Uniks, life skills & gratitude feedback

Many facts are badly affecting people mental health, solitude, self-esteem, bullying, interpersonal relationships and happiness. This is causing damage to people individually but also is affecting to the groups they belong (family, team, company, class...) Self-knowledge and emotional education is essential for personal development and well-being (happiness). Achieving both is a challenge to all people especially when integrating the labor market.

Uniks is a free platform in the form of an open social network that allows people around the world to get a 360º assessment and learn emotional education through gratitude. We change the way people relate and we turn relationships into bonds through positive recognition. 

Self-knowledge and emotional intelligence make us stronger and better people, which undoubtedly has a positive transforming effect on people we relate with. We connect people (through the groups they belong) in a social network in which positive content and a transformative movement are shared.

Problem within the challenge

To access or create jobs and business opportunities, people must have self-confidence, self-esteem, and valuable life-skills. Furthermore, employers must imperiously earn the trust of others and relate well to co-workers, partners and customers.

EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS

Much research links employability with people's skills, with similar conclusions. We use Exeter research as an example. https://cutt.ly/KuzxFSd
These skills are (in order of relevance):  

1. Communication and interpersonal skills
2. Problem solving skills
3. Using your initiative and being self-motivated
4. Working under pressure ans to deadlines
5. Organizational skills
6. Team working
7. Ability to learn and adaptability
8. Numeracy
9. Valuing diversity and difference
10. Negotiation skills

About people recognition

• "Companies with recognition programs have 31% less voluntary turnover". Bersin&Associates,

About human-skills

• "... we are seeing a shift in focus on hard skills in favor of a closer focus on soft skills ..." David J.Deming, National Bureau of Economic Research,2017
• "High-paying, hard-to-automate jobs increasingly require social skills." David J.Deming, National Bureau of Economic Research,2017
• "Social skills will be more in demand than techniques ..." Amanda McIntyre,PwC

Self-knowledge / Interpersonal relationship

• "...good relations between workers have a positive impact of 50% on their performance". Gallup,2018
• "...self-knowledge has an impact of 52% on employee performance". Human Resources Management Journal

What does Uniks do
Through positive, open, meaningful and continuous feedback between people Uniks improve people's self-awareness (self-knowledge) and emotional intelligence and increases teams' performance.

How do Uniks do it
With the feedback received from contacts we create each person profile with the aggregate like-skills (strengths and challenges) and gratitud.
Uniks also creates groups of people profiles which besides the data increases the sense of belonging to the group.
Ei. user profile: https://www.uniks.com/users/manu
Ei. group (school) profile: https://www.uniks.com/groups/virolai

What feedback can people share?
I give feedback for/about...
- Who are you (life-skills). Assessment 360º, strengths and challenges to improve. SELF-AWARENESS
- "The good" that you give me linked to 16 concepts: Smile, wisdom, joy, time, help... GRATITUDE
- "The good" that you give to the group we belong to. Organization values and people desired behaviours configured by the client. GRATITUDE 

All feedback allows to leave a personalized message which give more meaning (or evidence) to the recognition.

Technology
Uniks is a SaaS cloud software
Apps: Andoid and ioS
Web: PHP + Laravel
Control Panel: React
API: Golang
CMS: AngularJS
Platform available in 7 languages: EN ES DE FR IT PT CAT

Self-knowledge and gratitude make us better people and better towards others, which has a global transforming effect on society. A more integrated and generous society, more committed to others and to global problems, with less discrimination and less long-term unemployment and, moreover, more productive.

1. Providing Uniks into the labour market we bring impact at 3 levels: person, team and organization

ORGANIZATIONS MAIN CHALLENGES: Commitment and belonging

How do we impact?

PERSON / Motivation and retention. Uniks will impact in a better integration in the labour market and careers development.

TEAM / Leadership development. Uniks favors the transformation of relationships into bonds, which directly impacts the emotional well-being of people at work.

ORGANIZATION / Corporate culture. Uniks will impact transforming companies into a people-centred culture.

2. Providing Uniks into schools impacts in students, docents and institution. Education should always be a priority as students are the future.

How do we impact?

"Companies hire you for what you know how to do, but they fire you or promote you for who you are.", Luis Conde

Uniks works directly with people to help them successfully integrate the labor market and develop their careers in a sustainable way, avoiding labor market exclusion caused by a lack of life-skills.

In this way, people will take better advantage of the opportunities they may find and, in addition, they will be able to better recognize the most suitable jobs to their individual emotional, social and professional characteristics. They will be more able to create their own opportunities.

Uniks innovation

• The conceptual proposal that combines positive recognition, self-knowledge and gratitude.
• The form of open social network and the sharing features, which expands positivity.
• The feedback purpose in organizations.
• The coverage to all hierarchical levels of the 360º assessment.
• The dynamic (continuous) feedback, a permanent communication channel.
• The attractive UX to get better user engagement. 

HR platforms does 3 services:
1. Assessment 360º
2. Dynamic recognition
3. Teams' performance

Almost all offers one service, some offers two services, but Uniks offers a funny and simplified solution for the 3 services combined. 

Competitors in "recognition between people", continuous feedback.
The products are substitutes (two cannot fit in one company) but in no case are they the same, nor do they even solve the same problems of the companies. In this category there is no reference company, it is a fairly new category and the solutions are highly improvable.

Companies: StarMeUp (Argentina), HappyForce, Feedbalia, GuudJob (Spain) and Matter (USA).

• We improve the proposal of the competitors in recognition by providing a METHODOLOGY and a quality CONTENT to GIVE MEANING to the feedback, we are the only ones who work on self-knowledge (360 analysis) and gratitude.

Competitors in "talent management".
At the international level there are large companies that usually have their own tools, among others: Belbin, CornerStone and CultureAmp.

• We improved the talent management competitors' proposal by providing a CONTINUOUS (DYNAMIC) FEEDBACK system.

Uniks is a SaaS software with native Android and ioS Apps, web, Control Panel React and CMS.

The AI will be used for the functionality "define and conquer your improvement challenge".

It is known that the use of technology, due to its "capabilities", increases the effects of malicious actions. For the same "capabilities", technology is a great opportunity to generate positive value. Our technology is crucial as discovers the intention, pushes the opportunity and provides the needed channel for the people personal growth, to expand positivity, and for the improvement of how people relate. 

Uniks use in +10 small and SME companies involving more than 500 workers, stakeholders and workers' personal contacts.

• Reasonable good adoption but it should be better. Onboarding is crucial and we have had technical difficulties with ioS version.

Results of commercial activity visiting 25 big companies (Q4 2019 to Q1 2020)

• 80% see a good product: innovative and methodologically successful.
• 20% see the necessity to link it to a specific action plan for each employee (traditional 360º approach).
• 50% accept the opportunity to pilot (when the time is right).
• 25% say their culture is not ready, other things should be done before.

Uniks use in +20 schools involving more than 1,000 students, docents and parents. Results of our surveys:

• Students like the App and, most importantly, its usefulness.
• Students with more emotional or conflictive difficulties have better adoption. The reason is that they are the ones that need the most help.
• Good use in classrooms and tutorials.
• Insufficient use once completed in progress.
• Good evaluation of the parents of the students.
• Teachers have a hard time implementing and spending time (or lack of motivation), a leadership push or legal imperative is needed.

With a personal use (free version) +5,000 people have registered and used it.

Uniks theory of change

GOAL
A people-centred world/society

LONG TERM OUTCOMES
• more possibilities to find a job, maintain it and be promoted
• more capabilities and skills to become entrepreneur 
• more commitment with the society

INTERMEDIATE OUTCOMES
• improvement of self-esteem
• acquiring of better life-skills
• introduce gratitude as behaviour

ACTIVITIES UNIKS DOES TODAY:
• to PEOPLE: creating an environment in which people can develop their self-awareness and self-esteem and better connect with their peers. Increasing the productive interaction between people.
• at SCHOOLS: a) teaching emotional education and developing social bonds between students and, b) training and empowering docents.
• to COMPANIES: introducing a platform to increase teams performance and company results through the improvement of self-knowledge of employees and their interpersonal relationships.

Current year

Today, we are working with 2.000 people, youth (schools), small companies, and unemployed adults (training) through a partner.

• At schools we have implemented several pilots lead by our team and also by school docents.
• At companies we have work with several of them for free pilot purposes and today we have 6 clients.

Uniks platform has a free version (Apps and web) and we have had +5.000 registrations with first us.

One year goal: 100.000 people registered. 

Five years goal: 250000 people registered. 

Goals within the next

• Achieving positive cash flows.
• Having a relevant presence in Spain, in companies and schools.
• Consolidating the tool, legitimization, through reference clients, recognition in prestigious organizations and universities (We have agreed a pilot at ESADE for when Covid allows it).
• Proving a profitable business model.
• Introducing improvements and the "challenge" feature.
• Entering Bulgaria, Italy, Peru and Mexico with the partners with whom we are negotiating.

Goals within the next 5 years

• Having a global and profitable company.
• Have a free global social network that leads a people-centered movement, where everyone, from anywhere and at any time, can give and receive positive feedback on people's life skills (who you are) and express gratitude towards others (what do you bring me and what do you bring the group to which we belong).
• Having developed our market and being present in at least 3 more countries.
• Having continuous contracts with at least 10 Mid-caps and/or large companies (>2000 employees)
• Having developed sustainable relations with representatives of the education sector (primary schools, VET centers, career counselors).

Main barriers

1. Emotional intelligence is not yet accepted by business actors as a key factor for better economic performance. The need to work on this topic has not yet been realized and recognized.
2. Emotional education is not yet a subject matter (in the Spanish educational system and in many other countries). However, fortunately, the EU Education 2030 project has presented its teaching as an objective.
3. Having the necessary financial resources for each phase of growth.
4. The difficulty of designing a product with a lot of user engagement that could generate high organic growth.

Regarding #1, emotional intelligence.

Time is in our favor although speed is a question mark. There is no doubt the orientation to people that companies have as a challenge.

In addition, problems such as that of Covid19 demand solutions such as Uniks, a tool that unites from a distance, which favors the sense of belonging and communication.

Regarding #2, emotional education.

Time is in our favor and European policies are already giving priority to emotional education that has been forgotten until now.

As in the previous point, problems such as that of Covid19 demand solutions like Uniks, and not only for students but also for teachers.

Regarding #3, financial resources.

We are confident that if we achieve the milestones that each phase requires, we will awaken the interest of investors: legitimacy, proven social impact, reference clients, validated KPSs, etc.Step by step, SOLVE MIT recognition could be one.

Regarding #4, designing a product with user engagement.

Despite the fact that engagement for a product for companies is not as relevant as utility and we have already proven this, to have growth in our proposal for a global free solution it is essential. We believe that we improve in each version.

Uniks team is currently composed of 11 multidisciplinary team members, as follows:

FULL-TIME: Manuel (CEO), Jonathan (CTO), Ernest (Business development) and Esteve (developer)
PART-TIME: Mariona (assistant)
ADVISORS/MENTORS: Iva, Monica and Ester.
CONTRACTORS: Abhishek (IT ioS), Josep (IT CMS) and Francisco (legal and accounting)

In September we have the plan to incorporate one person for sales, one for digital marketing and one for customer service.

Manuel leads a project with 200% commitment and has experience as entrepreneur and extra motivation . 

Jonathan has the technical skills and commitment. 

Ernest has 20 years of experience in the human resources industry, he knows about products and the market. Introducing Uniks to companies is the catalyst (distribution) and revenue generator.

The group of 10 investors (FFF and business angels) own private companies or are top professionals in their industries. They are committed to create and to provide to the society a high-impact solution.

Iva has more than 10 years of multi-level experience in European funding and is responsible for the implementation of Uniks' fundraising strategy.

Monica and Ester has 20 years of experience introducing emotional education in schools working in England and Spain.

The Autonomous Government of Catalonia (Education Ministry) has selected Uniks as the tool to teach emotional education at schools. With Covid we have not been able to implement it.

We are closing distribution agreements to introduce Uniks in the schools with JumpMaths and Tekman (Learning Content Management).

Uniks free version
Uniks offers a free platform in the form of an open social network in which citizens of the world can create and publish their profile based on the feedback they have received from their contacts, life-skills (360º assessment) and gratitude recognition.
Organizations can also use Uniks for fee as we allow the creation of closed group of people (organization, department or team). Companies get aggregated information of the groups and the employees 360º assessments. 

B2B model
Today we are offering the following extra features:
1) Gratitude content that can be configured according to organizations' values and desired behaviors in employees.
2) Access to a Control Panel with extra employes profiles (more filters and more strengths and areas of improvement) and data about teams participation and metrics.
PRICES
-Pay per new user ($60, pay one time) and pay per use per month (3€/month)
-Discounts per volume
-Education institutions has a $3.300€/year fix price. 

Also, we hope that education projects arouses the interest of companies and that we can carry out cause marketing actions which will mean a B2B business model.

Channels / Resellers (Spain)
a) People Management Consulting Companies. Talent development and management companies (assessment, leadership, coaching, ...). Very fragmented market in Spain. They use external tools.
· Featured Spain: Eurofirms, Meta4, PeopleNet, HRM…
· Featured Barcelona: Always People First, Motiva, Esperta…
b) Independent resellers: HR consultants and coaches, etc.
c) Independent software vendors (ISVs). Ej Sage.

Uniks financial sustainability will come from selling our product.
In Q1 2020 (just during 3 months before the Covid) we started selling to companies. Our value propositions has been well accepted in the market and even the future could be better after Covid with a lot of companies facing a people-centred transformation.

Only in Spain, the size of the HR services market is greater than $4.000M and all factors related to this product and industry are growing annually +15%.

When we will get the needed expertise and market traction in Spain, our natural market, we will face the challenge to grow internationally and the funding will be necessary. We are satisfying a global need and our scalability is very high.

We have developed an ambitious fundraising strategy that relays on applying for EU grant projects, as Uniks provides a solution that is in line and supports the achievement of several EU priorities such as social inclusion, education, migrants integration, employment etc. 

We participate for a combination of prestige, legitimacy, the $10,000 prize, future investment opportunities, networking opportunities (partners, distribution, etc.).

Also, we apply for an emotional reinforcement for the project, for it's investors and, mainly, for the motivation of our team, that have been working by the vision of a great opportunity.

Finally, we were invited by Eliza Berg from SOLVE, who saw something good in what we are doing. Invitations should always be accepted as is the best way to express gratitude.

Partnership goals

• Partnership with a university to obtain legitimacy.
• Partnerships with companies for distribution/sales to reduce our own investment and gain time to market.
• Use in prestigious schools to obtain legitimacy and sales by reference.
• Partnerships with Education ERPs platforms (integrations) to gain fast market share.

Monitoring a pilot at MIT University would be great.

We could have collaboration opportunities with the following Solvers, Sima by Kukua, Team Up 2 Teach and Open Learning Exchange.

And, finally, it would be an honour to share our project with Israel Ruiz, MIT Vice President, as is from Catalonia, Spain, in fact, he lived 5 km from my home.

We will use the prize for IT development. From Uniks we will promote growth mindset. To do this, we will develop a new AI-based feature, meeting a challenge for personal improvement. It is the natural feature after having a diagnosis about self-knowledge (360º assessment). The steps are:

1. definition of the improvement area (based on the results of the 360º).
2. identification of own evidence (personal meaning).
3. challenge definition.
4. testimonials selection (people) from the group (organization) and from outside the group.
5. set a calendar.
6. motivation and achievement.

Working with a global company like General Motors will be a great challenge and learn for Uniks.

Also, it will be a reference for our commercial activities.