Employee feedback can provide a powerful impetus for positive change, as long as it is collected, analyzed and implemented with adequate tools. By giving employees a voice and listening to their perspectives, companies can gain valuable insight into areas that need improvement. A prerequisite for driving change using employee feedback is that organizations are equipped with the necessary tools and that there is an organizational culture in which employees feel their opinions are valued.
In Article:
- With feedback, it is not only possible to create an open and constructive dialogue between employees and the employer. In the long term, employee feedback stimulates the development of the organization and gives concrete direction to the company's activities.
- Regularly gathering, collecting and implementing actions based on employee feedback provides many benefits to the company. Key among them are: improving engagement, increasing motivation, trust, improving retention and driving innovation.
- There are several methods of collecting feedback used by companies to make changes and improvements. The most common include: surveys, Town Hall and suggestion boxes.
- Among the tools for soliciting employee feedback, the most noteworthy are company improvement systems such as Sherlock Waste - a tool that supports managers in achieving business goals by involving employees in submitting ideas, implementing improvements and solving problems together.
- Employees should be informed about how their suggestions influenced the company's decisions, as well as how changes were implemented and the results. With a good feedback policy, employees gain a sense that their voice counts, which pays off in increased commitment, work motivation and job satisfaction.
Table of Contents:
- Feedback - how does it work at work?
- Opinions that count
- How does feedback drive change?
- Benefits of using employee feedback
- Feedback collection methods - a comparison
- Company improvement systems
- How to analyze and respond to feedback?
- Employee feedback - conclusions
See also: Principles of good feedback
Feedback - how does it work at work?
Identified with constructive criticism, feedback provides an opportunity to identify strengths and weaknesses, which helps develop employees' competencies and better tailor human resource management to individual needs. By giving feedback, employers or managers can recognize employees' good performance, motivate them or point out areas for improvement.
Feedback, which can concern both technical and soft skills, such as communication, cooperation with the team or problem-solving skills, is one of the most important tools for improving communication. Thanks to feedback, it is possible not only to create an open and constructive dialogue between employees and the employer - in the long run, employee feedback stimulates the development of the organization and, through creative solutions, gives a concrete direction to the company's activities.
Opinions that count
Listening to employees and taking their opinions into account is crucial for any organization that wants to improve. While managers observe operations from some distance, employees are at the very center of them. They see what is actually happening in the company and accurately identify areas for improvement.
Soliciting opinions is also important from the point of view of the company's managers - it proves that the management counts with the opinion of the team, which increases the engagement of employees who know that their voice is heard. Employee feedback is a source of valuable information and an invaluable internal perspective that provides impetus for action. With best practices for collecting and using employee feedback, it is possible to generate change from within the organization.
How does feedback drive change?
Effectively collected and used, employee feedback is a tool that can stimulate many activities in a company. Examples of how employee feedback leads to significant changes are all situations in which a company, based on analysis of employee feedback data, implements various types of innovations and improvements.
Changes made by companies with employee feedback as the impetus cover a wide spectrum of activities. The result of analyzing employee feedback may include updating work schedules or remote work policies in response to a greater need for flexibility. Changes may also result in an improved benefits package or modification of policies regarding time off, vacations or vacations. Changes often also affect the workflows themselves - bringing improvements in tools, systems and other technological or procedural changes. They may also concern the shape of the organizational structure.
Benefits of using employee feedback
Regularly gathering, collecting and implementing actions based on employee feedback provides many benefits to the company. Key among them are:
- Improving engagement - companies that actively collect and respond to feedback have employees who feel more engaged.
- increase in motivation - employees who have the opportunity to provide feedback have a sense of being heard. Valuing their opinion translates into increased job satisfaction and motivation.
- Increase in trust - the ability to communicate openly and voice one's opinions without fear of consequences increases employees' trust in management and improves communication within the company.
- Improved ret ention - companies that actively collect and respond to feedback have more engaged employees. The improvement in retention seen as a result means value retention for companies and savings from reduced spending on repeatedly hiring and training new employees.
- Driving innovation - through feedback channels, employees have the opportunity to talk about the problems they see and suggest the best solutions. Responding quickly to problems and using ideas to eliminate them, streamlines processes and drives innovation.
Feedback collection methods - a comparison
There are several methods for collecting employee feedback used by companies to make changes and improvements. The most common include: surveys, Town Hall meetings and suggestion systems.
Surveys
One of the most popular tools for collecting feedback in an organization are surveys sent to employees to obtain their opinions on various topics concerning the quality of work. Surveys that allow employees to provide anonymous feedback, and companies to identify trends and connect areas of opportunity, work best when they are concise and conducted regularly, and result in appropriate action being taken. The advantages of surveys are primarily low cost, ease of execution and anonymity. The latter, however, not infrequently proves to be a downside of the tool - in addition to the inability to verify the identity of the person speaking, it can involve the risk of falsification or insufficient data.
Advantages of surveys:
- low cost
- ease of conducting the survey
- the ability to reach a large audience at the same time
- possibility to continue
- convenience of filling out surveys
- easy analysis of results and drawing conclusions
- Anonymity (greater freedom of expression)
Disadvantages of surveys:
- The possibility of falsifying data or providing false and erroneous information
- lack of control of the influence of external factors
- Anonymity (no way to verify the identity of respondents)
- No return of surveys or return of incomplete surveys
Town Hall
Another tool for obtaining employee feedback is management meetings with employees. The so-called Town Hall, which is an open forum for discussion, is an opportunity for employees to convey their opinions, express concerns and offer ideas and suggestions. Such gatherings allow for interactive dialogue, real-time clarification and a better understanding of relevant issues by leaders. The disadvantage of Town Hall, however, can be the lack of comfort caused by the context of public expression, as well as the risk of the public discussion space being hijacked by one or a few company executives.
Advantages of Town Hall:
- field for interactive dialogue
- real-time communication
- lack of anonymity
Town Hall Disadvantages:
- risk of monopolization of speech
- Risk of lack of openness in communication
- time constraints
- cost constraints
Suggestion boxes
One traditional method of soliciting feedback is to place physical suggestion boxes in common office areas. This way of engaging employees involves employees sharing feedback dropped into the idea box. The plus side of this solution is undoubtedly the ease of implementation, but the lack of dialogue and context can make it difficult to act on all suggestions.
Advantages of suggestion boxes:
- low cost
- ease of reporting problems
- anonymity
Disadvantages of suggestion boxes:
- no possibility of dialogue
- time constraints
- lack of regularity
- Risk of slowing down operations and making reported topics obsolete
Company improvement systems
Among the tools that make it possible to solicit employee feedback, the most noteworthy are company improvement systems such as Sherlock Waste. Sherlock Waste is a tool that supports managers in achieving business goals by involving employees in submitting ideas, implementing improvements and solving problems together. This allows companies to more effectively identify areas for optimization and build a culture of continuous improvement. The Sherlock Waste platform supports not only process improvement, but also the building of a culture of collaboration and innovation that makes the improvement process an integral part of a company's operations.
How does Sherlock Waste work ?
Sherlock Waste is a tool for using problems to improve the company. The system allows the implementation of improvements by involving employees in submitting ideas, thus supporting the development of the entire organization. Sherlock Waste, acting as a communication bridge, allows users to share ideas, problems and comments.
With the mobile app, it is possible to report problems from anywhere and at any time. Each text description can also be accompanied by a photo or video. Importantly - the people responsible for solving the problem are assigned to a specific problem, which makes each problem addressed, and with the ability to prioritize reports involving the entire community, it is possible to give them the appropriate rank.
What are the advantages of the company's improvement system Sherlock Waste?
The advantages of the company's improvement system Sherlock Waste include ease of use, general accessibility, ability to set priorities, real implementation of solutions and monitoring of effects. The implementation of the tool in the company also promotes the building of a consistent and committed organizational culture, increases employee motivation and stimulates continuous development. Among the advantages of Sherlock Waste are, first of all:
- simple addition of requests - adding a request to the system takes less than a minute on average
- convenience of use - the ability to report problems at any time and from anywhere
- possibility to attach documentation - option to illustrate problems with multimedia files
- Addressing requests - a responsible person is assigned to each problem, e.g. a manager
- Priority selection - by filtering, searching for requests and adding "I have the same" comments, employees collectively decide which requests are most important
- Implementation of solutions - thanks to the management of the full improvement process - from the moment of acceptance of the idea to its full implementation, it is possible to act aimed at a specific result
- Continuous improvement - moving toward continuous improvement effectively engages employees in the company's continuous improvement process, ensuring transparency, flexibility and scalability of operations.
- monitoring of effects - a tool for tracking implemented initiatives in selected perspectives allows to increase the effectiveness of business goals.
How to analyze and respond to feedback?
Once feedback has been collected, employee feedback must be carefully analyzed by management. This involves selecting from among the feedback those with the greatest weight and representativeness - factors such as the number of employees raising the same concerns can help leaders understand the scale and urgency of problems.
Prioritization
Leaders should develop a plan to respond to high-priority feedback in a timely manner. With proper prioritization, the company can first address the key issues that have the greatest impact on quality and productivity. For less critical issues, the goal may initially be to confirm and respond to employees that their voice has been heard.
Transparency
Clear communication about how feedback is analyzed and what actions are planned as a result is crucial to building employee trust. Transparency of rules regarding feedback encourages ongoing participation in the feedback process. If employees feel that their input leads to real change, they are motivated to continue providing suggestions. Senior leaders can reinforce this trend by sharing examples of how previous feedback has influenced improvements.
Implement changes based on feedback
Thoughtful selection, prioritization and clear rules on feedback allow for the implementation of appropriate actions based on feedback. When done correctly, the process becomes a valuable two-way dialogue between employees and the company. The next step, after collecting and analyzing employee feedback, is to actually implement changes based on the insights gained. This is one of the most important stages, as it allows employees to experience tangible changes and provides confirmation that their voice is being heard.
Employee feedback - conclusions
Employee feedback can provide a powerful impetus for positive change, as long as it is collected, analyzed and implemented with adequate tools. By giving employees a voice and listening to their perspectives, companies can gain valuable insight into areas that need improvement. A prerequisite for driving change using employee feedback is that organizations are equipped with the necessary tools and that there is an organizational culture in which employees feel their opinions are valued.
For employee feedback solicitation to work well, it must be an ongoing, two-way dialogue, not an occasional spurt. Employees should be informed about how their suggestions have influenced company decisions, and how changes have been implemented and what the results are. With a good feedback policy, employees gain a sense that their voice counts, which pays off in increased commitment, work motivation and job satisfaction.
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Interested in improving your company based on feedback? Check out how Sherlock Waste works.
Sherlock Waste is more than a tool - it's a partner in developing the potential of your organization!
The main goal of Sherlock Waste is to help you solve the problems that are hindering your company's growth - the priority is to understand your expectations, challenges and goals that you want to achieve. Experts at Sherlock Waste focus on proposing solutions that not only fit into your strategy, but also bring tangible benefits and support business improvement.
Make an appointment with an expert Sherlock Waste, during which:
- We will talk about your expectations and business goals,
- We will analyze the biggest challenges and constraints to achieving these goals,
- You will learn the key factors influencing employee commitment to improvement.
- we will present details of how our approach to the improvement process works,
- We will tailor a solution to your challenges and company specifics,
- We will present case studies and results of implementations in your industry,
- We will answer all your questions,
- we will create a personalized path of cooperation, transforming your business challenges into success!
