Talk is a web application that supports organisations in creating a safe and happy workplace. It is a tool to gain more insight into how the organisation is doing, Dohmen explains. “Which teams need our attention, which themes should we address first? In that sense it is similar to an employee satisfaction survey, but it is a lot more accessible, and you can use it more frequently and for shorter periods of time. At least three times a year, you take the temperature in your organisation, as it were. Talk asks questions about ‘smaller’ topics too, such as giving and receiving feedback and receiving and expressing appreciation. By discussing such topics, you create a culture in which it is normal for people to be aware of a pleasant working environment.”
‘Talk’ makes it easier to talk about a safe work environment
A socially safe work culture is what everyone wants. However, things do go wrong in the workplace and discomfort and annoyance often escalate unnecessarily. If people feel encouraged to sound the alarm more quickly, you can prevent difficult situations from getting out of hand. Talk, the company of behavioural psychologist Roos Dohmen, helps companies and organisations with this.
A gentle nudge towards a first step
Talk is currently used in small and large companies alike: “from 10 to 3500 employees”. The response to Talk's shorter and more accessible questionnaires is high: about 70 percent of the employees who receive an email click through to the questionnaire and fill it in.
And this is where Talk's unique feature comes in: “If an employee gives a negative score on a certain subject, for example work pressure, they are encouraged to do something about it by means of nudging - a little push. All anonymously, of course.”
When in doubt, talk about things as quickly as possible - that works, as numerous studies have shown. Talk helps you to take that step more quickly by responding to thoughts and assumptions that have a inhibiting effect. And by providing concrete suggestions for what you can do and how you can go about it. “For example, you may be advised to ask a question to a confidential advisor or to have a conversation with your manager. The goal is to get people to take the first step as quickly as possible and not to leave them trying to deal with a problem on their own. Because that first step is often the hardest when you are dealing with inappropriate behaviour or increasing stress.”
Being proactive
During her internship for her Master's degree in Behavioural Change at Radboud University, Dohmen developed a monitor that focused on the predictive factors of happiness at work. In the years that followed, social safety increasingly became a topic of conversation, in the media but also in companies and organisations.
Furthermore, Dohmen herself experienced inappropriate behaviour, which over time caused her to suffer from burnout symptoms. ”I thought a long time about the question: why did it take so long – a few years even – before I did something about what had happened? That prompted me to look more into the prevention side of social safety. How can you intervene early when things happen that make people feel uncomfortable? That way it might be possible to resolve the situation with a conversation, and it doesn't have to escalate into unhappy and sick people.”
Collaborating with science
An innovation that Dohmen would like to implement is to give managers suggestions based on the (anonymous) results at the team level. ”Suppose you get low scores on giving feedback, what are some possibilities for making it a regular item on the agenda of work meetings, for example?”
In 2024, Dohmen, together with HAN University of Applied Sciences and Topsport Gelderland, won the National Sports Innovator Prize, with which they developed a ‘sports version’ of Talk: the Sporttalk web app for sports organisations. ”For this, we developed a different questionnaire for children and young people who play sports. It's a great application, and we are very proud of what we have achieved.”
Innovation and development are part of Dohmen's entrepreneurial spirit, which is why the company is right at home at the Science Park on the campus of Radboud University. “The company started from my studies and I am still in close contact with the study programme. We would like to work with researchers and apply for grants together to see how nudging works best. If we can scientifically demonstrate which approach works best for socially safe organisations, it could spare a lot of suffering.”
Contact information
Organisations that would like to use Talk, or researchers who would like to collaborate with Roos Dohmen, can get in touch via the Talk website.
Are you a knowledge-intensive, innovative entrepreneur and would you like to know more about what Radboud University's Science Park can do for you? Then contact us via www.ru.nl/sciencepark
- Theme
- Behaviour, Innovation, Management
