Create A Culture of Employee Engagement

Research shows a fact that engaged employees means a better customer experience which makes a lot of sense. We all know a better customer experience means a more successful business. But when you have a split workforce of computer-based employees who could still work remotely and deskless employees completing their daily work tasks away from a screen, how do you encourage your employees to give the feedback you need effectively? How do you create a culture of engagement?

Shifting the internal culture of any business can be a daunting task, not something that happens overnight. It’s not just about offering a technology for employees to provide their feedback but integrating the value of employee engagement into your core mission. Here are a few tips for making that shift.

1. Make Sure Your Employees Know Why You Are Asking

If you implement a new process to gather employee feedback but don’t explain how and why their feedback is needed or how you will use it, your employees might feel like it’s a waste of time. Positioning your feedback collection with a What’s In It For You mentality will allow your employees to see the benefit of letting you know what they are thinking.

2. Remove The Fear Side Of The Equation

Sometimes employees might be afraid of retaliation if they were to respond negatively about their work experience. Make it clear that negative responses won’t be penalized, and be transparent about your goals. Adopt the mentality that negative feedback doesn’t give you issues but opportunities to improve.

3. Keep In Mind Employee Privacy

Privacy is a significant point of discussion right now, and it’s something you should think about regarding your employees’ feedback as well. Create a privacy policy for your employee feedback and ensure that all employees have access to view it. Go the extra mile and include a process for employees to flag concerns about their privacy when feedback is collected. You can also collect feedback anonymously, which may ease some employee concerns and help them be more open about their experience.

4. Build It Into Their Work Day

If you email every single employee a 15-page survey every quarter or yearly, you probably won’t get the best responses or any at all. Show your employees that you respect their time and opinions by building your feedback collectors into their daily tasks. See our employee experience journey paths for some ideas on how.

5. Give Updates About The Feedback You Are Receiving

Show your employees you are listening by giving updates about the feedback you are receiving. Keep in mind point 3 about privacy and make sure you don’t release any information that would single out an employee unfairly. Also, keep in mind point 4 about building it into their workday. Share the updates you’ve made through pages on the intranet your employees use every day or for deskless workforce create a display by the time clock or break area. It’s essential to communicate, but make sure that communication isn’t a significant disruption.

5. Make Improvements As Needed

Perhaps one of the most critical parts of gathering employee feedback is to make sure that you make improvements to areas when issues arise. Be transparent about why you are making the changes. Highlight that you found a problem based on feedback, and you want to address it to improve their employee experience. Don’t be surprised if some of the feedback and improvements you need to make are on the feedback collection process. Introducing a new approach in the workplace is bound to bring mixed responses, so use it as an opportunity to build a feedback collection method that your employees want to engage with.

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