The workplace is an integral part of an employee's life.
Employees will possibly spend one-third of their lifetime at work. That said, they need an engaging and safe workplace where they can thrive, advance their careers, and form strong bonds with their employers, managers, and co-workers.
Leaders and business owners now realize that to retain talented and sincere employees, they must provide more than just a paying job. Creating a culture of engagement has become a fundamental need for the modern organization.
"If leaders want to unleash individual and collective talent, they must foster a psychologically safe climate where employees feel free to contribute ideas, share information, and report mistakes."
- Amy C. Edmondson, Harvard Business School.
Modern organizations must give employees a chance to speak up about the issues that affect their productivity and efficiency. In addition, employees must feel that the organization is willing and eager to listen to what they have to say.
In this article, we review the importance of employee feedback and how Ariglad's Anonymous Feedback tool offers employees a secure way to express their concerns anonymously.
Why is Employee Feedback Important?
Feedback opens up a channel of communication between the employee and the organization.
But feedback at the workplace must be a two-way street.
It cannot be limited to top-down feedback in which managers appraise employees about improvements they need to make.
The organization must also offer bottom-up feedback so employees can speak up about issues such as heavy workloads or air grievances about discrimination or unsafe working conditions.
If the organization doesn't offer employees a secure and comfortable way to express their grievances, they will find other ways to speak out.
For example, a disgruntled employee can turn to a social media channel such as LinkedIn to speak publicly about problems at the workplace. Take the #MeToo movement that went viral on social media—thousands of individuals used the hashtag to open up about sexual harassment at work.
On the other hand, if the organization seeks and receives actionable feedback and constructive criticism in a timely manner, it can positively influence HR priorities like employee retention, productivity, work culture, and morale.
When organizations listen closely to what employees say, they can pick up negative sentiments and problems early on, intervene to avoid mishaps, and maybe even prevent litigation or legal risks.
Ariglad's Anonymous Feedback tool is an invaluable way for organizations to uncover hidden clues to situations that are not yet visible to Human Resources, managers or leaders.
Organizations can use our employee feedback tool to:
- Learn about an employee's personal goals and empower them to achieve them and advance their career.
- Help employees build trust and foster solid relationships with managers and peers based on positive feedback loops.
- Make employees feel supported and valued, improving employee satisfaction and retention rates.
Benefits of Employee Feedback
Let's look at some benefits organizations can reap from soliciting honest and constructive feedback from employees:
Improved employee retention
Encouraging employees to give feedback increases engagement between them and their employers. Studies have demonstrated a clear link between employee engagement and retention. According to Gallup, low-engagement teams suffer significantly higher turnover rates (between 18% and 43% higher) than their happier and more highly engaged counterparts.
Employees who are overworked or dissatisfied will leave their current job as soon as possible. But if you make them feel a part of the company system, they are more likely to dedicate their time and abilities to the organization and even decline other job offers.
Increased employee morale
Employees who are dissatisfied with their work environment or relationship with colleagues suffer from low morale. Poor morale further reduces their confidence in the organization and lowers productivity. When you empower them to give bottom-up feedback, they feel valued, and this improves their morale.
Gallup's 2022 State of the Global Workforce Report shows that only 21% of employees feel their managers care about their opinions and recognize their work. This means that organizations have a long way to go to make their employees feel secure, give them a voice, and increase their morale.
Nurturing your employees into a team of satisfied and happy workers who have a positive attitude toward their place of work will improve morale. Higher employee morale improves productivity and ultimately increases the organization's profitability.
Create a positive company culture
The key to creating a positive company culture is establishing trust in employees and opening the doors to honest and effective communication.
A positive culture helps employees to share their feedback without fear. In turn, the sharing or feedback creates a strong working relationship between the employee and employer based on trust and honesty.
According to research by Deloitte, employees value culture and career growth almost twice as much as they value compensation and benefits when selecting an employer.
When you implement an effective communication process, you reiterate a feedback culture that empowers employees and enables them to thrive.
How to Ask for Employee Feedback
According to one report, 21% of employees who encounter a negative workplace issue will not report it. This may be either because they are uncomfortable sharing negative feedback or they fear that it may impact their job.
Additionally, the report indicated that 74% of employees will share feedback if it can be given anonymously.
This highlights the importance of using the right way to seek employee feedback.
Unless companies seek feedback regularly and proactively, they cannot uncover negative sentiments or issues of concern. They must provide tools which put employees at ease by collecting feedback anonymously.
Anonymous feedback is one of the best ways to improve work processes and employee policies.
Create a space for honest feedback
If employees hold back honest feedback for fear of its repercussions, workplace processes and practices will not evolve and improve.
And if a manager is unable to engage and talk openly to an employee with a low job satisfaction score, the issue could eventually come out in negative behaviors like office gossip. Worse, the employee could withdraw into a shell or act out angrily.
How do you create an environment where employees feel safe giving honest feedback?
Providing anonymous feedback is one way.
Ariglad helps you gather feedback seamlessly. Besides, it provides anonymity for DEI (Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion). Marginalized sections of employees may have had past negative experiences which keep them from giving honest feedback.
Our data-based feedback for HR leaders makes it easy to investigate incidents and capture subtle whistleblower messages.
Ask your team regularly
Creating a culture of engagement is not limited to completing an annual employee engagement survey. Or attending a townhall meeting. Or even a scheduled work performance review.
Frontline managers who interact with their team members or direct reports on a day-to-day basis must proactively engage employees with regular check-ins.
If they wait for employees to tell them when something goes wrong, they're likely to miss issues of concern. Instead, they must make a conscious effort to collect regular feedback and maintain positive feedback loops.
It may help to schedule check-ins with employees at specific milestones in their employee lifecycle or during a project lifecycle.
Ariglad helps you to execute a seamless feedback system that automatically gathers feedback from employee communication channels such as Slack and email.
Opt for Ariglad for always-on feedback that drives positive employee engagement.
Incentivize giving feedback
Giving honest feedback is not easy for employees. When they do offer it, they deserve some appreciation, even if it's as simple as a thank-you note or email.
Some organizations also gamify the feedback process in an effort to incentivize employees to give feedback.
Appreciating feedback makes employees feel connected with the organization. It gives them the status of an important stakeholder contributing to the continuous improvement of organizational processes.
Ariglad's Anonymous Feedback tool engages employees so they can vent out their work-related frustrations and air their grievances internally. It makes them feel like a valued part of an organization that cares for their well-being.
Gain Valuable Insights with Ariglad's Anonymous Feedback Tool
Organizations must avoid reducing the employee feedback process to an annual task of ticking off checkboxes on a survey form.
Instead, companies must make a conscious effort to collect feedback from employees regularly and often. Offering anonymity increases the chances of receiving honest feedback, especially from marginalized employees, making it a necessary part of your DEI initiatives.
That's where Ariglad's Anonymous Feedback tool makes a significant impact. It helps improve employee performance by opening up channels of honest communication.
It gathers feedback seamlessly through integrations with various systems like Slack, Workday or Microsoft Teams.
It provides measurable data about employee concerns and helps you develop data-centric strategies to enhance productivity and employee retention. Pulse surveys enable employees to submit questions for upcoming meetings.
Our HR solutions help managers stay connected with their teams, and our People Analytics solutions help stakeholders gain valuable insights into workplace trends.
Create a culture of engagement with Ariglad.
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