5 Steps for Turning Employee Feedback into Action

So, you’ve gathered employee feedback – now what?

When employees feel heard at work, good things happen.

These individuals are more likely to share innovative ideas, voice constructive criticism, and care about their job. They feel valued knowing their employer values their opinions.

The result of this employee-employer relationship only benefits a business. Indeed, research from Gallup shows companies with an engaged workforce tend to report higher earnings per share than those that don’t.

This is why it’s crucial when gathering employee feedback – whether it comes from a survey, anonymous channel, or series of one-on-one discussions — to do something with the information. If nothing happens following a manager’s request for comments, workers have little to no reason to participate in a similar exercise down the road. The trust is gone.

It’s therefore vital for a company to finish what it starts. This can involve implementing concrete changes or addressing a question on the minds of many. It might also mean the leadership team simply disagrees with what some employees have to say, and that’s okay – as long as they let the workforce know in a clear and respectful manner. Whatever the specifics, it’s important to know how to communicate employee engagement survey results and other types of feedback data.

5 ways to turn employee feedback into action

Below is a step-by-step guide to closing the feedback loop once all the statistics are collected. Unlike presenting data-backed insights to the leadership team, presenting company-wide opinions to colleagues requires a different approach:

1. Publish the results:

The first thing internal communicators should do is share the raw results of the feedback exercise with all the staff. Trust is built on transparency, and there’s no better way of getting everyone on the same page than sending employees the same report the leadership team is using to inform its next move. It is a group project, after all.

2. State the plan:

Next, reveal how the organization intends to address the problems and opportunities highlighted in the data. Identify the trends and focus on the root causes. Don’t get carried away trying to solve every single surface-level complaint. Underscore the “why” behind each decision. And it should go without saying that organizations should not seek employee feedback on certain aspects of the business unless it’s prepared to take action. If not, don’t ask.

3. Assign ownership:

With a plan in place, put someone — or a group of people — in charge of turning each idea into something tangible. And don’t forget to state the deadline. Assigning staff members to complete a task by a certain date gives the feedback session some weight. Things are serious now. It signals to employees that what they think matters.

4. Provide regular updates:

Whether an item on the list gets solved rather quickly or winds up being a much bigger task that requires more time to deal with than initially anticipated, it’s productive to let the workforce know. Otherwise, employees will be left to guess in the dark. Even if projects are behind schedule, or ultimately abandoned, it’s better to publicly acknowledge that than ignore it. At the same time, regular updates are a great way to celebrate every victory, however minor.

5. Encourage additional feedback throughout the process:

While endless brainstorming and discussion is a paved road to nowhere, it’s valuable to always keep feedback channels open. Provide opportunities for pushback to prevent small yet vocal groups of workers from running the show. Attitudes can change, too, so don’t keep driving an initiative forward if it no longer has support.

From insight to impact

Gathering employee feedback is only valuable if companies act on it. If organizations do the former without the latter, the whole exercise is bound to hurt workforce morale more than help it. At best, it’s a waste of time for everyone involved.

Bringing closure to the feedback cycle with the steps outlined above will strengthen the relationship between employees and employer, leading to a company culture with higher levels of transparency, accountability, and engagement.

If, however, employees expect to be ignored for speaking up, employers shouldn’t hope to hear anything other than silence.