Wouldn’t it be powerful to have a culture of employee feedback that kept your finger on the pulse of what matter most to help your company to perform at its peak?
Let’s Start with Customer Feedback
Today’s businesses seem to be rightfully obsessed with gathering customer feedback to know how they are doing and how they could improve You can’t even go to the Post Office these days without being asked to fill in a survey. Unfortunately, this kind of survey is often ignored unless the customer is either absolutely delighted with the service or absolutely disgusted.
Employee Feedback
Gathering employee feedback should be very different. We believe that it is the responsibility of leaders and managers to create a culture in which employees feel comfortable speaking openly about their concerns. To reinforce what is working and to improve areas of weakness, you want to hear from every employee — from the discontented and disillusioned to the enthusiastically supportive and engaged.
Recent research by DDI found that organizations where leaders practice and receive feedback from managers are almost five times more likely to have high-quality leaders and a strong leadership succession pipeline.
To create a culture of employee feedback, you need to understand the level of employee engagement among your workers and to develop an action plan that will address real issues and improve organizational health and performance.
Done right, the employee engagement surveys are confidential, purpose- rather than curiosity-driven, supported at the executive level, and include effective follow-up. These surveys become the foundation for a culture of employee feedback and open communication – both of which support improved employee engagement and performance.
Follow-up Steps Are Critical
Once you’ve gathered survey responses, the follow-up steps matter even more than polling your employees. What you do next sets the tone.
The Bottom Line
A culture of employee feedback includes regular surveys, both formal and informal, of employee job satisfaction, regular meetings where open discussion is encouraged and opportunities for employees to offer new ideas for improvement. What’s not to like?
To learn more about how to create a culture of employee feedback, download 7 Tips on How Managers Can Increase Employee Engagement through Communication
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