Employee Voice Survey
What is a Quokka?
A quokka is a small mammal that lives in Western Australia. Most of them can be found on a tiny island called Rottnest near Perth. They’re about the size of a household cat (but less scratchy), they keep their young in a pouch on their bellies and have the best smile you’ve ever seen!
Quokka Fun Fact #1: We pronounce Quokka “Kwo-kah” but in their native Australian accent it sounds closer to “Kwah-kah”!
Why do we Call Ourselves Quokkas?
A few years ago, we all went down to Brighton for our Annual Happiness Meeting (our version of an AGM, they happen twice a year, don’t ask!). On the train journey home someone googled the happiest animal on earth. As soon as we saw the images we knew we had found a new mascot. Not only do these guys have some serious selfie skills but they also just look so joyful!
The rest, as they say, is history.
Quokka Fun Fact #2: In the wild, Quokkas live between 10-15 years. We’re about to celebrate our 8th birthday, so we’re reaching a pretty good age now!
What Does Being a Quokka Mean?
We have regular conversations about what it means to be a Quokka. Ultimately it means different things to different people - we’re all unique after all. The one thing we do all have in common is that we’re dedicated to making The Happiness Index the happiest place to work in the world and to helping other organisations create thriving cultures.
Our vision is #FreedomToBeHuman, and it’s something we take very seriously!
Quokka Fun Fact #3: Baby Quokkas are called Joeys. We love to meet our Quokka’s kids and they often pop up in our meetings and calls and sometimes even come along on business trips. They’re an important part of what we’re trying to achieve at THI.
So Does That Mean You’re All Happy All The Time?
Of course not! We are human after all. We don’t believe in toxic positivity. All emotions are a healthy part of the human experience, and we’re all about everything human. That said, we love to listen to what our colleagues are saying so that when people aren’t feeling happy we can see if there’s anything we can do to support them.
We even call our Employee Voice offering Quokka Voice internally (it started as something we used ourselves before we shared it with the world!). This allows us to share how we’re feeling (happy or otherwise!) in real time. We have weekly sessions with our leadership team to go through our feedback and discuss the results.
Quokka Fun Fact #4: There wasn’t a collective noun for Quokkas until the tourism board of Western Australia ran a competition a few years ago. Now a group of Quokkas is officially called a Shakka. Something we’re adopting too!
Quokka Fun Fact #5: Quokkas in the wild are herbivores. At THI 15% of us are veggies!
Want to Become a Quokka?
We are always on the lookout for talented individuals who can strengthen our Shakka and help us achieve our company goals and vision.
Think you have what it takes? Check out our careers page.
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About The Happiness Index
The Happiness Index helps organisations measure the key employee engagement AND happiness drivers to power their people strategy.
Our unique platform offers the products, insights and tools to shine a light on your cultural health and empower management to drive thriving cultures.
Our neuroscience-based pre-built surveys measure the full employee experience - from onboarding to exit to empower and enable organisations to understand their people and create data-led action plans.
