How To Increase Engagement – Capturing The Voice Of The Team
In the 2021 Qualtrics XM Employee Experience Trends Study, 92% of those surveyed believe it’s important that their company listens to feedback, yet only 7% say their company acts on feedback well.
One of the best ways a service leader can engage their team is by listening to them. Begin by asking your team a simple question, “How can I help you do your job better?” The voice of the team can be about improving the employee or customer experience, improving workplace culture, efficiency, or improving business processes and systems.
The frontline team hears many customer pain points through their conversations such as, ‘It would be easier if…’ or ‘It is so difficult when…’. When the frontline hears this from the customer and knows their voice is valued and an integral part of their role, they will be far more alert to opportunities for capturing customer insights. Listening to employee feedback and translating it into action has a positive effect on the employee experience. When employees feel a company acts well on feedback, their engagement is more than double that of team members who feel it’s not acted on or acted on only slightly.
“Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say.”
The five steps of feedback include:
Ask
Listening to feedback is integral, but having a structured avenue to collect it is even more important to capture these moments as they arise. This can include a range of methodologies, from a formal survey to ongoing in-the-moment channels in team meetings, informal catch-ups or one-on-ones. The Hilton Hotel chain, a company that excels at employee and customer listening, surveys their location employees daily. These quick surveys are analysed and compared with daily customer surveys so the team can immediately see if a location has issues. For example, if the cleaning team has problems with the equipment, they speak up. And sure enough, it has a direct impact on customer net promoter scores.
Listen
Listening is one of the most important attributes of a service leader — listening to the words spoken and what is unsaid. Creating space to listen, encouraging everyone’s ideas (not just the vocal team members) and providing time and space are crucial in gaining ideas and input.
Feedback
Surveys are a significant opportunity to let the team know they have been heard. But don’t just ask for feedback; share the results. That includes being transparent by ensuring feedback is shared across the organisation, then followed up with action. The best way to have team members respond flippantly or hit the delete button when an engagement survey arrives is if you never share the results. The organisation risks employees not taking the survey seriously and becoming disengaged. The lack of a feedback loop triggers apathy and demotivation.
Give feedback on feedback. The team may come to you with ideas that cannot be implemented because of time, cost or resources. Respond anyway. Hearing nothing is demotivating. It’s incredibly powerful when a leader takes time to speak with the team member or team about how much they appreciate and value the ideas and explains why their idea cannot be progressed. Closing the loop is a crucial component of building a listening culture. Further data from Qualtrics shows that listening without taking action results in worse engagement than if you don’t have a listening program at all.
Implement
Ideas without action are a waste. Creating working groups and giving the team time and space to work on improvement initiatives are all part of successful implementation. Quick wins are always inspiring, while others take time and form part of longer-term projects. Involve the team and give them autonomy and empowerment to implement the ideas. Be available as a listening ear.
Recognise
Celebrating ideas from individuals or teams that have improved the customer or employee experience, productivity, or technology, it has a powerful impact on morale, motivation and continuing to give feedback.
David Abney was nineteen years old when he joined the shipping and logistics company UPS, loading packages onto vans at the local depot at night to make extra money while he was studying. Forty years later, Abney had risen through the ranks to become CEO of the company. He credits much of his success to listening intentionally to employees. One of the first things Abney did upon being named CEO was to go on a worldwide listening tour. He invited the company’s employees and customers to tell him what they thought the company should focus on going forward. One anonymous UPS employee shared, ‘When David issued a call for ideas, many of which were actually implemented, it was almost earth-shattering. We couldn’t believe leadership was finally listening and taking action on our recommendations.’
If the team knows their voice matters to leadership and the organisation, it will have a profound impact on service culture. The team often has many brilliant ideas for improving the customer experience. Make employee listening a cultural value and create a place of psychological safety where people know it is safe and they are encouraged to speak up.
What can you do to encourage the voice of your team?
