Employee retention starts with employee relations in the form of feedback.
Here are some different examples of times I’ve worked with companies regarding employee feedback:
Many times I’ve facilitated employee feedback sessions with companies, and the result is the employees’ morale was enhanced and satisfaction was increased because of the incorporation of employees’ ideas.
- I once worked with a leasing company that conducted an employee survey and did a multi-source performance assessment where each manager provided feedback through surveys and job simulation. Job simulation is a method where managers watch a video vignette and then the course of action each manager chose based on the video would tell the company a little bit about his/her management style, and then they would give each manager feedback.
So, there were several sources of feedback, and each manager was asked to prepare an improvement plan to improve the quality of his/her leadership.
As far as the employee survey went (conducted through focus groups), a comprehensive plan of action was developed and shared with all the employees.
The progress was shared as well, and after the process concluded, there was a celebration to show the employees that the company valued their opinions and showed tangible proof of how they had incorporated the employees’ feedback into the way they do business.
On the other hand, not all employers value employee feedback. They may fail to ask, simply go through the motions, or worse still, penalize those who share feedback which may not coincide with that of the management team.
- I worked with a dental office that was interested in gathering employee feedback because they felt the morale was down and employees were very interested in providing their ideas.
I spent hours gathering information during an employee focus group session, and I documented the feedback the employees had given. When I presented it to the management team, all they said was, “We’ve heard all this before. It’s nothing new.”
They chose to do nothing that was suggested.
While no employees were punished for providing feedback, there was no expectation that the management team was going to do anything with the feedback.
Not all employees’ suggestions are actionable; however, I think it’s important to send a message that at least some of the input will be immediately actionable and some will be addressed at a later time.
But to say that employee feedback is not at all useful is wrong. It’s worse than not gathering information at all.
- Another example would be a medical office I worked with where managers wanted the same thing—employee feedback. The doctors, in essence, were out of touch with the front office and wanted to know what they thought.
At first, the scheduled feedback session was productive. Employees provided useful suggestions and frank feedback. Midway through the session, however, the office manager burst into the room and told us she had been listening through the keyhole in the door and that the employees who had shared information would be punished.
This is the worst example I’ve had in my experience. What’s unfortunate, also, is the fact that there are many, many more examples where companies have done employee feedback wrong rather than right.
Companies need to decide what kind of feedback they want to gather and what they intend to do with the feedback before starting to collect the feedback. This will help determine what type of methods to use, such as focus groups or employee surveys.
Through the various employee feedback methods, employees will get the impression that you care about what they have to say and you want to make changes based on their feedback.
Done properly, employee feedback can be a powerful tool. It has a lot of benefits for everyone. It’s a win-win situation. If it’s done right, it can not only improve morale, but improve performance as well.
It’s relatively inexpensive to gather employee feedback, and it’s so simple you can do it without a third-party being involved.
Employee feedback is a huge step toward improving employee relations.
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