Jonathan Cornelissen on Using Data for Employee Benefit

No matter what type of company, employee satisfaction is one of the most important considerations for any business owner. Employees are the backbone of any business, and the degree to which they are content in their work environment has a great effect on their wellbeing and the effectiveness of the company at large. Ensuring high employee satisfaction, however, is not always an easy goal to accomplish. Proper data usage can be a big help in that regard. To help understand this point, we looked to the work being done by Jonathan Cornelissen to build the employee-positive culture of his startup, DataCamp.

A look back

Before touching on how the culture of his startup was created, let’s first examine how the company originated. Cornelissen first conceived of the idea for a data education company while pursuing his Ph.D. in Econometrics. At that time, he was required to learn the programing language R and then teach his students the language as well. He found both tasks to be difficult since there were not any engaging educational resources to help people learn such a complex programming language. In light of the lack of resources, the entrepreneur saw an opportunity to create one himself.

That was the birth of DataCamp, a company that would eventually grow to help over 4 million learners become more data literate through a variety of educational resources. Part of the company’s success is owed to the increasing demand for data professionals trained to use data to its fullest potential. This need for data professionals has been fueled by ever-expanding internet usage. Where there was previously a rather limited ability for companies and organizations to obtain data, the internet has open the floodgates for how data is collected and used.

Employee satisfaction

Though the brand’s mission has been helped by the increased demand for data professionals, Jonathan Cornelissen knew throughout the process of building the company that his employees played a critical role in bringing the concept to fruition. That was one of the reasons employee satisfaction was a top priority for him and the rest of the leadership team. To help ensure that a high level of satisfaction could be achieved, he turned to what he knew best — data.

In this case, the company utilized anonymous surveys to collect data from employees pertaining to their experience of the company. A wide variety of questions were asked that helped pinpoint areas in which the company already excelled, as well as areas in which it could improve. Utilizing these surveys, as well as implementing other measures, the company was able to reach the top 10% of satisfaction in the field of new tech.

As more and more companies begin to more fully understand both the importance of employee satisfaction and the value of proper data analysis, techniques like the one listed above should continue to increase in popularity. The efforts of Jonathan Cornelissen and DataCamp to educate professionals in the field of data usage is contributing to this increase as well. Keep monitoring the field of data analysis to watch this trend as it continues to develop.