While it might sound dystopian, employee listening is much more of a utopian ideal. With open lines of communication between employees and business leaders, there’s less to stand in the way of mutual progress. Here’s how to go about empowering your organization through employee listening.
What Is Employee Listening?
Employee listening is as simple as it sounds—a way for enterprises to stay in-tune with what’s really on the minds of the people working there. This isn’t meant to be done in a surveillance or spying sort of way. In fact, it should be sort of the opposite. Well-done employee listening should build trust and not be based on any kind of suspicions. This can be done through surveys, focus groups, interviews, team-building activities and other avenues.
When thinking about employee listening, there are a few different aspects to consider. There’s the conceptual, abstract element of employee listening, but there’s also a literal, objective side as well.
Those who want to get philosophical about what constitutes employee listening can go down all kinds of rabbit holes. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as getting a broader perspective from employees can help reduce friction in the workplace. At the same time, going too far in one direction can lead to blind spots in other areas that actually carry more weight for employees.
This is where the second part of the equation comes into play. Organizations today need to think about the tools and technologies required to complete their objectives, not just having a general goal of improving employee listening. Once these elements are working in conjunction, it becomes easier for business leaders to meet the expectations of their employees, which in turn keeps everyone happy and increases success for the enterprise.
Why Is Employee Listening So Important for empowering your organization?
It should be clear by now what employee listening is, and why it makes sense for corporations to utilize it. Let’s dig deeper into some of the specific reasons employee listening is so important:
- Treating people with respect and attention makes them care – You’re not going to get someone to engage with your enterprise by ignoring them and treating them like their ideas don’t matter. This is the essence of why employee listening is so critical. Not only does it lead to more content workers, it lets them know they’re valued, which is typically a top priority in finding a place to dedicate one’s working hours.
- Employees who feel valued will lead to creative breakthroughs – The next best thing isn’t going to be designed by someone who’s bitter and bored out of their mind at work. It’s going to come from a team that’s satisfied and excited about what they’re developing.
- Employees who don’t feel valued aren’t motivated to do great work – They aren’t going to care about anything beyond collecting a paycheck. This is a negative scenario for the business, as employees will ideally create value. Furthermore, uninspired employees contribute to a stagnant culture, which will drag down growth initiatives.
Maintaining an awareness of the concerns of employees is clearly an essential duty for businesses today. An employee survey might not seem like a groundbreaking approach, but used over time, at strategic points, with the right questions, it can yield highly useful insights for managers and stakeholders.
How Can You be Empowering Your Organization Through Employee Listening?
Organizations that are ready to take the full plunge into employee listening need to ask themselves a simple question: How? While there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this, some general ideas apply to all situations.
For starters, it’s essential to understand the problems you’re looking to solve or understand with each question put onto a survey. Your broad goal is to collect and synthesize data to comprehend employee moods and desires. But this needs to be accomplished through more granular initiatives, which can be extrapolated and then refined through continuous employee listening.
Ultimately, employee listening needs to lead to actionable insights. Designing your program around this idea will allow for more readily available solutions to create the best possible work environment for your teams.
