Diane Dumont
Diane Dumont

The working landscape has witnessed seismic shifts over the years, transitioning from a space meant to provide sheer stability and profits into an environment regarded as a catalyst of change and fulfillment. These changes have ignited an outflux of career coaches, organizational thought leaders, and other experts who, with one flick of a magic wand (standardized steps to success and cookie-cutter formulas), promise to transform businesses.

Work Well Together (WWT), co-founded by Diane Dumont—a true myth buster in insurance and HR—and Robert Zuili, a renowned French clinical psychologist, addresses these inefficiencies with a blend of science, technology, and people-centrism. Central to the company is an innovative, multi-faceted, emotion-based psych evaluation questionnaire developed by Zuili over the past 25 years. Through WWT, Dumont and Zuili aim to shatter access barriers, increasing the reach and impact of this science-backed tool.

Work Well Together

In just 18 questions and approximately 15 minutes, WWT reveals employees' individual emotional profiles and an infinite number of relational dynamics. Through this data, the platform can instantaneously anticipate the quality of specific relationships, suggest the strongest partnerships, and intervene in conflicts before they escalate into crises. Whether in recruitment, onboarding, or team building, this human-first approach translates into reduced tensions, greater retention, and overall organizational well-being, all while improving the overall efficiency of the organization.

Work Well
Work Well Together

For over 25 years, the tool has been extensively tried and tested during Zuili's business consulting, and this partnership has taken it to the next level. "It seems like a new and shiny thing, a solution no one has heard of," stresses Dumont. "Truth is, it just hasn't been popularized before. WWT changes that, making detailed, personalized assessments accessible to all. And the best part? There are no '4 personality types' or color-coded categories. After all, we're all different."

Zuili developed the tool after seeing the suffering prevailing in the workforce firsthand. In 1988, he graduated from the Sorbonne, Paris, soon after embarking on his professional journey. He quickly realized that the most prominent challenges that hindered organizational success lay not in logistics or budgeting but in the lack of clear communication and suppressed emotions.

This realization was a clear sign: Zuili needed to explore business dynamics further. His next role was at a French psych test evaluation company where, as a scientific editor, he examined existing tests from a workplace standpoint. Most were deemed too complex, others too simple, and the need for a fresh approach became evident.

The tool currently informing WWT's platform was born during Zuili's experience at a tech firm, where he understood the foundation of human emotions, dividing it into four primary feelings: fear, anger, joy, and sadness. "As humans, we function based on our brain's response to certain stimuli," Zuili shares. "The complexities start when different people react differently to the same sources of fear or anger. That's why traditional typological tests don't work—they skip the nuances."

The consequences of this negligence are detrimental and can now be observed virtually everywhere in the world, with burnout and mental health struggles rates spiking at an alarming rate. In the US, around 33% of employees believe their work is negatively impacting their mental health, and burnout has risen from 43% to 62% within just a year. Sadly, a staggering 78% don't think their employer is doing enough to address mental wellness in the workplace. Things aren't much better in Canada, where at least 500,000 employees miss work due to mental health challenges every week. Annually, mental health-related absenteeism is estimated to cost $51 billion. To combat this, companies spend thousands on coaching and training that often doesn't work. Why? As WWT's founders stress, most courses address just the tip of the iceberg.

Utilizing his background, Zuili created a comprehensive 18-step questionnaire that unveils what's below the surface in just 15-20 minutes. When this clinical psychologist and Dumont crossed paths, Zuili realized that his solution needed to be accessible to a wider audience. With their combined expertise and a shared mission of creating workplaces with human relationships at their hearts, they created a platform that analyzes individual personalities based on raw emotional instinct, not intellectual responses. They created an environment where businesses not only thrive but their teams can finally work together without putting their mental health on the back burner.

Through WWT's platform, the company offers readable graphs, tailored solutions for potential conflicts, communication style analyses, and more. With a monthly and annual subscription model, it offers an unlimited amount of assessments, ultimately cutting costs. WWT reduces expenses further by eliminating the need for standard pay-per-use psych tests and professional consulting services, with results translated into accessible language devoid of medical jargon and unnecessary professional terminology.

From matching employees' values to determining if additional coaching worked and helping individuals with vastly different personalities navigate their relationships without conflict, WWT's mission is clear: to make the world a better place by transforming workplaces into thriving, human-centric environments. "In a single workplace, you will find people with a symbolic mentality, some focused solely on their vision, and others who communicate through data. They're all from three different dimensions but, at the end of the day, they can learn how to understand each other," reflects Dumont. "Even if there is misalignment, you can avoid conflict by understanding why others said or did something in a way that you wouldn't even think of."

What best describes the impact of WWT are words said by a recent client, a global powerhouse boasting nearly 30,000 employees: "This tool is so powerful we have to be careful with who we give it to."

To ensure the questionnaire—the culmination of Zuili's expertise and both the founders' lifelong dream of shifting workplace dynamics—doesn't end up in the wrong hands, WWT implemented a simple screening process, highlighting those that can reap the true benefits of its implementation. "With great power comes great responsibility," quips Dumont. "This tool unearths a treasure trove of wisdom and, when used the right way, it's truly transformative."