As you might already be aware, Attuned helps organizations understand the Intrinsic Motivations of their employees, the usually unseen values that drive people from within. With these insights, organizations can identify motivational gaps and blindspots, and build better work environments where employees are more engaged and work is more meaningful. 

But don’t take our word for it. Recently, Attuned teamed up with Dr. Alicia von Schenk, a mathematician and researcher on the economics of artificial intelligence, formerly at Goethe University Frankfurt and now at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, to see what the data says. Dr. von Schenk developed a sophisticated mathematical model and crunched a lot of numbers: almost 300,000 observations of some 4,000 workers across 1,000 teams within 70 firms. And the results were great news for anyone who would like organizations to function better.  

Attuned Increases Engagement

The main finding was that worker engagement increases with the duration of Attuned usage. There was a strong, positive association here—especially after controlling for an initial period during which employees first started to interact with Attuned.  

A straightforward interpretation of this finding is that employers use the insights from Attuned to manage their employees more effectively. 

Why the initial period during which the association is weaker (but still positive)? It could be that managers need some time to learn to use the platform to get the most out of its various features, and to adapt their management style based on its recommendations.   

Disengaged Employees Benefit Most

A second finding is that the more disengaged an employee is initially, the more their usage of Attuned increases their engagement. To get a sense of the magnitude of this result, imagine a scale from -100 to +100. At -100 is an employee who is totally checked out, doing the absolute bare minimum to avoid getting fired. At +100 is an employee who hangs on their boss’s every word and is positively delighted to put in extra hours if the opportunity arises. Now, suppose there are two less extreme employees. One is at -50 and the other at +50. For each additional interaction that these two employees have with Attuned, the disengaged employee (the -50) increases their score by 7 points more than their more engaged counterpart. 

What might underlie this outcome? One possibility is that Attuned is particularly effective in helping managers identify and change their approach towards disengaged workers.  

Highly Effective For Small Teams

A third finding relates to team size. The smaller the team, the more employees benefit by using Attuned. This finding fits well with the previous interpretation. If managers are using the software to target the disengaged to some extent, then they should be better able to adapt their management approach to these individuals when they have fewer employees to oversee.  With larger numbers of employees to manage, the ability to make more personalized management changes diminishes.  

Shared Motivators Drive Teams

Finally, a fourth finding relates to team composition: Attuned is particularly useful for homogeneous teams of employees who have similar motivators. If, for instance, many of the employees in a team are motivated by a sense of Altruism, then a manager can use this knowledge to change the work environment accordingly (perhaps by creating a new outlet for employees to express that motivator.) If, on the other hand, employees have a diverse set of motivators—for example, some are strongly motivated by Social Relationships and Innovation while others see Status and Financial Needs as more important—then it can be harder for a manager to change the work environment to suit everyone.  

These are a few of the findings that Dr. von Schenk describes in her paper, which can be accessed here. (Even if you are not the kind of person who typically reads articles in economic or mathematical journals, you might want to take a look, as it is well written and clear.) By and large, the paper’s findings substantiate what we have learned from experience: that Attuned really does help organizations create better, more engaging, more satisfying workplaces.

More ON Intrinsic Motivation

Brandon Routman
Senior Behavioural Scientist