Innovative Ways for Getting Employee Feedback

Employee input is the key to improving the employee experience and retaining staff. Consider this. Who better to ask for advice on how to make workers happier and less likely to leave than those who are already on the inside?

Source: Unsplash

If you want to know how to enhance your employees’ experience and retention rates, here are eight methods to gather their feedback:

Conduct satisfaction surveys with your staff.

Taking the time to conduct employee satisfaction surveys is a great approach to getting input from employee engagement and culture in the business. In any case, you’ll need to craft your survey questions if you want to get helpful responses from your staff.

Strategies for conducting an effective survey of employee engagement

Take the time to create a survey that will elicit honest responses from your staff. If you want to connect with your direct reports on a deeper level, try using some of the best practices for conducting an employee engagement survey listed below.

• Instead of asking generalized inquiries, focus on answering questions on a single issue. In contrast to when asked broad questions, employees are more likely to deliver thoughtful, truthful replies when asked specific ones.
• Don’t ask questions that subtly suggest a response. For instance, if you ask a group of people, “Do you think that attention to detail is crucial in your work?” the vast majority of them will give you a predetermined answer (yes) without providing you with any more insight.
• Conduct frequent surveys of your staff. If you do too few surveys, your staff will perceive them as a nuisance, and if you conduct too many, they will feel like a chore. A survey at the beginning of each quarter would be a suitable starting point, however the exact frequency should be determined by the firm.

Make use of group and one-on-one conferences.

While surveys are great for getting responses from everyone in an organization, it’s also important to have frequent feedback meetings with employees and managers. Participating in one of these gatherings is a great way to provide and receive input on a certain team, division, or procedure.

The biggest obstacle in getting feedback during one-on-one sessions is that most workers will likely be wary of how their bosses would react to what they say. Effective performance evaluations may help change this impression by encouraging two-way, honest communication about strengths and areas for improvement.

When team members believe they have the backing of their coworkers, they are more likely to provide honest feedback at team meetings.

Timing feedback requests and accepting criticism graciously are key to fostering an environment where employees feel safe sharing honest opinions. Managers may inspire more productive work from their teams by holding regular meetings and acting on suggestions from such sessions.

Observe ratings and review websites closely

Review sites aren’t simply for checking up on how satisfied customers are. Glassdoor and Indeed are two websites where you may read honest reviews from current and past workers.

Similarly, businesses may sign up as employers on similar platforms, enabling them to receive notifications anytime their brand is mentioned. Reviews, especially those written by former employees who are unhappy with their treatment, may have a negative bias. Similar to other review sites, they might be helpful when looking for broader patterns rather than specific instances.

Keep an eye on your eNPS with the help of Pulse Surveys

The eNPS, or employee net promoter score, is a great indicator of morale. It does this by classifying workers as either critics, promoters, or passives and then balancing the positive and negative responses.

The higher the score, the happier and more engaged your staff is generally. Businesses with highly engaged workers often have an eNPS of +50.

eNPS may be calculated with the use of online survey technologies like Officevibe, which are used to collect detailed feedback from workers. The eNPS is then automatically calculated by the survey program once the responses are divided among the staff members.

These Pulse Surveys may be relied upon as reliable predictors of the company’s general mood and the location of any looming problems. Even though Pulse Surveys can be made up of basic numerical ratings, including at least one open-ended question can help get more meaningful responses from staff members.

Carry out post-stay interviews

Stay interviews are very much like exit interviews, except that they are conducted with new workers rather than departing ones. Culture fit, work perks, the organization as a whole, and areas for growth are all covered, just as they would be in an exit interview.

With the help of a stay interview, you can find out from your workers what it is about your firm that they appreciate and what may be improved upon if you want them to stay permanently. When these interviews are repeated on a regular basis, they may help with keeping tabs on trends, both in terms of individual workers and the company as a whole.

Don’t overlook the value of a classic suggestion box.

There’s a temptation to rely solely on high-tech surveys and solutions to get employee input, but tried-and-true methods are always at your disposal.

A suggestion box may be a great way to get unfiltered, anonymous input from workers without worrying about reprisal. Many workers would appreciate the opportunity to contribute input, but they could be hesitant to do so due to fear of retaliation. Having the suggestion box in a conspicuous yet hidden location is essential for the success of this strategy, as it allows employees to provide feedback without drawing attention to themselves.

Although this conventional approach has the benefit of simplicity, it lacks the efficiency of a digital solution that can automatically gather, evaluate, and monitor such crucial input and data over time.

Talk to managers

The majority of teams are more open and honest with their subordinates than they are with their superiors. Supervisors may be more comfortable providing feedback on employees than direct subordinates, who may be uncomfortable with the feedback process.

When managers and workers provide their perspectives side by side, it might reveal areas of misunderstanding or miscommunication. It’s evident that there’s a problem if management is only sharing good news, yet employees are unhappy with their work environment.

Misunderstandings are easier to spot and correct when people talk to one another directly.

Conducting staff surveys is a great way to get off to a good start.

Let’s not overlook the tried-and-true method of talking to new hires to gather their thoughts. After the first three months on the job, it’s important to check in with employees to see if their impressions of the company and their role there have changed. Spreading out these informal surveys gives you more time to tailor the questions to the individual’s development needs as they progress through their job.

If you want to create a memorable work environment and increase employee retention, you need employee engagement software. You should use as many of these methods as possible to collect as much useful information as possible from your employees, and then use that information to make changes.

Sixty per cent of American workers indicated they had the means to submit input on their own employee engagement and culture, but just 30 per cent claimed their company took action based on that feedback. Employees who feel their opinions matter to the firm are four times more likely to remain there than those who do not.

In today’s talent wars, encouraging employees to provide feedback and acting on that information might help you retain more of your best employees.

Need more insights and assistance in establishing a feedback culture in you organization? Reach out to us here!