Listening, Feedback, and Communication

PERSPECTIVE

For too long, the annual employee survey has reigned as the listening modality of choice— often used in isolation with little post-survey action or communication. Pulse surveys fare no better. Leaders need to move away from merely gathering employee feedback and instead begin to authentically listen and act on what they learn. Each listening opportunity either increases or decreases the employee experience. Research shows it’s best to use a mix of at least five different modalities of listening continuously throughout the year. Then, by proactively communicating feedback, action, and results along the way, organizations can improve listening and the employee experience simultaneously.

The annual employee survey has lost much of its luster for employees. Used year after year without much thought, it’s become little more than a mechanism for rating and ranking, not listening. Organizations have tried to “modernize” the annual survey by changing up the questions or switching to pulse surveys, but they both do the same thing: rate and rank, but rarely listen. Getting feedback from employees has become a “check the box” exercise, rather than an intentional method to improve culture.

THE ANNUAL EMPLOYEE SURVEY IS INEFFECTIVE

Soliciting employee feedback solely through the annual survey has led to greater dissatisfaction and damaged the employee experience. The results are abysmal when companies only use an annual survey to collect employee feedback:

51% of employees are satisfied with the process of collecting feedback

63% of employees are satisfied with the employee experience

66%of employees would leave for a similar job

A net promoter score of -30

“We have a set of questions to answer and it’s the typical ‘do we have the tools to do our job,’ ‘did we receive the training we need,’ etc. There’s a lot of questions to answer…and I don’t even answer it anymore. It is like they want to tick the box, but they don’t care what I have to say.”
—FOCUS GROUP PARTICIPANT, UK

More often than not, annual employee surveys alone are inaccurate, as employees won’t provide honest, informative feedback out of fear they will suffer negative consequences. Many don’t fill out the survey at all because they believe nothing will change. Fact is, 1 in 3 employees feel like the organization retaliates against those who provide feedback, and 1 in 4 employees feel ignored when they share their feedback. And 34% of employees think their company doesn’t listen to their ideas for improving the business.¹ Companies are getting inaccurate feedback, making changes based on that incorrect feedback, and are left wondering why their numbers are so difficult to improve.

“I feel powerless. My company asks for my feedback. My leader asks for my feedback. They do nothing with it. It is like they just want to say they asked for feedback.”
—FOCUS GROUP PARTICIPANT, AUSTRALIA

THE SOLUTION IS LISTENING

hear v. To be told or informed of.

listen v. To take notice of and act on what someone says; respond to advice or a request.

Listening is more than just asking for feedback. It includes acting on what you are hearing. There are multiple elements to listening: receiving the feedback through multiple modalities, communicating the results, taking visible action, and broadcasting the changes widely.

Active listening should happen far more than once a year. Forwardlooking organizations regularly use multi-method listening strategies to hear, respond to, and act on feedback from employees. It’s a practice that is embedded within the culture of an organization through multiple avenues, and done by multiple people within the organization, not just HR.

Frequent active listening is a critical ingredient in daily employee experiences. You need to listen to employees through pulse surveys, one-to-ones, focus groups, town halls, team meetings, skip-level meetings, dedicated suggestion boxes, a dedicated employee for listening, social media platforms, exit interviews, internal communication, and collaboration tools—every day and in every interaction. It’s a daily practice. Deloitte found the biggest challenge in employee engagement initiatives is, “shifting from a transactional, once-a-year mind-set, to an ‘always on,’ continuous listening approach to monitoring engagement.”²

As you might expect, leaders play a crucial role in active listening. Only 51% of employees think their organization is great at listening to them, and only 56% of employees feel their leaders stay in touch with what employees need. Leaders are the first people employees go to when they have ideas or need answers, resources, guidance, and support. They are the first line of defense when it comes to active listening.

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Organizations on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies To Work For list know the importance of listening. “Enhancing communication to promote transparency and idea-sharing via virtual and face-to-face methods” was the top cultural priority for these best places to work companies. This includes having leaders who are available for feedback and share important information with employees, as well as actively asking for ideas on how to improve. The increased transparency and inclusion leads to a fairer and better employee experience.⁴

“When my organization attentively listens, each person can more effectively respond with objectiveness, fairness, positivity, growth, and understanding.”
—FOCUS GROUP PARTICIPANT, CANADA

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A comprehensive listening program also impacts employee burnout. Simply having a multi-method listening strategy in place decreased burnout incidence by 28%. A strong listening strategy with multiple methods, communication, and action decreased the odds of employees experiencing moderate-to-severe burnout by 54%. On the flip side, when leaders dismiss employee opinions and ideas, 38% of employees become unmotivated.⁵

Listening goes hand in hand with psychological safety. Employees will not voice their opinions or suggest new ideas if they fear retaliation or ridicule from the company, leaders, or peers. In fact, 20% of ideas are never heard because employees are afraid to offer them up⁶, and one-half of employees don’t speak their minds at work.⁷ Giving feedback is a risk that employees decide to take—do they want to upset their leaders, who have established a specific structure, process, or culture? Empirical research found that employees want to speak up with ideas, opinions, and solutions that can improve their organizations, but usually are too afraid to do so. The evidence shows that speaking up impacts both organizational effectiveness and leads to high-quality decision making.⁸ In other words, companies can’t improve or succeed if employees don’t speak up, and employees won’t speak up unless it’s safe to do so.

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RECOMMENDATIONS & IMPACT

The way companies listen, communicate, and make changes based on employee feedback greatly impacts the effectiveness of asking for employee opinions.

1.

Use multiple modalities to get employee feedback—ideally five.

An IBM study found HR leaders who use multiple listening methods rated their organizational performance and reputation 24% higher than those who don’t.¹⁰

We examined the effect of the number of listening modalities on various outcomes and found a magic number: five. Utilizing five modalities has a significant impact on employee perception, but after five, the probability of favorable results flattens, and you get less bang for your buck.

Our research indicates some modalities are more effective than others. Dedicated ways to listen to employees (in focus groups or through a dedicated employee for listening) has a greater impact on satisfaction with the feedback process.

“If you want to change your culture, you need to be transparent about what people are saying because that definitely surfaces all of the genuine stuff that’s on people’s minds that they’re unhappy about, and you have to fix that.”
—CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER

2. Communicate results publicly and through multiple modalities.

About 70% of organizations are communicating the results of employee feedback, but only 30% are using multiple modalities of communication. A diversity of vehicles here is also essential and can be very impactful.

Communication has a significant effect on people feeling heard. When results are communicated with employees, there is a:

148% increase in the probability of employees feeling like their organization is great at listening to employees

112%increase in the probability of employees feeling like leaders stay in touch with what employees need

189% increase in the probability an employee feels appreciated

“If you’re trying to create a high-trust organization, an organization where people are all-for-one and one-for-all, you can’t have secrets.”
—JOHN MACKEY, CEO WHOLE FOODS

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3. Take action within three months of receiving feedback.

Actively taking steps to address employee feedback is critical. Why would employees bother giving feedback if nothing is done with it? Learning that one-half of organizations take longer than six months after communicating results to take action on feedback, and only 64% ever address it, isn’t comforting. But it does hint at the depth of the problem.

The good news is that when companies do make changes based on the feedback they receive, employees are 358% more likely to be more satisfied with the feedback process and 133% more likely to have a favorable perception of leadership.

Timing plays a role, as well. When organizations make visible changes within three months of communicating feedback results, they see drastic improvements in the employee experience, engagement, and company culture:

The faster change follows feedback, the larger its impact. Our research demonstrates that making changes within one month has an even more significant effect:

804% increase in the probability of feeling like the organization is great at listening to employees

306% increase in the probability that the employee will trust the organization to do what is right, even if it causes problems in the short term

203% increase in the probability that the employee will feel like their ideas are taken seriously by the organization

Communicating change is almost as important as the change itself. Taking steps to improve is only effective if employees are aware of what was done to address their feedback. Be specific about what actions you took and why you took them. Connect improvements made to the feedback received and how it impacts the employees who gave it.

Employee listening can’t be a “check the box” exercise. Nor can it be left up to an annual survey. Companies that want to help employees thrive must build workplace cultures than embed active listening throughout the employee experience. It’s not the job of pulse surveys or suggestion boxes, it’s the responsibility of all leaders at an organization. When leaders are open to feedback, listen and respond to it, and make changes quickly, employees feel a higher sense of opportunity, feel valued and heard, and experience less burnout. And companies see higher engagement, more innovation, and more passion from their people.

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LISTENING—4 KEY TAKEAWAYS

The annual survey, or pulse surveys, used in isolation are ineffective

Employee listening can’t be a check-the-box exercise

Organizations must move from hearing to listening

Employee listening means getting feedback, communicating results of the feedback, and taking action to make changes based on the feedback

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