3 MIN READ
Tech for Good Spotlight: TRICKLE
What problem are you solving?
Trickle is addressing a crucial gap in how organisations engage with and hear their employee’s voice. Traditional methods, such as annual surveys, town halls and suggestion boxes, often fall short in capturing real-time, honest ideas and suggestions from employees due to infrequency, generality, and potential biases.
Trickle provides an anonymous ground-up platform that allows employees to share open and honest ideas, suggestions and feedback. The automatic prioritisation tool then equips the organisation to take immediate, meaningful action to improve productivity, engagement, and inclusivity.
Where does your passion for this idea come from?
In my first job at a tech startup as the fourth employee, I could see we were experiencing growing pains typical of a fast-scaling business. My frustration led me to collect and synthesise anonymous feedback on my colleagues’ grievances and suggestions into a document, which I then presented on a floppy disk (it was 1997!) to the management. This move surprisingly resulted in appreciation and constructive action from the leadership team rather than censure. It was a pivotal moment that taught me the value of open communication in an organisation.
Later, as the founder of Sigma Seven, I applied this lesson by implementing regular feedback sessions where employees could voice their concerns. This approach was inspired by the ‘Broken Windows’ theory from criminology, which suggests that addressing small problems prevents larger ones from developing. By paying attention to these ‘small problems’, Sigma Seven fostered a culture of inclusive continuous improvement.
The ethos of proactive listening and problem-solving became the bedrock upon which I founded Trickle. We recognise that an organisation’s success hinges on its willingness to acknowledge and address the most pressing issues.
This is your life’s work. How do you cultivate that passion in others?
We encourage business leaders to understand that listening to their employees is not just a formality but a necessity for creating a successful organisation.
Listening to your people isn’t always easy, but it is essential. By showing that you value your employees’ opinions and are committed to fostering a workplace where they can thrive, you are inherently improving your company.
Trickle facilitates this by making it easier for organisations to collect and act on feedback which is automatically prioritised by the platform.
With 68% of people reporting being stressed at work, it’s more important than ever to create psychologically safe workplaces where employees can bring their true selves and be happy.
Cultivating this passion in others also involves inspiring organisations to create a culture where employees feel safe, valued, and motivated to contribute positively.
What are your latest initiatives?
Trickle is continuously evolving to better serve the needs of our customers and their employees. Our latest initiatives are focused on enhancing our platform’s capabilities to provide even more nuanced insights and actionable recommendations.
We make it easy to see the IMPACT of continuous improvement and ground-up engagement, with live feeds highlighting when solutions are delivered, and executive summaries that make it easier for time-poor leaders to see the impact of change, without having to be a user of the platform.
One of our notable achievements involves a customer in healthcare where a suggestion raised on Trickle about how the ECHO procedure is carried out led to the average wait time for results being reduced from 30 minutes to near-real-time, meaning more time can be spent with patients, and patient care is improved. Another great example is when a Trickle user posted that they didn’t feel safe finishing the night shift and walking to the car park – Trickle’s data showed this affected a number of staff, and the solution was improved lighting on the walkways to the car park.
At the cornerstone of what we do is ensuring that organisations can swiftly identify issues and make changes that lead to positive outcomes, fostering workplaces that advocate for continuous improvement and give employees a voice that instigates change. Our commitment is to make Trickle an indispensable tool for companies aiming to foster a positive and psychologically safe work environment, driving innovation, inclusivity and efficiency.
Talk to Denholm
One of the best things about my role as Client Relationship Director for Tech and Fintech is getting to know these amazing, innovative, and game-changing technology companies that are coming out of Scotland. It’s so rewarding to promote businesses working toward the greater good and using technology for a positive impact.
For more information about how we help companies build future-fit teams, please contact us on 07432 466 624 or email gareth@denholmassociates.com.
