The Armed Forces faced challenges with declining response rates and low opening rates on their biennial employee survey. Deloitte assisted in developing an innovative leadership support tool using artificial intelligence.
The Armed Forces is Norway's military organisation responsible for the country's defence and security. It consists of the Army, the Navy, Air Force, and the Norwegian Home Guard, as well as various support functions and special units. The primary task of the Armed Forces is to protect Norway against external threats, maintain national sovereignty, and contribute to international peace and security through participation in NATO and UN operations. The Armed Forces also play a crucial role in crisis management and assistance during natural disasters and other national emergencies.
The Armed Forces Employee Survey (FMU) is conducted every two years to provide insights into employee satisfaction. The Armed Forces experienced challenges with a low response rate (58%) and insufficient follow up, and sought to utilise artificial intelligence (AI) to make the survey reports easier to understand and more action-relevant for leaders.
Based on this, Deloitte and the Armed Forces collaborated to develop an innovative leadership support tool using the employee survey as a data source. The goal was to provide leaders with a better understanding of what creates a health-promoting and engaging work environment, thereby strengthening leadership decisions.
The solution we have developed together with The Armed Forces and Ayfie provides managers with entirely new opportunities to make insight-based decisions based on surveys.
Jarle Moss Hildrum, Director at Deloitte
The tool uses a specialised AI solution developed by Deloitte in collaboration with the Norwegian AI company Ayfie and the Armed Forces. The purpose is to perform automatic analyses and summaries of quantitative results from the employee survey, as well as provide tailored advice to leaders.
The tool compares them, both historically within departments and against the overall results for the Armed Forces. It then evaluates both strengths and areas for improvement. Based on these results and relevant work environment research, the model highlights recommended actions for the key areas of improvement.
The process is fully automated with data retrieved from the survey database and analysed using AI. The results are returned in concise and clear text, ready to use.
Ensuring privacy was crucial throughout the development, and internal experts on privacy and AI in the Armed Forces ensured compliance with current regulations and best practices.
The project is completed, and the tool has been used to generate 1300 reports for line managers in the Defence, with a minimum of six responses from their own employees. These reports provide leaders with valuable insights and concrete recommendations based on thorough analyses of the employee surveys.
Key takeaways
The project helped us make the results from the employee survey more accessible to leaders. After we used the AI tool, the proportion of leaders who logged into the reporting tool increased from 50% to 75%.
- Anders Næss, Senior Advisor at The Armed Forces