Many companies around the world are hard at work trying to “build the best suggestion box” as they adapt to a world where what rank and file employees think means a lot.

New ways of doing business have destroyed or compromised yesterday’s hierarchical models. Now, companies know that to attract and retain talent, they need engagement and feedback. They need ways to make employee communications a two-way street.

Enter Thymometrics: a platform aimed at facilitating vibrant conversation and feedback channels, to make sure that client businesses benefit from the high productivity and retention that comes with real day-to-day interactivity.

“Thymometrics is the world-leading provider of always-on employee engagement survey and feedback solutions with a unique and simple survey that enables employees to express their views and feelings about the place they work at any time and via any device,” Thymometrics Vice President of Sales and Marketing David Godden told HR Daily Wire on May 23.

Godden said the platform can offer reports that “reveal the mood across any part of the organization.”

“We understand the importance of giving employees a voice, so Thymometrics' unique two-way feedback solution enables a dialogue to take place between employees and management to address concerns, suggestions or feedback, all from within one online environment,” Godden said, “

Describing how the company came up with the idea of creating a new type of forum for employee feedback, Godden talked about experiencing disappointment with traditional annual employee engagement processes.

“They didn’t take into consideration what motivated or was important to us,” he said. “This, combined with an apparent lack of change after the survey was conducted, led us to believe there had to be a better, more employee-centric way of addressing engagement … Why dictate what the company feels is important to employees when you can simply ask them?”

The platform, he said, helps managers, too.

“It enables managers and HR to see what is really working, what’s not, and where best make changes in real time to positively affect productivity, engagement and a sense of belonging within the organization, 365 days a year,” Godden said.

Ideas like next-generation feedback platforms, Godden said, help firms to adapt to a world that’s more geared toward listening to employees.

“Employee engagement is no longer just a function of HR, but has to be embedded in the culture of the business and embraced by the entire leadership team,” Godden said. “This is all part of the new world of work -- where the individual has to be highly valued and speaks to the Facebook-messaging, Instagram-posting generation by being open, transparent and in the moment.”