KOCHI: At a time when India is debating the work-life balance of corporate employees, two professionals have launched a firm that aims to improve every workplace.
Soulknob, the brainchild of Vivo V G and Eisen Isac was launched in 2023 and aims to assess and certify workplaces. Through assessment and support, they aim to create an environment where people enjoy coming to work.
From the time the duo were pursuing MTechs at Birla Institute of Technology And Science, Pilani, they intended to start their own business. According to Vivo, co-founder and CEO of Soulknob, they started the firm after working for nearly 10 years in different corporate roles.
Before developing Soulknob, the two interacted with more than 13,000 employees, top leaders and decision-makers from various organisations for nearly eight years. “In 2023, the knowledge we received was transferred into an AI (long short-term memory network) to launch Soulknob,” he explains.
What motivated them was the way job satisfaction surveys were carried out in multinational companies to address and solve issues faced by employees and employers.
“We worked for different multinational companies. Once, HR requested us to complete a sixty-question survey. We could only look through 15 to 20 questions in detail due to limited time. The other questions were answered with guesswork. Upon discussing with my coworkers, they too said they provided unclear answers. This inspired us to develop an improved assessment tool,” adds Eisen, the co-founder and CTO of Soulknob. The duo has also published in two journals about building a better place to work and strategies to retain top talents based on the knowledge they gained.
At the assessment level, three surveys are carried out with a gap of two to three weeks. “The platform has three levels — Soul Seeker, the initial survey reveals key insights, Soul Detector is built on the hints from the first assessment and pinpoints real problems and Soul Validator, the concluding survey confirms and validates the problems identified in the previous steps,” adds Vivo. Based on the assessment reports from the employees, Soulknob also certifies the company as a ‘Better Place to Work’. The firm now has around 10 clients. And recently, the Kochi-based start-up incubated with Microsoft and associated with Zoho.
The two to three weeks of gap helps account for a person’s mood swings during the three assessments. “It makes the results more accurate and relevant to the respondent’s state,” says Vivo. Soulknob also provides traditional consultations, AI chat support, and peer groups, to prevent employees from leaving the workplace.
The fee for an employee for the assessment is Rs 599 per year, which means Rs 49 per month. The number of employees in an organisation will determine how much a company has to pay.
“Essentially, it actually costs less than a cup of coffee for a person,” Vivo continues.
Soulknob also has an HR dashboard that offers a thorough overview of how these activities are impacting the company. “It helps evaluate the success of different initiatives and make data-driven choices to improve employee happiness and engagement,” explains Eisen.
“Ultimately, the aim is employee satisfaction,” the duo says.
