Are You Listening To The Voice Of Employees?
If customer feedback is essential for businesses to identify areas where there’s room for improvement and how they can better satisfy customers, then feedback from employees is equally (or even more) important. Feedback from employees enables a business to identify areas of improvement, better satisfy customers and retain talented human resources. Listening to the Voice of the Employee begins by collecting, analyzing and acting on employee feedback. Are you listening to the voice of employees?
Getting feedback from customers and acting on it enables businesses to improve the customer experience and loyalty. Knowing what your employees want, need, or expect and acting on them is just as important. Here are 3 reasons why:
#1. Improved Employee Engagement
Getting feedback from employees on what they need to stay engaged and productive is a bold way of showing that you value them enough to listen to them and, where possible, make changes to policy or processes to meet their needs.
Giving employees in your organization a voice gives them a sense of autonomy and the feeling that they’re part of something bigger. Acting on feedback from employees will ultimately lead to changes in the areas that need improvement. It will also highlight which aspects of the business are working well, these lead to improved employee engagement.
#2. Low Attrition
According to research, employees with the highest levels of commitment perform 20% better and are 87% less likely to leave an organization. Acting on employee feedback is a very effective method to engage them and improve retention to ensure a profitable, productive workforce. This correlates with findings from Gallup that highly engaged workplaces see 20% higher sales, 21% higher overall profitability, 10% higher customer ratings and up to 67% lower turnover. Clearly, seeking feedback from employees and acting on them can increase retention in meaningful ways.
#3. Improved Customer Experience
Besides the fact that engaged employees are more likely to deliver higher quality service, feedback from the employees is crucial in figuring out where the gaps are in your business, and what you need to do to bridge such gaps in order to improve customer experience and drive revenue. James Bolle, VP head of client services EMEA at InMoment, explains:
“While a single customer can share his/her perceptions of their experiences at specific touchpoints and throughout their journeys, they provide an important, but limited, sample size of one. A single employee, on the other hand, may interact with hundreds of customers each day and therefore the depth of their feedback around the customer experience is much greater. Also, the breadth of their perspective is greater as they can see all of the elements that contribute to a good or bad experience”
How To Get Honest Feedback
Getting feedback from employees has numerous benefits, but the challenge usually lies in getting honest feedback from employees. Most times they are hesitant to share their opinion with managers or the organization, especially when it is negative for fear of repercussions. The infographic below highlights 6 ways you can get honest feedback from employees.
Employees are the best source of operational insights for any organization. They are the ones who interact with the customers and they know them better than anyone else. They are the ones who see and deal with the issues that come up daily and know where the bottlenecks are developing.
Implementing a robust employee feedback program will give businesses clarity into what employees say, what really matters to them and what challenges customers have with any aspect of the business. It is in the best interest of any business to listen to the voice of employees and act on it.
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Great information. I would add that in my experience the employees who have direct interaction with customers are a treasure trove of information for improving the customer experience….you just have to ring it out of them as they are often times not thinking in the vein you would like them to. They will unknowingly provide us clues.
I totally agree John. Thank you for sharing your thoughts 🙂
I’ll second those sentiments as I have personally seen them come to fruition in my own career over and over again as I implement VoC/VoE programs. Good stuff!
Thank you Erik!