All too often, employers wait until an employee is leaving until they ask them probing questions about how they feel about the company, the opportunities for advancement, office culture and benefits. Generally employees leave a workplace because of disengagement and dissatisfaction. By developing a system whereby employee feedback is utilised to respond to employees, its possible to both grow the business and reduce employee turnover.

As mentioned by HRBartender, information obtained from employees is valuable as it reveals what they value in a workplace: be it remuneration, recognition, flexibility or other benefits. This information can be used to influence decision making and is also useful when recruiting new employees: it helps employers understand what priorities candidates have and how they can develop strategies for their business to become an employer of choice.

So what’s important to consider when asking employees for feedback?

• Ensure that the questions asked are consistent, such as a survey
• Feedback is valuable as it provides insight into what’s working and what’s not working within a business
• Ensure that the information that is passed on to the business is general in nature and doesn’t contain sensitive information.
• The process must be communicated effectively, to ‘close the loop’. That is, you must explain how the information is planned on being used by the business.
• Employees must understand that not all feedback will be actioned and why

Once you have obtained feedback from employees, what do you do with it?

• Ad-hoc comments are one thing but numbers are a different matter entirely. Try to find some patterns from the comments and then use charts and tables to identify some trends.
• Identify which pieces of feedback represents the long-term strategy of the business.
• Identify which recommendations will drive the biggest positive result and business case the suggestions prior to taking it to management.

Does your business require help with developing an employee feedback framework? Contact our HR Consulting division for more information.