This week, like the rest of the world I have been following the recent riots in Brazil. What started off as a peaceful protest against a small increase to public transport fares has turned into over a million people protesting across Brazil with wide spread violence against police as well as looting and damage to public property. An opinion survey conducted by Datafolha this week shows that only 56% cite the reason for rioting as the fare increase compared to 40% against corruption. This however is in stark contrast to a recently conducted international survey by the Happy Planet Index on happiness and positivity which scored Brazil at 6.8 compared to the global average of 5.3. The biggest reasons for this were the change in leadership and the upcoming Olympics and Football World Cup. The challenge for the Brazilian government now is to understand the true public opinion and get the protesters back on side.

This is also a big challenge facing businesses today. How do we accurately measure employee opinion and then increase engagement? Do anonymous employee surveys get to the heart of what employees are thinking and feeling and how do you analysis the data to gain the real reasons behind the opinions? Building an open and honest culture where everyone’s voice can heard is vital as well as making sure that opinions and ideas from every employee are valued. Round tables and open forums can also be a great way to understand employee opinions as well as social media and networking sites. Gaining all this information is irrelevant however, if views and feedback aren’t taken on board with even the minor of intentions to make improvements. Lack of follow up on employee opinion can actually have a detrimental effect on engagement and decrease the amount of employees willing to participate in future surveys.

High employee engagement has been proved to have a positive influence on motivation, collaboration, success, creativity and productivity in the workplace. Propellerne, a social media and marketing agency in Brighton, were recently awarded first place in the Great Place to Work Institute’s best small business workplace 2013. They place a huge value on their employees and aim to improve their lives by creating a democracy, implementing regular social events and recreational activities, providing a healthy breakfast and snacks, scheduled lie-ins on birthdays and even the chance for employees to have their dreams come true! They believe that creating a happy and healthy workforce increase the success of their consultancy. Anyone running a business will read this and wonder how much it all costs. Providing breakfast every day for the staff alone can cost a lot of money. However there are things that can have immediate effects on engagement that cost nothing but a bit of brain power and discipline. Decision making for example: how long does it take to make decisions in your business and how long do staff have to wait to hear back? This also ties in with leadership. Sometime staff will be more engaged if you come back and with the answer (favourable or not) but provide the reasons rather than be left hanging, bored of waiting and frustrated. We tend to find it’s more about how you are treated than what you are given. This is proved by the continued riots in Brazil even after the government decided to take back the increase in transport costs.

Kristina is a Consultant in London and can’t recall how much the bus cost when she was last in Brazil.