Capturing Feedback from Employees to Boost Engagement

According to a 2023 Gallup survey of the US workforce, only 33% of full- and part-time employees are engaged in their roles at work. This means workers are less likely to be satisfied, which hinders performance and increases turnover. 

The good news is there is a way employers can combat poor engagement: gather team members' feedback and implement actionable insight.  

Is Employee Feedback Important? The Disconnect with Collecting Feedback 

Collecting team feedback to improve employee satisfaction is not a new concept. Workers have been using this avenue for decades to make direct reports aware of gaps in company culture and management style. However, this does not mean it is simple for workers to share their unfiltered (positive or negative) feedback with their superiors. 

Although many companies have tried to incorporate a few methods to record employee feedback, reality tells a different story. 

According to a recent study, 36% of workers do not think they have a feedback program at their workplace -- or they do not know about it. Of course, they may also be experiencing strained manager-employee relationships and/or lack an open-door policy that inhibits any feedback options. 

As for employees who are aware of an active feedback program in their company, 21% may be worried about backlash for saying something. And while 79% say they share their unfiltered opinions, only a mere 38% believe their suggestions bring about real change. 

When managers are slow to act on feedback or ignore it altogether, it drives a rift between management and employees. This also fuels cynicism, making workers reluctant to participate in future feedback programs. 

On the other hand, actively gathering employee feedback and implementing positive change cultivates a safe internal culture. This encourages workers to tactfully speak their minds without worrying about negative consequences. 

Ways Companies Gather Employee Feedback 

Companies typically gather employee feedback in various ways, with some methods being formal and others more informal. Formal methods involve pre-defined metrics to measure worker satisfaction and note their complaints, while informal methods are unscheduled interactions.  

In this article, we have outlined the most common forms of collecting employee feedback and included examples or tips for each one. 

Surveys and Questionnaires 

Perhaps the most popular formal method for capturing employee feedback is through surveys and questionnaires. These are scheduled in advance and consist of generalized questions that can be applied to every member of your team. 

Since surveys can be conducted anonymously without taking up a lot of work time, employees are more likely to offer honest feedback with unfiltered opinions. Questions can be customized according to the goals you have in mind, and collected responses can be analyzed afterwards to infer actionable insights. 

For instance, if you are an eCommerce company and are extremely busy during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas week, you might want organizational feedback from your employees regarding your busy season. You could survey employees with questions such as: 

• How stressful are busy days for you? (scale 1-10) 
• What would make the busy days more bearable? (Offer a range of options, such as overtime, flexibility, on-site massage therapist, lunch, additional PTO, gifts, or anything that would not be too taxing for the business. Consider adding an “other” option for employees to write in their own thoughts.) 
• How well-equipped is the company to handle the most stressful days? (scale 1-10)
• What tools could help relieve your stress? (open-ended)

Keep the questions short and sweet and add multiple choices or a range of options to make it easier for workers to provide effective employee feedback. Gathering quantitative results will allow you to understand employee sentiment and take corrective measures accordingly. 

Structured Interviews 

While curated surveys and questionnaires are good ways to gather feedback, they are not always conclusive. This is where audio-based stay and exit interviews are useful, as they allow employees to provide feedback through recorded or verbal conversations. These one-on-one conversations between a superior (or HR) and a worker will highlight your employee’s pain points and provide unfiltered access to their relationship with their job. 

When done right, stay interviews boost employee morale and improve retention. They make it evident to your employees that they are important to you and that you are interested in learning about their opinions and challenges. You can also pinpoint employees who are a flight risk. 

Exit interviews help identify gaps in your current processes and internal culture. Understanding them will better prepare you to fill the empty post and give you a list of dos and don'ts you can follow to retain new employees and build a strong company culture. 

Tips for Conducting Interviews 

Although it sounds simple, there are a few important things to consider to ensure one-on-one interviews are successful in sharing feedback. 

Make employees feel like they are part of the team. 

When giving feedback, use terms like “we” and “us” instead of relying on alienating terms like “you” and “I.”  

Prepare yourself for receiving feedback. 

Some of the honest employee feedback you get may be difficult to hear. Be prepared for tactfully receiving feedback to avoid shutting down any of your employees. 

Prioritize high-impact individuals. 

Prioritizing high-impact individuals is important because they often have a significant influence on the organization’s performance, culture, and overall success. Top performers can provide valuable insights into the company’s strengths and areas for improvement. Their feedback can help identify critical issues that might not be obvious to others, and addressing their concerns or suggestions can lead to meaningful changes that positively affect the entire organization. 

Set the interview agenda in advance. 

Inform employees about their upcoming interview. A clear agenda will prevent them from hyperventilating and give them ample time to consolidate their thoughts and be better prepared for your discussion. 

Establish trust. 

Employees are unlikely to share important concerns if they fear repercussions or bias of any kind. Since trust cannot be won within a 20-minute discussion, set your groundwork from the moment they are hired and become part of your team. 

Prepare a list of exit and stay interview questions beforehand. 

This way, you can masterfully steer the conversation in the direction you want for gaining constructive feedback. 

Ensure a stay interview does not turn into performance feedback. 

Although the agenda of the discussion will be clear, you want to spend 80% of the time listening to your employees. You should avoid dismissing their opinions or offering counter-concerns if one of their complaints hits too close to home. 

Use Audio Transcription to Simplify Documentation 

Empty promises can hurt employee morale, so it is important to take notes during each interview to analyze later and extract useful insights. If note taking is challenging, consider recording the interview (with consent) and reviewing the responses afterward. 

If you are short on time to transcribe the audio or video file, you can use audio transcription free to get detailed and accurate notes quickly, allowing you to focus on the conversation. This tool allows you to focus on the discussion while providing a quick turnaround without having to sift through hundreds of files. 

Audio transcription tools often include interactive editors that make collecting feedback more efficient, with features like speaker labels and timestamps to avoid confusion. If needed, you can also have someone manually polish the discussion notes. 

Suggestion Boxes 

Place suggestion boxes in various places at your organization where employees can provide anonymous feedback about anything. Show employees that you are genuinely interested in their feedback by going through suggestions at staff meetings. Designate company leaders to ensure cost-effective ideas are carried out to respond to concerns and solve problems. 

Casual Conversations 

Sometimes the best, most candid conversations are the ones that are unscheduled. When these happen, be sure to quickly document your notes either by typing or voice recording so you can return to it later and develop an action plan for making improvements. 

Real-time Feedback Tools 

Digital tools such as pulse surveys and chatbots can be utilized for instant feedback.  

Pulse Surveys 

You may have been asked recently to rate your shopping experience at a store; this is a real-time pulse survey to provide feedback. This type of survey can also be used with employees to do a quick temperature check to gauge their satisfaction. 

Because this survey is meant to be brief and focused on something specific, you should use simple language, keep it anonymous to encourage honest feedback, and make the survey easy for people to take. For example, "Does your manager provide adequate support?" or "How satisfied are you with your current workload?" may be questions to ask in a pulse survey. 

AI-Generated Videos 

The digital tool of AI-generated video can be a significant advantage for helping you gain real-time insights. These videos can create summaries of employee sentiment or recurring themes, assisting you in visualizing insights and reaffirming company values.  

For example, if you have a few slide decks from your last survey, you can turn them into AI-generated videos to make them more digestible. You could label them and let them serve as your North Star while you strive to simplify your employees’ lives. 

Another idea is to create personalized video responses to enhance engagement. For example, if a few members of your team are struggling to be realistic about project deliverables or lag in the project planning phase, you can help them out with a few AI-generated tips and tricks. 

How to Create AI-Generated Videos 

To create AI generated videos for free, simply input the desired text and the generator will turn them into explainer videos. 

These videos will feature human-like AI avatars, with voiceovers available in over 140 languages. If you are not a big fan of the font or layout, you can personalize the videos to match your brand’s style and your personal preferences for greater impact.

Share the videos directly from the platform or send your team members a link. This will help show your team they are heard and can come to you with their concerns—big or small. 

Capture Employee Feedback to Improve Engagement and Lower Attrition 

Employee engagement is critical for an organization’s success, regardless of its size. This emphasizes the importance of establishing a connection between employees and your business. The key to doing that is capturing employee feedback and implementing changes that improve your employees’ pain points. 

Although formal methods will keep you informed of the current challenges and help you connect with your employees, informal methods and real-time feedback tools are essential for building trust and continuously gathering feedback. Regardless of the approach, your certified HR expert is available to help you. 

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