As millions of employees around the world have been forced to work from home for the foreseeable future, employers are looking to find new ways to connect.
Nemesysco, a voice analytics technology company based in Israel, usually offers its product for security and insurance companies and customer service like call centers. But since the outbreak of the coronavirus the company has seen significantly increased traction for applying its voice analytics technology to monitor remote employee wellness.
“I believe managers in any situation must make informed decisions based on the most reliable information they can get,” says Amir Liberman, CEO of Nemesysco. “This is where we are another source of information, helping them tap into things that you would normally not sense, that goes beyond words.”
Nemesysco’s voice analytics for employee wellness monitoring is built around the company’s layered voice analysis technology, which is designed to reveal the genuine emotional state of a person by detecting and measuring uncontrolled psychophysiological changes to a person’s voice during conversations.
To monitor remote employee wellness, the voice analysis technology runs in the background during real-time or recorded conversations with employees. The technology initially establishes a baseline for each monitored employee and monitors for changes in emotions relevant to the workplace — including stress, frustration, fatigue, motivation and enthusiasm.
“It doesn't mean that I'm going to invade an employee’s privacy, or that I'm going to ask things I'm not supposed to because that would be completely inappropriate,” he says. “But if I get these indications that my employees are under deeper stress, and I know what topics cause distress, I can ask certain questions about equipment that they need, or their work environment. I can then take actions to manage this properly to make the employee feel better.”
The company’s voice analysis technology uses artificial intelligence and coding, and analyzes millions of recordings to gauge voice emotion.
“Imagine [an employee] is trying to suppress these reactions to not show their manager that they’re too nervous or concerned, so they regulate whatever they may expose when talking,” Liberman says. “Here comes the technology and says ‘okay, don't assume, don't guess, don't think that you can hear.’ And we listen to what’s actually in the voice.”
See also:
Based on the information that the voice analytics provide, employers can decide how to address issues and concerns, which could vary from forming a closer work group or communicating more frequently with the employee, to connecting them with a company psychologist.
In addition to using technology to tap into the nuances of an employee’s emotional state, opening the lines of communication is critical to ensuring employees feel supported and heard.
“I think that if we want to maintain a good working relationship, even when we are working remotely, there has to be a very open communication about needs,” he says. “These are challenging times and it's very important to have these conversations with employees. Maintaining these types of close and open discussions with employees is paramount to easing the nervousness of the entire industry.”
