

As part of its effort to improve the level of the employee measurement, Synoptik also asked the executive board to establish direct dialog with all the company’s employees. HR director Tina Thomsen says that this was intended to help provide employees and managers with a more thorough introduction to the purpose of the company's change journey. This meant that the executive board implemented dialog-based initiatives, e.g. workshops, Teams meetings, and video and feedback sessions. This generated better employee motivation with respect to being a part of the change journey.

Valuable cooperation since 2015

In 2020, Synoptik’s annual employee survey showed that the focused work with the action plans and a better anchoring of the change initiatives meant that the company had managed to fix its low level of satisfaction & motivation. This level is now higher than the benchmark for the retail industry (72 points) and for Danish medium-sized companies (75 points) in 2020.

At Ennova, Senior Advisor Velin Nikolov, who was the facilitator of the survey, was also very impressed with Synoptik’s good result, which put the company in the top 10% of Ennova’s retail customers with the highest employee engagement. This is thanks to all the work that the managers – with expert guidance from HR – have put into the follow-up to the 2019 results.

According to HR director Tina Thomsen, there is no doubt that Ennova’s advice was very important in achieving last year’s good result:

“Over the years, Ennova has certainly helped us be able to work in a focused way with initiatives that make a difference in the organization – both in the long and short term.”

Synoptik has been collaborating with Ennova since 2015, and she believes that there is a very specific reason for these many years of cooperation:

“One of the best things about the collaboration with Ennova is that we have received great advice and sparring. This was possible because Ennova was capable of turning their valuable knowledge and insights from data into good advice and sparring.”

According to Regitze Gerlach, any company commits itself to following up on the results when performing an employee survey, as this is the only way that the results can actually generate value for a future change. Therefore, both Tina Thomsen and Regitze Gerlach believe that competent advice with respect to the results of the measurement is the critical element in their choice for partner when conducting an employee survey.

Tina Thomsen

HR Director, Synoptik

Regitze Gerlach

HR Partner, Synoptik

About synoptik

Since 1930, Synoptik has provided advice to private customers on the purchase of glasses, sunglasses and contact lenses, and with 103 stores across the whole country and 750 employees, Synoptik is one of the Denmark’s most prominent optometrist chains. Synoptik is partially owned by Synoptik-Fonden and the international optometrist group GrandVision, which with over 37,000 employees and stores in 40 countries, is a leading expert within lenses, glasses and contact lenses.