To cultivate a culture of listening within the workplace, one that values feedback to maximize employee engagement, it begins with recognizing your employees as individuals, showing genuine interest in their opinions, and encouraging open discussions that foster trust.
Consider employee engagement as a dialogue—not merely a checklist
You have key performance indicators (KPIs) to achieve. However, when contemplating ways to enhance employee engagement, view your surveys less as a collection of rating questions and checklists, and more as an invitation for authentic dialogue.
Here is what this could entail:
Going beyond basic surveys that collect minimal data. Employee engagement surveys should provide a comprehensive understanding of employee viewpoints.
Creating feedback opportunities that resemble a conversation. Tailor surveys to reflect an individual's role, use their first name, and establish a casual (yet logical) flow that genuinely feels conversational.
Grasping an employee's motivations through open-ended inquiries. Encourage employees to articulate their thoughts in their own words to reveal the reasons behind their feelings.
Taking action after the survey to demonstrate to employees that you value their feedback and are committed to fostering a listening culture at work that responds to employee input.
When you approach employee engagement surveys as a chance to engage in meaningful conversations with your teams, you promote feedback and an ongoing dialogue that builds trust, supports continuous improvement, and ensures employees feel acknowledged and valued.
Show authentic curiosity—avoid merely confirming assumptions
Do you suspect there is an engagement issue? Or that employees are highly satisfied with their roles? While your assumptions may hold some truth, you cannot ascertain how employees truly feel unless you inquire.
Instead of seeking validation for your pre-existing beliefs, aim to uncover insights. Your employee feedback survey should focus on gathering insights, even if they challenge your current understanding.
"We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve." - Bill Gates
Here’s a method to conduct employee engagement surveys with genuine curiosity:
Pose broad, exploratory questions that allow employees to highlight issues you may not have considered or provide insights into why certain aspects are not functioning effectively.
Incorporate follow-up questions that encourage deeper insights into responses (this can be achieved within your Typeform survey using Clarify with AI).
Steer clear of leading questions such as, "How much do you enjoy your work?" which presuppose how employees feel and may lead you to validate your beliefs rather than truly listen to employees.
Be prepared to accept that the feedback you receive may not correspond with your preconceived notions.
Keep in mind that the purpose of engagement surveys is not to validate your own views. The objective is to listen, learn, and enhance—it begins with curiosity. When you maintain an open and inquisitive mindset, you obtain the insights necessary for taking action. Conversely, when you concentrate on confirming your beliefs, you overlook chances for improvement and undermine the fundamental purpose of the survey.
Foster trust with employees—avoid monitoring them.
Let’s be frank: employees are reluctant to provide feedback when they fear repercussions or believe they will be negatively evaluated for their honesty. The data supports this:
An AllVoices survey indicates that fewer than 50% of employees are truthful when offering feedback to HR.
The same research revealed that employees who withhold honest feedback do so out of fear of retaliation and a belief that their companies do not genuinely seek candid feedback.
The positive aspect? The AllVoices survey indicated that 56% of employees who refrain from providing candid feedback would be more inclined to do so if they had a means to submit completely anonymous feedback.
Nevertheless, certain conventional engagement surveys may seem like a trap. Consequently, rather than obtaining thoughtful responses and valuable data, you are left with generic replies and mediocre data that fails to provide any substantial insights.
Here’s the reasoning:
You are not offering employees the choice to respond anonymously, which results in their reluctance to share honest feedback. They fear that their responses might be disclosed to their managers or that their names will be linked to feedback that may not be particularly flattering.
You are posing questions such as, "How productive do you feel at work?" which appear to track metrics that could potentially jeopardize their reputation or future promotions. Such inquiries discourage authentic feedback.
"Why should a company solicit feedback if they are not interested in receiving honest responses? Leaders reviewing the results must maintain an open mindset and view the feedback as opportunities for improvement, rather than becoming frustrated by it." - Emma Bindbeutel, Director of People & Culture at Ventura Growth.
Establishing a culture of employee feedback fundamentally relies on trust. Foster that sense of trust by steering clear of identifying questions, such as their name, manager's name, or email address. Additionally, communicate to employees that your goal is to enhance their experience and support them, rather than attempting to catch them in a "Gotcha!" scenario.
Genuine employee engagement is centered around relationships and conversations. It does not occur within spreadsheets or through met metrics. As you develop your survey, approach it as a dialogue and an opportunity to gather the information necessary to cultivate a better workplace.
How Typeform assists you in obtaining more candid employee feedback.
At Typeform, we are primarily recognized for our exquisite designs that elevate generic forms into branded, aesthetically pleasing, and effective data collection tools. However, we offer much more than that.
When it comes to engaging employees, Typeform enables you to gather more—and higher quality—data, allowing you to foster a better workplace for your team. Below are several methods by which Typeform accomplishes this.
A conversational flow
Typeforms are designed to ask one question at a time by default, which makes them naturally more conversational. Consider the scenario of asking a friend 20 questions simultaneously; it would be overwhelming and confusing.
Our clear and conversational design provides employees with the opportunity to offer candid feedback. Logic directs them through the survey according to their role, team, or experience, ensuring they receive only pertinent questions, thereby enhancing the relevance of the feedback.
Additionally, with recall, you can customize your employee engagement survey to make it more engaging. Importantly, you can personalize without compromising anonymity—simply utilize previous responses to enrich future questions (automatically).
A frictionless experience
With Typeform, you can integrate your survey wherever your employees are:
In an email
On an internal landing page
In a Slack channel
All they need to do is click the start button and respond to the questions. It could not be simpler.
Combined with precise branding, the conversational flow, and various question types to maintain their interest, employees genuinely want to provide feedback.
A friendly conversation
Feedback should resemble a two-way, friendly dialogue—not a daunting interrogation. Typeform allows you to approach feedback as interactions with employees rather than a series of questions lacking engagement.
Statement questions, such as those that encourage employees or inform them that only a few questions remain, feel casual and friendly, providing them with a brief respite.
Moreover, you can also phrase your questions in a less formal manner to encourage completions. For instance, "Work's hard. What would make it better?" and then use picture choice to present options like "A pizza party," "Send me to Italy," or "Can we get a nap room?"
It resembles a break and adopts a more conversational tone while still providing insights on how to support employees.
A scalable method for gathering employee feedback
Do you wish to develop a survey that feels personalized for everyone? Typeform enables you to scale personalization by utilizing logic and asking only pertinent questions. Although it requires some initial planning, employing logic allows you to design a single employee engagement survey tailored to each individual.
Cultivate a culture of employee feedback and enhance engagement with Typeform
We often become so engrossed in the statistics that we may overlook the fact that feedback and engagement originate from people. While it is essential to measure metrics and monitor KPIs, the manner in which you approach this can certainly be more human-centric.
For instance, by making your employee engagement surveys more conversational and interactive. Or by responding to feedback, ensuring that employees do not perceive your survey as merely a checklist task they wish to avoid.
When you implement these strategies, you can initiate genuine change that nurtures a listening culture within the workplace, one that continually evolves based on employee feedback. Ultimately, engaged employees are not merely the product of attractive perks and appealing dashboards—they stem from a workplace that listens (and demonstrates that it does).
Pose better questions. Listen more attentively. Act with purpose. Rethink employee engagement with Typeform. Experience it for free.
