In addition to our new website, Upsteem’s Facebook page has now also been launched (http://www.facebook.com/upsteem) and we are on Google+ and Twitter. We will be constantly working to boost our presence in social media from here on in. Keep an eye open for our campaigns and Friend us on Facebook!

Making presentations at the client event were:

Herdis Ojasu, a member of the board of Upsteem.com, who talked about the fundamentals of using 360° feedback, its history and how it can change things in your company; and

Karl Laas, also a member of the board of Upsteem.com, who introduced the new faces on the overhauled website, all of whom work for Upsteem’s partner Great Success Group. You will find out more about who we are and what we do in the coming months on the website.

NEW! Team Spirit evaluations

Also presented at the event was Team Spirit evaluation, which is a simple form you can use to determine your team’s frame of mind and general level of satisfaction.

We recommend using the questionnaire no more frequently than once a quarter per team. Otherwise, if you use it too often, your teams may simply get fed up of filling it in.

You can find out more about Team Spirit evaluation in the services section on our website.

Here are the results of the Team Spirit evaluation we carried out at the client event.

The very positive feedback we received showed that we were as talented, friendly and eager as we could be at the introductory event. The questionnaires were completed by 19 of the people attending the event.

You can start using the Upsteem.com system as a whole from the Team Spirit evaluation section of our new website.

The following are some of the questions that were put to us at the client event.

Can the system be used to conduct general satisfaction surveys? You can gauge how satisfied your employees are through Team Spirit evaluation and regular feedback. Our development plans for this year include a general satisfaction survey.

Do Upsteem’s calendars enable you to synchronise different users’ calendars? Our system was structured on the principle that everyone on the team would receive the information and messages linked to them from their calendars and the front page for users. That way every user can view all of the project and activity group events they’re connected to on their calendar.

The Upsteem.com site hosts very important information – is it safe? Do you need to use your ID card to log in, or will we have to in future? Data exchange between our system and external users is encrypted, precluding ‘eavesdropping’ by third parties. As solutions go, it’s a safe one. Security within the system is ensured using logical methods that are regularly checked in development tests. Back-up copies of the database are made on a regular basis, too. Peeter Marvet says the biggest guarantee of the security of the system is the constant monitoring of its use, not logging in with an ID card or Mobile ID. We keep an eye on the way people are using Upsteem.com at all time.

Our plans for the near future

Last Friday we revealed that we’d created a team management and feedback system that was 99.9% ready to launch. More than that – that it was good! That doesn’t mean, however, that Upsteem.com is as ready as it ever will be and that we’ve fulfilled all of our ambitions in terms of developing a tool for personal development and feedback. Far from it.

The genuine interest of those who attended the event in the product reassured us and has inspired us to continue tweaking it so as to create more added value for our clients. The opinions that were shared and the questions raised at the event show that what people want most in terms of development is to be able to conduct employee satisfaction surveys. All of the other wishes that were expressed seem to be secondary to this, such as interfaces for the automatic transfer of employees’ data and updates to appraisal and statistical functions.

Given the recommendations made to us by a number of our trusted advisers, we will be contributing more to ease-of-use issues in the period ahead – first and foremost this will means that those involved in team evaluation should find taking part much easier, and easier to understand.

Based on the feedback we received from clients, most keenly awaited is the creation of a staff satisfaction module.

But that’s not all. Since we’re aiming to become a global start-up, we’ll be taking some pretty big steps in the not-too-distant future, hopefully with the help of Enterprise Estonia, in the direction of exports.

Before the big summer that’s ahead of us we are also planning to expand our clients base here at home. To this end we will be boosting our sales activities and looking for ‘dealers’. We’re convinced that success comes through cooperation.

Thanks to everyone who attended the event. See you at the next one!