As 2020 has come to an end, and we all know it has been a challenging year for everyone, here at Cinnamon we are happy for all the changes that have happened within the company.

We are especially proud of how much Cinnamon has grown. There were 25 of us in January 2020, and regardless of all the challenges that COVID-19 brought, such as uncertainty in the private and business world, the challenges for mental and physical health, social distancing and remote work, now in January 2021 there are 60 of us!

Due to an objectively challenging year with such amazing growth that followed, for the first time we decided to participate in an anonymous survey conducted by MojPosao among 47 other companies in order to find out how satisfied Cinnamon employees are and how this growth was reflected in our people. The research was conducted for the purpose of obtaining general employee satisfaction ratings, degrees of engagement and employee loyalty, and comparisons with other companies in the industry and with the best Croatian employers. This survey explores 9 key dimensions of employee satisfaction that are considered important factors for employee engagement. These 9 dimensions are:

As mentioned, the company has undergone major growth in 2020, and with all the current changes happening in the world, such an anonymous survey was a great addition to other various HR processes which we do here at Cinnamon. We know how important it is to monitor the satisfaction of employees who are longer in the company, as well as newer ones, in order to ensure that all employees feel good during such a big change. Since it was an anonymous survey, it gave all our employees the freedom to be honest and say what they really think in order to highlight our strengths and point out the challenges ahead.

We were very eager to hear the results of the survey, and we are very happy to announce that Cinnamon ranked 5th in the category of mid-size companies! Overall employee satisfaction is rated 3.56 (out of 4), and additionally it is nice to see that our employees were intrinsically motivated to participate in this research - the turnout was 97%, which is very high. With such amazing company growth and changes happening worldwide throughout this year, it is a great success that we have maintained our organizational processes and that employee satisfaction is at a high level. It is a great honor to be in the TOP 5, and this really shows that we are on the right track.

When we look at Cinnamons’s ENSP which was 75, it’s also very high. ENSP (Employee Net Promoter Score) is a measure of employee loyalty which includes how much employees are willing to recommend their job/company to their family and/or friends. It ranges from -100 to +100. It is considered that an ENSP above 30 is a good score, and an ENSP above 50 is an excellent score, which is why we are especially proud of our score of 75.

Additionally, 78% of our employees are promoters of Cinnamon (they would surely recommend the company as a good place to work at), 19% of them are passive, while 3% are critics. One of our tasks in 2020 will be to focus on the 19% of passive employees and 3% of critics in order to make them promoters as well. Although 78% of promoters is already very high, we do not want to stop at that percentage - we want to aim for 100% of promoters.

Our highest ranked categories for employee satisfaction are what we have been striving for all these years to be our strengths - Teamwork (3.7 out of 4) and Challenging tasks (3.6 out of 4). This shows exactly the kind of culture we nurture here at Cinnamon. We like to have a good time as a team, but we also get the work done and love the challenge. We are especially proud of the Teamwork category, because in these pandemic times when most of the team is working remotely, we were honestly afraid of how it will affect morale, interpersonal relationships and the sense of unity. But with regular communication, a lot of video calls and some fun innovations (as far as we know we pioneered stand-up-comic-over-Zoom events), we managed to keep spirits up and teamwork at an all-time high.

Although sometimes it is preferred to showcase only the good results, our culture at Cinnamon is also about transparency. As we like to acknowledge our strengths as a company, we were also excited to hear what our possible room for improvement areas were, because in the end we strive to continuously improve, for the benefit of our employees. That is why we are proud to have the opportunity to publicly highlight our lowest ranked category, Work organization (3.3 out of 4). Our lowest ranked category should be seen in the context of Cinnamon's rapid growth, and granting that the difference of 0.4 is not a large one, we still think it’s something we need and will work on. Also, the work organization category is often the weakest across the industry, and that is why improving Cinnamon’s work organization is really important and something we have devoted ourselves to. What will certainly contribute even further to improve work organization are our strengths - strong teamwork, courage and perseverance when facing challenges.

Additionally, the study measured employee engagement. It is important to note that employee engagement and employee satisfaction are not the same. Employees who are engaged put in the extra effort needed to succeed, they say positive things about the company, are more loyal to the company and choose to stay in the long run. Satisfied employees are not necessarily engaged, but engaged employees are certainly satisfied, which is why this is a very important measure. 67% of employees at Cinnamon are engaged, 33% are neutral, while 0% are unmotivated, unhappy employees. If we look at the company as a boat, everyone on that boat should paddle, not just some. And even though we don’t have unmotivated employees, our goal is to make these neutral employees highly engaged, so that we have a boat on which we all paddle with equal devotion and enthusiasm.

Knowing the results, we are excited to continue working on our follow-up steps for further improving our organization. We are sure that you’re quite intrigued what our next steps will be – so stay tuned.

A big shout out to all of our Cinnamon employees, this would not be possible without you and thank you for all these amazing comments :)