The Importance of Taking Employee Feedback and Assessing How They Feel About Themselves and The Company

Employees are our most important assets. Many of them aspire to have a healthy professional career than having a very hefty paygrade. These could include a excellent culture at work, learning opportunities and career roadmap, which also means if these things are not taken care for them they would look for a place which fosters these things. So how can organizations ensure they’re grooming an environment where their employees feel valued, engaged, and appreciated?

By asking them if they feel valued, engaged, and appreciated, of course! Taking employee feedback and assessing how they feel about themselves and the company is the best way to gain understanding of their pulse. Employees who believe that management is concerned about them and their needs are likely to feel more fulfilled and satisfied at work. Annual engagement surveys have been the standard feedback collection tool since the 70’s, but forward-thinking HR leaders are now beginning to boycott the once a year survey in favour of more innovative solutions.

Why are annual engagement surveys no longer relevant? First things first, they are once in a year – which is not at all significant to check how our employee feels. A lot can happen in the space of a few months or even weeks in business. Most of us struggle to remember what we discussed a week back and here we are talking about 12 months.

The truth is though, restructures, resignations, transfers, policy changes and ongoing business dynamics all have an impact on your employees and how they feel about work and the organisations. Even if you survey your employees every 6 months, too much can happen between each survey to truly capture how your employees feel about their work and company culture. Since we are humans we respond to small emotions quickly than bigger tasks and milestones. And having such a long gap to check with our employees is surely not the right way to connect.

Running an annual survey in a large organization is also a huge task for HR. On the one hand, you’ve got an entire year’s worth of data to capture, and on the other, a global workforce with hundreds of employees. Capturing an entire year’s feedback also means that the survey is likely to be long and full of detailed questions, which can be off-putting for busy employees.

But what if every employee within a company does complete the entire survey? That’s an enormous amount of feedback for a large company to collate and analyse. It’s often too much information than HR knows what to do with, and the result may be that no action is taken. When survey insights aren’t turned into action, employees can doubt the motives of their managers and feel less engaged than ever.

Let’s just rewind a bit and understand why it’s so important to have your employees’ opinions. Because when employees feel heard, valued and empowered they’re more engaged at work, and engaged employees are critical to your organization’s success. Engaged employees are happier, more productive, take fewer days off, are more invested in their roles, and are more likely to stick around long-term.

Checking the pulse of your organization is straight forward for organizations wanting to acquire frank insights and understand how their employees are feeling at that situation or moment. The surveys require minimal time and effort from both the company and its employees, but its impact and rewards can be huge.