You Can’t Fix What You Don’t Understand: Get Employee Insights

Not having buy-in from your team has negative impacts beyond just those on employee retention and satisfaction. Restructuring is all about looking at the big picture – efficiency, keeping up with shifting markets, and staying financially viable.

But if you’re solely focused on the lay of the land in those big forests, you risk missing out on the individual trees – the workplace experiences of your people that allow your company to function every day.

So, why is listening to feedback so important?

Listen to People First and Make Changes Second

It’s easy to decide to streamline a process or combine two similar responsibilities into one. But what seems simple on paper isn’t always the case.

When you take the time to listen to the feedback of your people, you may find some of their ideas to be extraordinary. Tapping into this amazing resource will help your organization grow. 

Companies with their eye on the future know the value of listening. Productivity, finances, employee retention, and decision-making processes all improve as a result of such practices. In short, listening to feedback leads to a more satisfied workforce. Whether it’s one-on-one meetings or anonymous feedback, you can’t skip this crucial step.

Your Abstraction, Their Experience

What might be an abstract question of efficiency to you is the details of the workplace experience to your people, whether it’s finishing a complex task perfectly every time or managing a tight deadline. 

It might seem like it makes sense to give a task to someone who already does related work but seeking information directly from your people can reveal aspects that aren’t immediately noticeable.

Sometimes tasks about the same subject can require two different areas of expertise, or two things that look unrelated use the same process. Your big-picture knowledge is perfect for planning a restructuring, but the workplace experience is vital to take into consideration before you implement a change.

First Hand Experience

Restructuring without people’s input can defeat the purpose as they’re the ones with firsthand knowledge of your company’s day-to-day operations.

No matter how knowledgeable you are about a task, you can’t beat the hands-on expertise of your people. A big part of employee satisfaction, and thus employee retention, is making sure they know you respect their expertise. After all, it’s what you’re paying them for! Their workplace experience is an invaluable tool for you to use in evaluating operations.

Get the Nitty-Gritty Feedback

Just like your people will have a better first hand grasp on the concrete experiences of your workplace than, say, leadership, they’ll have a great idea of the details that could slip by undetected. Whether it’s minor steps in a process that don’t make it into documentation or the fine points of working with specific clients, the people experiencing issues firsthand have insights that you’re missing by looking at the big picture.

Getting feedback means that all these insights and details won’t fall by the wayside in your restructuring and can instead be included to lead to a stronger company overall.

Reveal Weaknesses

Just like every chain has a few weak links, every process has a few snarls in the line where communication stumbles, productivity falls, and products go astray. 

Even if you can tell when an employee is lying, there are many scenarios in which no lies are told but no one steps up to call out a problem. 

You might think that if you’re not worried about employee retention then you don’t have to worry about things like this flying under your radar – surely people who are secure in their jobs would be willing to bring problems to your attention, right? But this isn’t always the case. Problems can go unnoticed for a variety of reasons, including:

Habit

It’s easy for people to fall into a rut at work, especially if someone feels their workplace experience is not quite satisfying. In this case, “good enough” will be treated as perfectly fine, even if there are more efficient or streamlined ways to complete tasks. When someone is trained to do something a certain way, they’re likely to continue with the methods.

Loyalty

Company loyalty is a great thing and you want people to be watching each other’s backs. The problem comes in when loyalty to a colleague makes someone reluctant to call out a problem that’s affecting others.

Embarrassment

Maybe a person makes a mistake and they don’t want to own up to it. Maybe they didn’t notice someone else’s mistake or are reluctant to find fault with a superior. No matter the cause, sometimes it’s simply the fear of looking bad that prevents an individual from coming forward about a problem.

So, if no one is telling you where the problems lie, how are you to fix them? Something that cuts straight to the facts without making your people feel put on the spot is anonymous feedback. 

Provide Surveys Consistently

There’s no excuse to skip out on the incredible feedback technology has available today. At Olumo, we offer a platform for you to send your people simple text-message surveys and monitor 100% anonymous responses in real time.

Rather than distribute surveys just once a year, offer a mini survey every week. Show your team you’re in tune with their daily workplace experience by staying in consistent contact with them. 

By providing 1-2 questions a week, you remain on the ball and able to address issues immediately as they arise. Solicit anonymous feedback and nip problems in the bud before they become major concerns and save your organization time, conflict, and money.

With Olumo, your people will have the security of a safe and trusted platform to air concerns and point out problems. Test it out for free and see for yourself!

Gauge Enthusiasm

Of course, not all anonymous feedback is negative. Plenty of people love their workplace experience and appreciate a chance to reflect that. 

When you track the impact of initiatives as they’re implemented, you can see how your people are reacting every step of the way.

A restructuring might not immediately produce better employee retention or satisfaction, but you can gather unfiltered feedback on whether people are simply adapting to the changes or having real problems with them. Anonymous feedback means you’ll hear about people’s actual experiences – positive or negative – not just what they think you want to hear.

Get Employee Insights Today

Gathering feedback from your people is a vital step before you make any organizational changes, and the most effective way to do that is by using anonymous feedback. People will feel free to share their workplace experiences, and you’ll see positive outcomes in employee retention and effectiveness during the restructuring. 

Anonymous feedback isn’t always easy to obtain or track, and during a restructure it can swiftly lose relevance. Olumo is perfect for this scenario and countless others – any time you want real-time, honest information from your employees, we have you covered.

Don’t ignore that the workplace experience is poor or that employee retention is declining, as you’ll be doing so at your organization’s peril. Your people are truly the lifeblood of your organization – they know you better than anyone, and it’s best to listen to them.

It’s not hard to get employee insights. Watch our brief video to learn how easy it is to set up simple, consistent, anonymous surveys. Sign up today and leverage everyone’s feedback!