Frequently asked questions

An independent and confidential third party. Evidence shows that employees are often reluctant to talk about their experiences and give honest feedback to HR or to their direct leader. Internal surveys are not considered independent or confidential. Helder uses anonymised and aggregated data, meaning it is not possible to identify individuals.

Specialists in our field. HR performs a generalist role covering many concurrent functions. Helder uses organisational psychologists and practitioners with skills and expertise in this field.

Confidentiality. Our practitioners are bound by the confidentiality and ethical standards of their profession.

Anyone seeking an independent, validated third-party diagnostic:

• Boards and executive teams of private and public organisations
• Founders and scale-up leaders
• HR and People & Culture leaders
• Health, safety and risk professionals
• Private equity and investment firms
• Organisations undergoing significant change
• Organisational psychologists and consultants
• Employment lawyers, workplace investigators and risk advisors seeking an independent third-party cultural and psychosocial risk assessment
• Organisations seeking an assessment of the attributes of a high-performing team that they can model for others

Cultural intelligence adds the most value at particular trigger points in an organisation’s lifecycle:

• Scaling and growth. Once headcount passes around 100 and founders can no longer see first-hand what is happening across their teams.
• Governance and board oversight. As an annual independent organisational health and culture assessment (Phase 1 of our approach), in the same way financial and cyber audits are run today.
• Major change and transformation. Before, during and after mergers and acquisitions, restructures, technology programmes or regulatory change, and when a new CEO is appointed and needs to understand the cultural baseline they are inheriting.
• Decline, underperformance or crisis. When performance drops without an obvious cause, high performers are leaving, decision-making slows or regulators start asking questions.

Whatever the stage, measuring early establishes a baseline against which change can be tracked. Read more in our article When Cultural Intelligence Creates Real Value.

• We capture minimal personally identifiable information, and it is deleted once the analysis is complete.
• Helder is compliant with data protection and privacy laws, including GDPR. To understand how we protect data, read our Privacy Notice.
• Dr Emma Clarke is bound by the Code of Professional Conduct and ethical standards set by The British Psychological Society (BPS) and The Netherlands Institute of Psychology (NIP).

• Survey and interview data is anonymous. Names and any sensitive information are redacted, checked by the practitioner and held only for the duration of the review.
• Data is encrypted and secured within a ring-fenced, partitioned environment on Microsoft Azure in Western Europe.

• Phase 1, the survey, takes about three weeks. Phase 2, interviews and Three-Factor Analysis™, about nine weeks. Together they take about twelve weeks, and each phase can be commissioned on its own.
• We need leaders and employees to participate to obtain meaningful insights.
• We can leverage the investment in your current platforms and wellbeing tools, diagnosing your existing survey data to gain further insights.
• A 15-20% participation rate is needed for a statistically reliable sample, depending on the size of the team or company.
• Surveys take approximately 7-8 minutes per person to complete.
• We interview a minimum of 12 employees and leaders, with each interview lasting approximately 45 minutes. For larger organisations, 25 interviews would be conducted.
• Participation is voluntary and completely anonymous. Organisational leaders will not know who has participated.
• To measure change over time, we recommend annual reviews for three years. The more data we collect, the better the insights.

• Improving workplace culture and employee wellbeing drives higher performance, stronger talent attraction and retention, and delivers proven gains in innovation, psychological safety and revenue per employee.
• In a company or team of 500 employees, the avoidable cost to total remuneration from burnout, poor performance and unwanted turnover could be up to £1.3M per annum, or 30%.
• With an investor lens, for a 500-person organisation a 5% reduction in presenteeism could unlock more than €2m of productive capacity. Assuming only half of that translates to EBITDA, that is approximately €1.1m of incremental EBITDA. At an 8-12× valuation multiple, that could equate to roughly €9m-€13.5m of enterprise value creation.
• From a risk perspective, Helder reduces the risk of organisations making decisions without visibility of the underlying cultural conditions.
• Three-Factor diagnostics give boards, investors and leadership teams earlier visibility of the organisational, structural and leadership conditions that may be increasing exposure to burnout, unwanted turnover, presenteeism, poor decision-making and other forms of workforce risk. This creates an evidence base for targeted preventative action before those risks translate into harm, operational disruption or financial loss.

• Most wellbeing programmes charge on a per-seat model, between £100 and £1,200 per employee per annum depending on seniority.
• During the pilot the cost is negotiable and based on the size of the organisation, for example:
  • Small, fewer than 100 employees: 25 surveys and 12 interviews
  • Mid-size, 100-500 employees: 75 surveys and 20 interviews
  • Enterprise, more than 500 employees: 125 surveys and 25 interviews