The project

As part of the human resources policy implemented by Erdgas Ostschweiz AG (EGO), internal surveys are regularly conducted in order to identify strengths and areas for improvement. This enables measures to be deduced that aim at improving the work environment of employees on a daily basis.

In 2022, CORESO was commissioned to conduct such a survey in the form of online workshops with the various EGO teams. These workshops intended to stimulate each team to jointly identify key points and action items in order to establish collectively, at a second stage, possible measures to be implemented.

Our contribution

CORESO designed the interventions in close collaboration with EGO's Management and was responsible for their implementation using the CORESO-tool developed in-house. This software allows participants to connect remotely to their respective workshop, also facilitated by our team, which was particularly convenient given the sanitary restrictions related to COVID at the time. In total, 5 workshops were held with different sized EGO teams.

The CORESO-tool allows participants to contribute to a collective thinking process powered online and to add their ideas anonymously. This dynamic fosters a constructive culture of debate and also allows critical or sensitive topics to be addressed. The evaluation of contributions according to their relevance attributed by each team is also performed online and anonymously via the software.

Thanks to this approach, it was possible to generate a list of action items in order of relevance within a short period of time. For the most relevant fields of action, the participants were invited to anonymously submit proposals for measures and to evaluate them.

The outcome

At the end of the one-and-a-half to two-hour workshop, each team had a list of action fields and a list of concrete measures. Participants particularly appreciated the efficiency and anonymity in collecting and evaluating ideas via the CORESO-tool. Whilst anonymity is favourable for open discussion, the moderation and interaction through the software allows for efficient time management and prevents the group from getting lost in discussions about details or about a limited number of ideas.