Offering comprehensive benefits for employees has been shown to have a multitude of advantages for a company, including attracting talent, lowering employee turnover, improving productivity, and boosting morale.
But which benefits improve workplace culture and boost employee engagement? Health insurance? Paid vacation time? Family leave? Or something else altogether?
One simple way to find out is by developing an employee feedback strategy centered around listening to your employees. Fielding employee feedback is an excellent way to address this initiative. In addition to getting the information needed, one recent study found that employees who feel their voice is heard are 4.6 times more likely to perform their best work.
By giving employees the opportunity to give feedback (and not just receiving it in a siloed conversation) you are creating an active line of communication. This feedback loop between employees and leadership can have many benefits for a company. Consider these stats:
- 65% of employees desire more feedback, and a staggering 98% of employees disengage from their work when they receive little to no feedback.
- 43% of highly engaged employees receive feedback at least once a week.
- And the bottom line? Companies with a highly engaged workforce result in 23% more profitability.
To reap these benefits, giving and receiving employee feedback requires more than just a one-question pulse survey or manager-to-employee conversations. An employee feedback strategy can – and should – dig deeper and be more creative in its approach.
Four Creative Employee Feedback Strategies
When seeking input, open the floor for opinions and questions, actively listen to the feedback, and put your employees’ concerns into action. To accomplish this, companies should consider the following approaches when developing a proactive employee feedback strategy.
1. Stay Surveys: Activate the Power of Gaining Insight of Current Employees
It’s important not to wait until an employee resigns to find out how they feel about your workplace. A proactive way to identify issues that arise throughout an employee’s time at your company is by conducting stay surveys.
As a part of your employee feedback (and listening) strategy, stay surveys can reveal what’s keeping employees in your organization, what you’re doing well, and what areas could improve. Stay surveys also help identify which employees may not feel as engaged or content with their job. This information gives leaders an important reason to connect with these individuals and uncover the source of the disconnect. This way, there’s a real possibility for change to occur, sparking purpose in their work and preventing turnover.
For example, if someone says they’re feeling distant and not supported by their team, managers can get to the bottom of the issue and create a solution. One way in which this could be remedied, is by creating a weekly meeting for that team. This way communication remains constant, and everyone is better included and supported.
Tip: Try to focus on qualitative surveys. Allow your employees to answer questions with their own words rather than rating them on a scale. Design qualitative questions to reveal opinions, experiences, narratives, or accounts. These can uncover themes or issues that can then be addressed.
2. Gain Immediate and Actionable Information Through an Ongoing Feedback Loop
Ongoing feedback provides timely and honest opinions. Creating a feedback loop allows managers to share updates and information with their employees on a regular basis. It also creates a consistent check-in process for workers which opens the possibility for employee insights. By complementing these feedback sessions with anonymous surveys throughout the year, a company signals that it wants full and transparent communication.
Feedback helps employees grow and improve. But accepting feedback as a leader is just as important. Accepting feedback requires active listening, self-reflection, and setting measurable goals and benchmarks. In setting up this process, managers can coach employees through challenges, help them brainstorm solutions, and encourage professional growth and development.
Another way to open a feedback loop is during performance reviews. At that time, aim to learn what your employees need to thrive. Additionally, hear what they have to say about the organization and if there’s anything that may be limiting their growth.
An important piece is to listen to your employees and take action. For instance, if they express that they enjoy community-building activities with their team, prioritize this as a key aspect of company culture.
Tip: To learn more about giving and receiving feedback, click here to take a sneak peek at the content available on our Aduro® Connect platform.
3. Measure the Unspoken with a Surprising Listening Tool: Biometric Screenings
It’s important to remember that not all feedback is spoken. It can often be discrete, unvoiced, and reveal itself in the health and well-being of your employees and workplace culture. Because of this, biometric screenings are an unexpectedly effective listening tool and important to consider as a part of your employee feedback strategy.
Among other things, biometric screenings test health measures like blood pressure, blood glucose, and cholesterol. This not only reveals information about an employee’s physical health, but also their overall well-being. Indirect listening, via biometric screenings, can be an initial flag for potential health risks. Offering these early warning health measures demonstrates to employees that their well-being is a top priority to the company.
While employers cannot access an individual employee’s biometric screening data, you can get an aggregate of the company data to help you spot any health patterns within your organization. This information allows you to make appropriate changes (i.e., healthier lunch break food options, provide access to a gym, etc.) and create a better employee experience in the workplace.
Another example: if biometric screenings reveal undesirable health patterns in your workforce that are caused by inactivity, your company can set aside times where everyone in the office is encouraged to get up and get active. Consider walking meetings, for example. This not only encourages healthy behaviors, but also shows employees that their well-being is important to you and the company.
It’s an unfortunate fact that only 25% of American employees feel their employers care about their well-being. When your organization makes an effort to show employees you’re invested in their health and willing to assist them in making healthy improvements, they are less likely to search for a new job, less likely to experience burnout, and more likely to be engaged while on the job.
Dr. Darren White, Chief Executive Officer at Aduro
4. It’s Never Too Late to Ask: Conduct Exit Surveys
Sometimes if employees are experiencing issues on the job, it may be difficult to express these concerns while still employed at the company. Employers must communicate that all employee feedback – whether negative or positive – won’t backfire on the employees. Stay surveys and other measures can also be taken to open a conversation before an employee chooses to leave. However, even with these efforts and reassurances, you may not receive honest insights while disgruntled employees are still employed. Because of this, it’s important to conduct exit surveys to capture this feedback.
In exit interviews, it’s important to remember that tough or critical feedback should not burn bridges, as it’s some of the most honest feedback you may get from employees. Learning why an employee is choosing to leave and how they feel about the organization and their team can reveal issues that you may not have otherwise realized.
For instance, if an employee leaves the company for a more flexible work environment, this reveals the need for change. You have the opportunity to explore more flexible work strategies to improve the company, all inspired by feedback received during an exit interview.
For efficient and effective exit surveys, keep in mind these tips:
- Keep it relatively short (no longer than 30 minutes)
- Focus on open-ended questions and encourage elaboration
- Thank them for their feedback and participation in the exit survey
- Express gratitude for their time and work at the company
To Create an Employee Feedback Strategy of Your Own
Listening to your workforce is one of the best ways to assess your company’s strengths and weaknesses. It reveals both what you’re excelling at and the areas needing improvement. Creating an employee feedback strategy designed for your unique workforce can keep a finger on the pulse of your employee’s attitudes, commitments, and challenges. In this, you are committing to creating a feedback structure that attracts talent, retains employees, and improves company culture and engagement.
To learn how Aduro can support your company in conducting biometric screenings and prioritize employee well-being, check out Aduro® Wellmetrics and Aduro’s suite of well-being solutions at adurolife.com/solutions.