Does your boss really care what you think?

Cato Syversen runs a sober and serious business, providing credit ratings information.

But to keep the 1,300 staff at his firm Creditsafe amused and engaged during the pandemic he revealed his lighter side.

Working from home during Covid spurred the company to buy software that allowed staff to run their own media operation.

Mr Syversen joined in with a stint as a DJ and also donned a false moustache and suit to play Ron Burgundy, the title character from the movie, Anchorman.

The Norwegian finance executive has embraced these challenges. "I'm an old punk rocker. I wanted to be a rock star, this is a good second."

When Mr Syversen turned to LiveTiles, software that allows a workforce to build their own videos and podcasts together online, he knew what he did not want to see.

"I did not want a company intranet because in my experience they are boring."

According to him, Creditsafe's employees leapt at the chance to be creative and break the monotony of working from home be creating their own news desk, including Mr Syversen's Anchorman impression, and Safe FM, an internal radio station with studio guests and podcasts.

The videos contain footage of work Christmas parties in Italy or Sweden, tips to beat the January blues, advice and insights from colleagues. And it can get very personal, with staff paying respects to deceased colleagues.

Mr Syversen had wanted to get this kind of informal network up and running before the pandemic, but he discovered that dedicated software was the missing ingredient. "We had something we made ourselves and it was rubbish!"

His first reaction to the pandemic scattering his workforce back to their homes, was to email a daily newsletter around the company. But that didn't strike the right, informal note he was looking for. Freeing up his staff to do their own thing has worked, he insists.

"Things like seeing the faces of people in other countries, it's not easy to get that sense of belonging. Normally we have a big party every five years, everyone gets together, but not this time."

Creditsafe's staff have risen to the opportunity he says. "I like the way they pay attention and share things, like tips on how to use the features of Teams."

Gothenburg-based employee, Camilla Emring puts it like this: "I feel people open their hearts up more than they would in the queue at the coffee machine."

Bringing some lightness to the workplace is probably not a bad idea. But how does an employer find out if their efforts are making any difference?

One way to test the water is to use software that canvasses staff sentiment.

Sarah Marrs is an occupational psychologist with Qualtrics. She ensures that the right questions are posed to employees to gauge their true feelings.

Employees of a business using Qualtrics's software see a series of statements such as "I feel as if I belong at this company" and rate their level of agreement or disagreement with it. These responses are fed into a dashboard, lighting up indicators of a workforce's emotional state.

The company says that more businesses were monitoring how employee sentiment shifted during lockdowns, with tools like surveys, because unhappy staff were voting with their feet.

This exodus has been tagged as the Great Resignation by some, with some parts of the workforce reassessing their values and shifting to completely different careers and others retiring early.

However, not everyone sees this online interaction as a positive. Bogdan Costea left his native Romania to attend a conference at Lancaster University in the UK in 1992 and never left. He found a niche at the university, studying the nature of work and is now a Professor of Management and Society.

Professor Costea thinks that feedback from a workforce is not the treasure trove that some view it as. "We have become enthralled by data, as if the more we collect, the more truth comes out. So, there are so many software packages that gauge employee sentiment and claim to allow individual expressions of opinion."

However, he warns that this kind of employee canvassing can lure individuals into a sense that they need to justify their own role.

"After the first three months of working from home during the pandemic, people began to overwork because they wanted to prove they were doing their job. Asking them to talk about how they feel can be dangerous because they may be reluctant to admit their vulnerabilities," he says.

Andrew Pakes, deputy general secretary of professional workers union, Prospect, also has concerns and believes staff may worry about being judged.

"Is there a league table? Can an employer use this technology to see the ten least engaged workers? What will that mean for them?"

Prospect is not opposed to this raft of opinion-seeking software, but fears that hitting icons on a screen is no real substitute for human judgement.

"We'd like to see mental health becoming more central to management, not delegated to external products."

Back at Qualtrics, Ms Marrs understands these concerns but adds that from her experience it's important to remember that senior executives also have feelings invested in the feedback process. "Board members and chief executives take feedback very personally."

So, if anyone should be able to answer the question of whether your boss really cares what you think, Ms Marrs should. She pauses before replying. "I want to say 'yes', obviously, but the truth is that your employer cares about the bottom line. And, at the moment, employees have the power to stay or leave."