Thinking about a VoE Programme? Here are 9 Things You Need to Know.

By Natanya Rutstein

Employee experience is like a delicately balanced equation. Inclusion of the all the right elements will increase your chances of creating positive employee work experiences and building an engaged and productive workforce. If you’re thinking about implementing a VoE Programme in your organisation, here are nine key activities to consider, based on recent research conducted by Gartner (Apply Voice-of-the-Customer Best Practices to Voice-of-the-Employee Initiatives, 25 April 2017, https://www.gartner.com).

 

1. Get top management buy-in

 

As with any business initiative, the success of your VoE programme will ultimately hinge on the support of top management. Because you will most likely require some form of budget and resources for your initiatives, make your goals SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timebound. Use metrics such as Employee Net Promotor Score (NPS) and Employee Satisfaction (CSI) scores.

 

2. Build your Programme over time

 

Start by piloting and implementing small VoE projects across the organisation, always ensuring they are in line with your VoE strategy and employee engagement programme. In time, you can begin to integrate the solutions with the ultimate goal of building an integrated and holistic VoE solution.

 

3. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater!

 

Conduct an organisation wide audit to document the employee feedback systems currently in place. This process will help you to streamline existing technologies as well as determine the usefulness of information currently gathered and the collection methods used. You may be able to tweak and build on to what you already have.

 

4. Communication strategy

 

Since one of the primary objectives of a VoE initiative is to encourage a culture of open communication between employees and management, it is imperative that a communication strategy is in place to educate employees on the benefits of the programme and their role in its’ success. Always give feedback to your employees on how, when and what you are doing regarding feedback received.

 

5. Real-time feedback

 

Relevant feedback is feedback which is gathered in real-time and acted upon immediately. If you are serious about connecting with your employees and gaining meaningful insight into what motivates or troubles them, you have to capture their sentiments in the moment.

 

6. Cover all bases

 

Make sure to collect feedback at each of the touchpoints in the employee lifecycle e.g. on-boarding, post-training and exit surveys. These touchpoints provide the opportunity for HR to gather valuable insights and to act timeously in order to improve areas of dissatisfaction and re-engage with employees.

 

7. Act quickly

 

Asking your employees for feedback is engaging but what really matters to them is seeing that their feedback is being used and that action is being taken. A lack of action can be interpreted as a lack of management commitment and will erode the relationship of trust between employee and employer.

 

8. Follow-up regularly

 

Make sure to follow-up regularly and monitor both positive and negative consequences of your initiatives. Continuously look for areas of improvement and make sure to re-focus and adjust priorities along the way.

 

9. Measure the impact at all levels

 

The success of your initiatives will ultimately hinge on the metrics and measurement systems you embed in your programme. Data gathered must be relevant and useful to contribute to the strategic goals of the organisation as well as to the day-to-day operational activities.

 

References:

• https://www.mycustomer.com/experience/voice-of-the-customer/how-can-voice-of-the-employee-be-used-as-a-staff-and-customer
• https://www.maritzcx.com/voice-of-the-employee/
• https://www.surveygizmo.com/survey-blog/voice-of-the-employee/
• Apply Voice-of-the-Customer Best Practices to Voice-of-the-Employee Initiatives, 25 April 2017, https://www.gartner.com/home
• https://disneyinstitute.com/blog/2015/03/is-a-voice-of-the-employee-program-the-key-to-improving-customer-experience/
• https://hub.appirio.com/cloud-powered-blog/how-to-design-a-voice-of-the-employee-program-that-will-amp-up-your-cx
• https://www.taskus.com/blog/how-voice-of-the-employee-programs-improve-customer-experience/