The art of listening and scaling employee experience program

Listening and acting on employee feedback is nothing new – understanding what matters most to employees and then using that to create engaging experiences at work is an essential activity for every organisation.

For today’s HR leaders, however, it’s more than just the traditional once or twice a year check-in – instead, they’re scaling their programs to collect feedback at every moment and experience that matters throughout the employee lifecycle.

But how do you go from one or two check-ins a year to a more holistic program that gathers feedback more frequently and at more touch points than ever before?

It Starts With the Right Feedback Systems

It’s become something of a fashion these days to claim the annual engagement survey is obsolete – but that’s not true – in fact, our research has shown the value of the census engagement survey, provided it’s not run more than 4 times a year.

Courtesy:  Stock Photo Secrets

But what about the other experiences they have in between? How do you know what’s happening and driving their engagement, productivity, customer orientation, and more?

That’s where other feedback systems need to come into play, to fill the gap and provide the insights you need to drive those key metrics.

Webinar: See our masterclass on employee feedback mechanisms.

Invest in Scalable Technology

Digital technology is the foundation of all employee feedback systems and, when selecting the correct technology platform, you should be able to scale the platform as you scale your programs. There are, however, a few non-negotiables that must be present in your employee feedback system. For example, enterprise-grade security, ability for complex hierarchy and organisational structures, ability to complete full lifecycle data and always on feedback, and ability to link other experience data and operational data. These non-negotiable provide that foundation to grow and scale your program.

Collaborate Across the Organisation

Employee experience doesn’t happen in isolation – it’s everyone’s business and to get it right, it requires strong collaborate across all HR functions. A number of employee experience teams are utilising Agile and SCRUM tools to collaborate across their business. For example, EX SCRUM teams are composed HR, IT, and Business Partners working in EX sprints producing focused outcomes every two weeks like new feedback channel, updated feedback tools, or even data insights. These employee experience SCRUM teams are even utilising kanban and JIRA boards to track and hold individuals and teams to account.

Want to know more about the employee engagement survey template?  Click here.

Anticipate Changing Needs

While it’s great to have a clear process and structure for your employee experience program, it’s important it matures and is guided by the changing needs within the business. For example, role-based dashboards that can be easily adapted to provide more insights over time as the user matures in their ability to digest data is critical for a successful EX program. Another example is a change in the C-suite could very quickly change the needs of the business and potentially your whole employee experience program. So be willing to change and adapt to external factors

Create a Culture of Employee Feedback

Only one in five HR practitioners report that their organisation collected employee feedback across the key employee experiences. It’s an unfortunate reality, considering how important an open feedback process is to employees. Employees who say their company responds to their feedback “extremely well” are 5 times more likely to stay in their roles than those who say their company responds “not well at all”— and 12 times more likely to recommend their company to friends and family as a place of work.

See our masterclass on creating a culture of feedback

Cultivating Executive Alignment

For your program to be most successful, executives need to believe that employee experience management is fundamental to the success and the survival of the organisation. When working with clients, I always highlight the importance of pushing their executives to move beyond “score chasing.” You can do this by asking the executive team to help you develop and define the ideal employee experience, and then take time to map out the steps it takes to get there, and the employee insights you need to drive those steps.

Once you’ve aligned senior leadership to your plan, tying the program outcomes to the outcomes of the business will drive long-term sustainability and program success. Do this by identifying urgent and top-of-mind business challenges, then build the ROI case via existing research, ROI frameworks, and internal case studies.

To learn more about how to scale your employee experience program, check out my webinar.

ABOUT QUALTRICS

Qualtrics is the technology platform that organisations use to collect, manage, and act on experience data, also called X-data™. The Qualtrics XM Platform™ is a system of action, used by teams, departments, and entire organisations to manage the four core experiences of business—customer, product, employee and brand—on one platform. Over 9,000 enterprises worldwide, including more than 75 percent of the Fortune 100 and 99 of the top 100 U.S. business schools, rely on Qualtrics to consistently build products that people love, create more loyal customers, develop a phenomenal employee culture, and build iconic brands.

To learn more and for a free account, visit:

Qualtrics Australia - https://www.qualtrics.com/au

Qualtrics Singapore - https://www.qualtrics.com/sg