Adopting a listening strategy
Hearing the diverse voices of your workforce
Providing a listening platform for those aspiring to use their personal (lived) experience to drive meaningful change will enable your organisation to make data-driven and inclusive decisions, improving your employees’ workplace experience
Leverage the power of experience
It is easy to believe that we understand what others are experiencing, particularly in the context of inequalities in the workplace. But we don’t and we can’t − not unless we have experienced the same. When we observe inequalities, we view them through our own lenses, and the advice and solutions we offer are therefore informed by our own experiences, not by the experiences of those being impacted and disadvantaged. Only someone who has been through an experience knows the nuances and complexities of dealing with it.
Listening to the lived experience of staff and stakeholders is an important step in the development of workplace inclusivity, but it is only effective if those sharing their experience feel heard. Leveraging the power of experience means taking action − action that is informed through listening − to improve the lived experience of your workforce and ultimately to remove the inequalities identified.
What is a listening strategy?
The purpose of a listening strategy is to improve employee experience through listening well and taking action. It is a cohesive approach to gathering insights, experiences, and perceptions of your workforce, and involves actively engaging with your workforce to understand their perspectives.
An effective listening strategy creates a continuous cycle of listening and action and leads to significant improvements in the overall employee experience. Whilst many organisations have already adopted the annual employee survey, a shift to a more structured approach to listening will be more beneficial and have greater impact. For example, having a broader listening strategy ensures that organisations do not start to suffer survey fatigue − lower levels of engagement in colleagues who are asked their opinion frequently, but who see nothing change as a result.
Benefits of a listening strategy
Improvements in listening approaches can be linked to a range of benefits:
Key principles of a listening strategy
Be credible, relevant and inclusive
Utilises well-designed listening tools that are inclusive, enable regular insight, and are statistically robust.
Be simple and accessible
Produces a listening framework that can be replicated and adapted, utilising a range of methodologies and, where relevant, implementing technologies that are smooth and simple to use, and easily accessible from a range of devices.
Build knowledge and understanding
Listening builds an evidence base and develops an understanding of the experiences and perceptions of employees. These rich insights lead to better informed action and more sustainable improvement.
Be actionable and effectively implemented
Listening leads to actionable goals and informs improvement and interventions within the organisation. These are the foundations of a SMART* improvement plan which should be produced and implemented.
Be inclusive of the entire employee experience
A listening strategy needs to be inclusive of all employees, at all levels. It should address the entire employee experience and consider the full breadth of experience across the employee lifecycle: pre-hire, on-boarding, development, progression, retirement and exit experiences.
Feedback and participation
Listening is only effective if employees feel heard. An effective listening strategy creates a continuous cycle of listening, action and feedback. Sharing success and responding to employees’ feedback creates a sense of being heard and builds confidence for continued participation and engagement.
*SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measured, Achievable, Responsible, and Time-bound
Recommendations for listening well and taking action
A listening strategy should provide a variety of opportunities for employees and stakeholders to have their voices heard and participate in identifying actions to improve experience at work.
Taking action on the back of listening is an important part of a listening strategy. It is equally important to ensure employees understand that the actions being implemented are based on the opinions and perceptions they shared.
Listening tools
We have put together a list of listening tools that can be incorporated into your organisation’s listening strategy. Each tool has a specific purpose and individual design:
Climate survey
Climate surveys can be used annually to understand and evolve your approach to inclusion in the workplace.
They are powerful analytical tools giving you a robust measure of employee experience and perceptions and the signals your organisation is sending.
Benefits:
Pulse survey
Pulse surveys are quick surveys used weekly or monthly to gather real-time insights from employees, customers or other stakeholders. You can use pulse surveys to measure change in specific indicators (e.g. sense of belonging, perception of bullying and harassment, organisational inclusion).
Benefits:
New starter and exit surveys
Running focused research on employees soon after they join an organisation can identify gaps in onboarding experience and help to reduce new-joiner attrition.
Understanding why people leave is critical. Unhealthily high turnover leads to lower performance and increased cost. An exit survey can identify cultural drivers of attrition and drive remedial action.
'Hear our voices' programme
To hear (and listen to) what colleagues believe will make a difference, is the first step to making change.
Establish a structured programme of focus groups around identified areas for improvement to engage employees and other stakeholders in discussion.
Focus groups are a qualitative data collection method which involves a group of up to 10 people discussing a specific topic to gather a smaller, but more nuanced, dataset.
Benefits:
Employee voice forum
An Employee Voice Forum is an annual, facilitated, gathering where employees can share their experiences and discuss topics of mutual interest. This forum can be used to share success, share results of surveys and focus groups and facilitate the co-design of interventions and solutions.
Benefits:
Get involved - have your say!
Work towards workplace inclusivity involves everyone, but not everyone will feel comfortable to share their thoughts, experiences and suggestions openly. Ensure you provide opportunity for employees and other stakeholders to share their thoughts, comments and suggestions anonymously. For example, through an electronic ‘comment box’.
Employee experience committee
Your listening strategy will need to be ‘owned’ and implemented by a ‘function’ within your organisation. It is beneficial to establish an Employee Experience Committee for this purpose. This needs to have Senior Leader buy-in, clear organisational intent, and a framework for taking action.
An Employee Experience Committee is a diverse and representative group of employees (including senior leaders) who are responsible for:
