{"id":1026213,"date":"2022-10-24T10:27:06","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T17:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cx-journey.com\/?p=24476"},"modified":"2022-10-24T10:31:40","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T17:31:40","slug":"employee-listening-is-a-must-for-a-great-employee-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/employee-listening-is-a-must-for-a-great-employee-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Employee Listening Is a Must For a Great Employee Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\n
I originally wrote today\u2019s post for CMSWire. It appeared on their Reworked site<\/a> on August 10, 2022<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n In July 2022, it was reported<\/a> that Glassdoor had been ordered by a United States court to provide to Zuru, a toymaker in New Zealand, identifying information about employees who wrote negative reviews about the company. Zuru claimed the reviews were false and defamatory.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n That story leaves me with a lot of questions. Is this how to best address negative reviews? Isn\u2019t employee (surveys, reviews) feedback best when it\u2019s anonymous and there\u2019s no fear of recourse? Don\u2019t those who use Glassdoor to facilitate their job search want to hear both the good and the bad? Why did the employees leave? What was\/is the culture like at Zuru? What did leaders do to ensure employees were taken care of? Was there a common theme in the negative reviews? Did Zuru leaders know about the issues and do nothing about them? How did they listen to employees (proactively)? Or did they? What feedback mechanisms were in place? If any? How was the feedback used and acted upon? I could go on and on.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n It seems to me that I could answer all of the questions with the questions themselves: Leaders didn\u2019t care for employees, and the culture was toxic. There was fear of recourse within the organization, and it isn\u2019t a great place to work. But if you look at the Glassdoor reviews today<\/a>, they have 4.3 out of 5 stars. There are some negative reviews and comments scattered throughout. (I\u2019m not sure if they\u2019ve removed the \u201coffending\u201d reviews.) As we know, that doesn\u2019t always tell the full story. There are pros and cons to every work environment.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n What am I getting at here? Well, a couple of different things.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Employee Experience is a Priority, But\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n According to the Deloitte 2017 Global Human Capital Trends report<\/a>, 80 percent of executives rated employee experience as very important, but only 22 percent said their companies excelled at designing and delivering the experience.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n That\u2019s a big gap and a big problem. Why? There are a lot of reasons, including:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Employee Listening is a Must<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Getting feedback from employees should never be in question; it should be on the priorities list, always. But someone needs to own that. Not having an executive owner is problematic. Not having an executive owner who is focused on the whole employee, not just on pay and benefits, is also problematic. Consider these questions as you forge ahead:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n How You Respond Makes All the Difference<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Listening to employees and taking the time to understand their needs and expectations is so important, but it\u2019s critical that you also act on what you hear \u2013 and not months or quarters down the road. Now. As I mentioned in my last article<\/a>, I\u2019ve been talking about the importance of this for years, but the problem is, either companies weren\u2019t listening or, if they did, they did nothing with it. Acting on feedback is critical. Had businesses taken that employee feedback seriously years ago, we might not have such a messy talent situation right now. Don\u2019t put it off.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Ask for feedback, and then do something with it. Don\u2019t take it personally; take it seriously. Close the loop with employees \u2013 whether it\u2019s with an individual employee regarding feedback given during a 1:1 or a stay interview, or it\u2019s communication to all employees about feedback given through one of your listening posts \u2013 letting employees know they were heard (and what they said was acted on) is critical to the success of designing and delivering<\/a> a great employee experience. Employees obviously appreciate it and will continue to give feedback. Once the action stops, so will the feedback.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n