Take key steps to gather employee feedback

The only way to know how your employees are feeling about their working conditions is to ask them.

Capturing candid and honest feedback is the best, most effective way you can do this. Awareness of what employees are thinking, how they are feeling, and where they are seeing potential challenges will help you avoid headaches.

The use of pulse surveys to gather employee feedback provides critical data needed to guide decision-making and take action with confidence. For example, on issues surrounding COVID, in addition to establishing safety measures, it’s important for employees to feel safe

Pulse surveys capture real-time employee feedback that enables you to tackle immediate topics and gain valuable intelligence for mission-critical business issues. These quick-to-launch, fast turnaround surveys help C-suite, human resources, operations, and technology leaders to:

• Target specific topics.
• Measure employee sentiment, readiness, and confidence levels.

• Generate actionable, people-centered insights within 48 hours.
• Minimize hot spots, reduce risk, and accelerate decision-making.
• Gain the trust and confidence of your employees. 
• Ensure your plan stays on track and alerts you when a pivot is needed.

Select a relevant topic and choose your pulse questions. We recommend including no more than 10 questions in total. Consider these other survey best practices:

1. Communicate with employees before each launch. Explain the purpose for the pulse survey and what to expect.

2. Thank employees for taking the time to complete the survey. Assure them that you value their feedback – when you do, they’ll be more likely to participate again the next time. 

3. Respond quickly to pulse survey results. Pinpoint one or two actions you can take right away. This will have a better impact than spending too much time on a detailed plan. 

4. Tie the actions you take to the pulse survey results. Whenever possible, let employees know that the decisions you made were based on their input.  

5. Ask only questions that you can address right now. Focus on the topics that are important and those that benefit from real-time feedback.

6. Continue to use pulse surveys. Maintain connection with employees and use their feedback to guide your decision making and build trust throughout the organization.

Letting employees know you value their input will build trust and improve your odds of success.

Laura Brinton is content marketing director at Energage, a Philadelphia-based employee survey firm. Energage is The Washington Post’s partner for Top Workplaces. To nominate your company as a Top Workplace, go to washingtonpost.com/nominate.