Chief Engagement Officer at WorkTango, with 17 years of experience building HR tech companies and a passion to "improve (work) lives."
getty
When connecting with friends and colleagues recently, the phrase “that’s so 2019” has been uttered jokingly based on the drastic changes Covid-19 has caused in our daily lives. I haven’t read a paper menu, printed a boarding pass or paid using cash in a few years. We’ve all just had to adjust. I’m even getting used to having my temperature checked when I want to grab lunch.
The workplace is no different. The remote/hybrid workplace, dramatic change management initiatives and navigating recent changes toward building a successful workplace have been top of mind for HR leaders. Why? It’s no secret that a company’s success is a product of everyday employee behaviors.
Building an employee experience where employees can thrive has been arguably more important than ever — and more challenging than ever at the same time. Remember VUCA a few years ago? No one likely predicted how we would all be thrust into volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity like we have been these past two years.
Employee Engagement Surveys
A pillar of understanding the employee experience has long been the employee engagement survey. Forget being stuck in 2019 — companies that are leveraging the annual engagement survey as the primary way of measuring and improving employee engagement are stuck back in the 1920s. Over 100 years ago, industrial companies used a similar approach with employee attitude surveys.
They are still being used, however, despite the criticism of being too infrequent to understand employee sentiment in our changing workplace, too slow to get results or act (if action happens at all) and quite cumbersome for employees.
Four Employee Listening Trends For 2022
Forward-thinking organizations have changed their survey strategy in significant ways to support higher engagement, lower attrition and inspire a workforce toward the development of a more magnetic culture.
1. Diagnostic Feedback Supplements Measurement
One major survey trend in the past few years has been the pulse survey. Frequency breeds accountability. A leader isn’t going to act if there isn’t a relative measurement for 364 days out of the year. However, regurgitating the same survey multiple times for the same purpose of measuring employee engagement is a losing strategy.
Expanding the mindset beyond employee engagement to the entire employee lifecycle (i.e., onboarding/exit, diversity and inclusion, health and wellness, etc.) and supplementing measurement with diagnostic feedback supports a model of continuous feedback that results in impactful action.
Regardless of the cadence (I’ve even seen weekly), there’s flexibility in what is asked based on what’s relevant to the company. Quick and relevant data points for HR to inform future decisions or understand how employees react to change are essential in the employee engagement toolkit.
It’s a shift from redundant questions to properly engaging with employees to get feedback relevant to what happens uniquely to the organization.
2. Feedback Amplified Through Confidential Conversations
From an HR perspective, one of the worst feelings is reading a negative comment in a survey, especially when it’s vague and can’t be actioned. From an employee lens, most feel as if no one is listening and that their comments float into the ether.
Progressive companies are starting to acknowledge comments and respond to them confidentially. The moment an employee receives acknowledgment or a response, there is a higher propensity for employees to offer feedback on future surveys. Confidential discussions take the process one step further.
3. Action And Accountability Take On A Whole New Meaning
One of the most impactful trends in developing an impactful employee listening strategy is HR becoming less of a filter and more of an enabler. Thriving organizations offer real-time insights relating to employee sentiment to other leaders within the organization.
The intention behind employee listening is action. The value of this trend extends beyond leaders supporting prompt action and dealing with smoke before fire; inspiring leaders to act is where the rubber hits the road. Technology today can support leaders with recommended learning and accountability through action plans that can be managed.
4. 'Data Sets' Beyond Surveys
There is critical value in leveraging data to make better decisions in organizations. Companies are supplementing surveys with an employee "data set" that includes scraping employee sentiment from communication channels (i.e., Slack or Teams) and collecting other unstructured data sets from other work systems. There is a caution to this approach, however, given the explicit request for feedback in surveys versus collecting unsolicited data sources.
No matter what your approach, your employee survey data should never be in isolation. Correlating data sets offers valuable insights that help make better people decisions. For example:
• Being able to see the influence of engagement lead to customer satisfaction or profitability in different locations;
• Gaining insight through your demographic representation data correlated to sentiment around inclusion and engagement scores that more accurately portray the experience of underrepresented groups;
• Determining the influence of leaders that conduct 1-on-1 meetings on engagement versus leaders that don’t check in with employees.
At the end of the day, several of these trends do have prerequisites. They require leadership buy-in and a commitment to work through the insights focused on action. Surveys won’t solve all your problems, but it does offer authentic feedback to support building a better employee experience. And if you’re reading an HR publication, I don’t have to convince you of all the benefits of having a more engaged workforce.
So, next time you scan that menu QR code, ask yourself if your company has shifted the way you listen to your employees. It will be much more challenging to retain, inspire and engage your talent especially through these uncertain times.
Forbes Human Resources Council is an invitation-only organization for HR executives across all industries. Do I qualify?
