Beyond Algorithms: Why Human Psychology Will Always Be At Peakon’s Core

In 2024, AI is sitting on the tip of everyone’s tongues. We’re talking about it, we’re learning more about it, and we’re integrating it into existing technologies. However, we also have to ensure that we’re paying attention to the backbone of our products and the knowledge and theory that underpin them — and that’s where the Business Psychology team plays a vital role in Workday Peakon Employee Voice.

Peakon is software designed to gather, analyse, and improve employee sentiment. It offers flexibility to listen more frequently, enabling organisations to surface more real time and data-driven insights With over 1,775 customers globally, Peakon’s data-set is ever-growing and serves as the foundation for evolving our analytic capabilities. We’re also leveraging it internally to enhance the Workmate experience.

Peakon has been a leader in the employee listening market for many years and I’ve always admired the way the platform has evoked new ways of thinking about listening. I was thrilled when the Workday acquisition of Peakon created the perfect opportunity for me to join the team!

As Principal Business Psychologist, my role is to ensure that robust psychological theory is incorporated into everything on the Peakon platform, that the voice of our customers is being heard, and that Peakon’s integration into the broader Workday ecosystem is facilitated smoothly. I love every interaction I have with our customers, and it’s fascinating to learn about different organisation’s cultures, challenges and ambitions, and support them in achieving their goals and overcoming barriers.

Reflecting on My Journey

I have always been fascinated by human behaviour. I want to understand the ‘why’ behind decisions we make, and how we show up and behave. I always hoped I would work in a field where people were at the centre, and having studied Psychology at college, it was an obvious choice to go on and study it at university. I loved learning about every part of it.

I then completed my Masters degree in Forensic Psychology, with aspirations to work in forensic and clinical psychology longer term. I’ve always wanted to help and support people, so it seemed a natural choice. Over time, my work experience exposed me to intense and sometimes tough environments. This led me to Occupational Psychology, where I felt I could utilise my skills and knowledge differently and have a greater impact.

Being able to apply my knowledge of psychology to people and organisations via executive coaching, leadership development, and employee listening has been extremely fulfilling. I’ve been fortunate to have had exposure to a huge range of organisations, their leaders and their employees, and I’ve specialised in employee listening for the past decade.

Rooted in Psychology

Psychology plays a central role in shaping the design, functionality, and impact of the Peakon product. Employee surveying/listening is about people and their experiences, so it’s essential that psychology is the foundation of the platform. We integrate psychological principles into our product development process in a number of ways:

1. Our deep market knowledge and extensive experience in the employee listening landscape enables our team of Business Psychologists to bring the customer voice to our product teams and ensure that we are developing Peakon in line with customer demand.
2. The content design, because it’s critical that our survey questions are rooted in psychology, and validated and designed against best practice principles. Our collective expertise in employee engagement measurement is fundamental to the design of our question content, and we construct questions in such a way that they are relevant, inclusive, cross-culturally applicable and actionable. That’s why the majority of our customers lean on our standard questions to provide them with the best insights after completing the survey!
3. Behavioural science principles are also leveraged to drive user engagement and behaviour change within the product. By understanding the psychology behind motivation and behaviour change, we can design features that are more likely to drive positive outcomes for our users.
4. Data analysis and insights. Business Psychology plays a crucial role in interpreting the data collected through the Peakon platform. By applying psychological theory and statistical techniques, we can uncover deeper insights into employee engagement trends, drivers, and potential interventions. This helps our customers make informed decisions and take targeted actions to improve their organisational culture and performance.

So as you can see, by leveraging psychology we create a more effective and user-friendly platform that truly addresses the needs and challenges of our customers in the realm of employee engagement and organisational development.

Making Informed Decisions with Confidence

Our customers are smart and they do their due diligence because they want the best for their organisations. There is an expectation that there is sound science relating to surveying and measurement (and there is!), so it’s our job as a team to showcase that and satisfy our customers around the validity of our methodology and approach to listening.

We work very closely with our Peakon Centre of Excellence and broader sales teams to bring this knowledge and expertise to our customers and prospects. This provides them with the evidence and answers they need in order to bring Peakon into their businesses successfully. We also partner with many other teams — for example, our Customer Success colleagues often bring our Peakon customers together to share best practices and experiences. The Business Psychology team often supports these customer sessions by sharing our latest thought leadership/white papers and emerging trends in our data-set.

Finding Fulfilment in Transformation

Peakon has the capability to transform organisational culture due to the core philosophy and methodology that underpin its design, and that’s super exciting! However, we know that not every organisation is ready for that shift immediately. Moving from transactional to transformational listening is a journey, and it takes time. I hugely enjoy helping to shape the vision and path for organisations who are ready to go on that journey, and supporting them with best practices in educating and inspiring their stakeholders and employees.

I think one of the biggest challenges of my role is that tech is fast-moving. We have to evolve our ideas at pace, continuously considering the implications of transformation and change. But that’s what makes it fun. I actually think that the role of business psychology in tech will continue to expand and become ever more important, and I predict that new and interesting roles will continue to emerge across the sector.

From my own experience, I know that there is no one path to landing a particular role in psychology. In fact, more often than not, having experience in a number of different fields, industries and roles stands people in good stead and provides a breadth of experience and skills development that will be super valuable for the future. Don’t worry if you’re not working in tech right now but think you want to be; instead, think about the skills that you still want to develop and hone, and make sure you’re in roles that enable you to grow into those. Don’t be afraid to experiment, and don’t be afraid to change your mind. Follow what you enjoy. We’re at work for a huge part of our lives after all!

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