3 Ways Listening To Employee Feedback Can Contribute To Business Growth – Forbes

Employees are arguably a company’s greatest asset, and right now, they’re resigning at unprecedented rates. A recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found 4.3 million Americans left their jobs in a single month. This mass exodus is disrupting the economy across the retail, hospitality, manufacturing, healthcare, technology and supply chain sectors. Employers need to understand why employees are seeking new jobs and then take action to stem employee attrition.  

Many factors are contributing to employee flight, from a desire for higher compensation to burnout. The Covid-19 pandemic also brought new challenges, including the risk of potential exposure and balancing homeschooling and caregiving with remote work. While these factors are not all within employers’ control, a new poll from Wakefield Research and Explorance, a leader in Experience Management (XM) solutions, sheds light on the hidden drivers of “The Great Resignation.” A key finding of the study is that millions of American workers feel heard at work. The poll of 2,000 U.S. part- and full-time employed adults revealed that companies’ failure to act on employee feedback might be driving employee flight. Nearly half (41%) of Millennials said they don’t believe their feedback leads to meaningful organizational change and more than half (53%) reported they’re looking for a new job. The lack of attention to employee feedback is felt at all levels, according to the study. Nearly half of respondents (45%) and 40% of executives also say they don’t believe their feedback leads to meaningful change. 

Employers must take a more proactive approach to gather and analyze employee feedback, says Samer Saab, founder and CEO of Explorance. “If you are driving a racecar, you don’t wait until you blow a tire to realize it’s time to make a change; you have to be proactive and have measures in place to address problems before they become critical issues. Employee feedback, especially open-ended responses to survey questions, has been neglected for years. Still, it is the single best source for understanding not only your employees’ needs but their expectations. Listening to their feedback and acting on it is key to engaging and retaining them.”

While the current job market poses dire challenges for business leaders, there is hope. You can nurture a healthier, more inclusive, and more profitable business based on employee feedback- and avoid being part of the employee turnover statistics. 

We spend more than a third of our lives at work, and for most people, their job becomes a defining factor of their identity. It’s understandable that with so much of themselves invested in their roles, employees expect to be heard. Surveys are a key tool in providing an outlet for employees to voice their opinions and for employers to collect feedback. Surprisingly, in a time of tumultuous change, the data from Explorance shows half of full or part-time employees haven’t received any company surveys in the past year, despite most employees (78%) reporting they’re eager to take them. In fact, over a third (38%) said company surveys are their preferred method for sharing feedback.

When asked why they complete company surveys, over half (52%) believe surveys provide an opportunity to share feedback that drives positive change within their company and nearly as many (44%) said surveys make them feel like their opinion matters.

But merely surveying your employees is not enough. Forty-three percent of respondents reported they never see the results of company surveys and 56% of executives- those with the greatest ability to influence organizational change- say they never receive them either. To build trust, share survey results with your employees so they can see their feedback is being heard:

1. Analyze the data for insights.
2. The survey data clearly shows employees are eager to share feedback, but they need to trust that feedback is leading to meaningful change. Why ask for feedback if nothing will come from it? 
3. Analyzing employee feedback at enterprise scale, particularly text-based comments, is a real challenge for HR leaders. Imagine sifting through 10,000 open-ended text-based comments to find insights- truly a needle in a haystack proposition. There are new tools that can help. BlueML is a machine-learning powered comment analysis tool that analyzes and categorizes text-based feedback at enterprise scale in seconds. With BlueML, employee voices can be heard and HR leaders can make sense of employee feedback like never before. By streamlining the comment analysis process, BlueML speeds the cycle from insight to action.  
4. Act on the feedback – Make a plan and give managers the guidance to implement.
5. Listening to employees and using the results to drive meaningful change will help create an environment where all employees feel more included, heard and valued. Leaders must give managers and those charged with implementing change an action plan to guide their efforts. 

While not all feedback can be acted upon, sharing the survey results and formulating a clear plan of action in response to employee feedback is critical to driving a positive employee experience and improving retention. 

It’s time for employers to be proactive and dive deep into the root cause of employee turnover by listening, learning, and acting to drive positive change. Employers must demonstrate to employees that their opinions are valued and will be heeded and that their feedback can help create a better workplace for all employees. Acting on employee feedback to make meaningful organizational change will help reduce turnover and create a healthier, more productive, and ultimately more profitable business.

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