CEO and founder of AllVoices, the platform empowering anyone to report workplace wrongdoing 100% anonymously.
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How do you get honest, authentic feedback from your employees — especially when everyone works remotely?
There's been a long-standing issue with how organizations not only collect feedback from employees on their experiences in the workplace, but how they value it as well. Too often feedback is solicited through physical suggestion boxes that are hard to take action on. Or, organizations send out a once-a-year engagement survey to collect feedback, but it contains questions too general to surface any ongoing issues.
Then what happens when you throw in the added challenge of a hybrid or remote workplace? How do you continue to engage and solicit feedback from a workforce that isn't physically present with one another?
We're in a time when not only is the value of employee feedback shifting, the methods around collecting it are shifting as well — so the mindset and effort around it need to shift, too. And it starts with a focus on your HR department.
Challenges And Concerns Of Gathering Feedback
Unfortunately, employee feedback programs haven't been as valued as they should be.
According to our research on the "State of Employee Feedback," 36% of employees surveyed reported that their company either doesn’t have a feedback program or they aren’t aware of one at their company if one exists. Additionally, 37% of employees report that their company either doesn’t have an open-door policy, or they have a policy that they're not upholding.
Who tends to be the department leading employee feedback efforts? The HR department, which traditionally sees lower budget allocations than other departments because they're typically not considered "revenue drivers." This creates a situation where highly talented employees who run the recruiting, hiring and training efforts for the organization are strapped for time and cash.
This often results in employee feedback efforts getting pushed down the department's to-do list. Or there’s the fear that if employee feedback initiatives are ramped up, the influx of reports will flood an already busy department (so the organization defaults to avoiding feedback initiatives completely).
In addition to this, the disruption of the pandemic has thrown an additional variable into workplace engagement: the emergence of the hybrid workplace. Workplaces that were previously challenged with attempting to maintain and increase employee engagement now must do so when some or none of the workforce is in the office together.
So what do we do?
Changing The Approach And The Mindset
Here are some ways to change the approach and the mindset around employee feedback efforts.
1. Understand the value and effort.
There's value in soliciting employee feedback and surfacing issues. It does no one any good — employers or employees — if they pretend it doesn't exist, or ignore it when it comes up. With social media serving as a public platform for employees to expose the issues they have seen go unresolved for too long, organizations want to know what's going on in their work environments and address issues not just to improve employee experience and morale, but also to keep from being in the next news cycle — like what happened with Susan Fowler after she left Uber. But being on the "Best Places to Work" list requires effort and valuing the process by which to get there.
2. Go digital.
The shift to digital is on, and HR departments need to use digital tools to not only better streamline their workloads, but also to better serve employees — and especially serve teams who work remotely. Digitalization in HR could include virtual interviews and hiring, automations, digital onboarding and training, and digital e-signed forms. Additionally, HR departments can leverage the data they gather to help make more data-driven decisions.
3. Go anonymous.
Instead of fearing anonymous feedback, or not knowing what to do with it, HR departments need to understand the value of anonymous feedback. According to our report, 74% of workers would be more inclined to share feedback if it was truly anonymous. That's because many employees are hesitant to share feedback if their name is attached to it, fearing retaliation, which, according to the EEOC, is the No. 1 reported workplace issue. In order to create truly engaging, psychologically safe work environments, organizations need to provide channels for anonymous feedback.
4. Embrace hybrid.
Organizations have had a steep learning curve this past year on how to engage teams who may only be in the office part of the time or none of the time. It's a challenge, but not impossible, so long as teams are able to use digital tools like video conferencing, digital whiteboards, chat apps or shared drives to connect. For teams balancing part of their time in the office, that means having an updated team calendar to ensure everyone knows where everyone is. It also means team leaders reaching out more proactively to continue keeping engagement and morale high.
5. Feedback is engagement.
Finally, feedback is an employee engagement priority. Do employees feel engaged in their workplace and that they're doing meaningful work and contributing to the mission of the company? Do they feel psychologically and physically safe enough to give their all to their job? Or do they have worries, concerns or roadblocks that are preventing them from fully engaging? And are they telling us about it? Unresolved issues in the workplace — even in a remote workplace, too — can cause a slow disengagement to the point of quitting. And according to Gallup, disengaged employees cost the U.S. alone upwards of $550 billion in lost productivity per year.
Putting In The Effort
Everyone plays a role in employee feedback, especially HR, and while it will take effort to put in place initiatives to solicit authentic feedback, doing so will ultimately improve your workplace and your employees’ well-being — whether in the office or working at home.
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