When you ask employees for their feedback through an engagement survey, you’re creating a set of expectations that things are going to change.
However, HR and management can sometimes end up overpromising and under delivering, only to look back six months later and say, “Wow, we really didn’t accomplish a lot since we got those survey results.”
This is one surefire way to create disgruntled employees.
If you want to avoid this kind of scenario, here are two ways to take feedback from your team and implement change:
Improve the Leadership Capabilities of Your Team
The first lever you can pull to effect change is to improve the leadership approach of your team. It has the most immediate effect because the behaviors of your supervisors influence the largest number of employees in your organization. By improving their communication skills, their motivation skills, and the way that they interact with their teams, you’re going to see an immediate improvement in employee engagement.
Implement HR Policies That Support a Positive Culture
The second area to consider is your HR policies. These policies help determine who you hire, who you promote, how you reward people, as well as the performance management process that you use.
This is an important area to pay attention to.
One location we visited had punitive signs that basically threatened a worker’s employment if rules were broken. You can imagine the kind of culture that this created.
A Word of Caution
Employees can get disgruntled when feedback is asked for, provided and nothing changes. Share on X
Make promises you can keep, and implement new initiatives one at a time to show slow and steady progress.
What’s another way your organization ensures it listens to its employees and follows through with promises?
