To make sure our employee surveys truly help organizations thrive, we’ve built our data model on three key principles. These principles ensure that the model is not only scientifically sound, but also reliable in practice and directly useful for enabling great leadership across the organization.
Scientific research is the backbone of a great employee survey
In order to help our customers make data driven decisions to improve wellbeing and team collaboration, we've studied extensively the science behind successful teamwork, productivity, psychological needs, employee wellbeing, and organizational culture. Here we're presenting the top 4 scientific theories that have helped shape the Teamspective surveys data model.
1. Job demands and resources (JDR)
Job demands and resources is a model for understanding employee wellbeing by defining job positives (resources) and job stressors (demands), and analyzing the balance between them. Different levels of job demands and job resources lead to variances in the strain that people experience at work.
High workload, short deadlines, goal ambiguity, low trust, micromanagement (low autonomy) and poor relationships are examples of job demands. Manageable workload, autonomy, good relationships, learning, recognition, coaching, and role clarity are examples of job resources. We've incorporated the key components of JDR into Teamspective's pulse questionnaire.
Read more: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/job-demands-resources-model.html
2. Google re:work (project Aristotle)
The main objective in Google's research project 'Aristotle' was to find out what makes some teams at Google more productive than others, so that others could learn from the best. A surprise winner was found: Psychological safety. The social environment in which people work was found to be the number 1 most important factor of team success. Others in the top five were Dependability (of colleagues), Structure & clarity, Meaning, and Impact.
Interestingly, for instance the combined experience of team members did not make it into top 5. So this reserach showed that team success is more about how the team works together, rather than who is in the team. That's encouraging news to anyone, because the ways we collaborate are well within the realm of our control, and through open discussion and feedback, these ways can be improved. That's the reason psychologically safe teams win: there are less restrictions to sharing suggestions and new ideas.
We've made sure that our whole concept, including the pulse questionnaire, takes into account the key findings of this study, and makes it psychologically safer to discuss about teamwork and collaboration.
Read more: https://rework.withgoogle.com/print/guides/5721312655835136/
3. Intrinsic motivation / Self-determination theory
Self-determination theory explains how internal (intrinsic) motivation works – a vital piece of psychological wellbeing and sustained productivity. Internal motivation consists of three components: Autonomy, Competence and Relatedness. First, people need to have a choice between options (autonomy). Then, they need skills and opportunities to make progress (competence). Finally, they need to feel connected to other people (relatedness). If you have all three, you have high intrinsic motivation – good for you!
In the workplace reality, people are affected by multiple facets of both internal and external motivation. For instance salary and other compensation represent external motivation.
Read more: https://positivepsychology.com/self-determination-theory/
4. SCARF-model – social threats and rewards
According to the SCARF-model, our brains treat social threats and rewards similarly to physical threats and rewards. Experiencing social threat creates a fight or flight response which momentarily reduces our cognitive capacity. Similarly, social rewards increase it. Social threats have generally more weight than rewards, and thus need to be minimized at the workplace in order to collaborate effectively. The absence of social threat is conceptually identical with psychological safety.
We experience social threat and reward on five areas in the SCARF-model: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness.
Read more: https://neuroleadership.fi/en/blog/understand-your-social-brain-the-scarf-model
Statistically Validated
We don’t just rely on theory — we rigorously test and refine our model in collaboration with psychometric experts.
Using advanced methods such as regression analysis, factor analysis, and structural equation modeling, we ensure that our questionnaire items measure what they are supposed to measure, and accurately identify differences in employee experiences.
This continuous validation process guarantees that our insights are both reliable and comparable across different organizations, industries, and contexts.
Actionable by Design
A great survey data model isn’t just scientifically sound; it must also drive action.
Every result in Teamspective is designed to translate directly into concrete improvements for individuals, teams, and organizations. Whether it’s helping managers foster autonomy, strengthening team communication, or identifying organizational blind spots, our data model ensures that insights don’t stay theoretical but lead to real-world impact.
Try out Teamspective
Teamspective is a complete Leadership Enablement, built for people-focused companies looking to enable higher quality, more independent leader actions across the organization. High quality leadership is the most effective way to achieve team development, employee engagement, productivity and wellbeing.
We recommend you to give us a try.
Sign up at app.teamspective.com or book a demo for you and your team