If you are looking for a way to stay one step ahead of the competition, you might be thinking about the different ways you can collect feedback from your employees. Even though you should certainly talk to your managers about things you can do to improve the situation around the office, you also need to go directly to your employees. There are different ways you can collect feedback, and you need to think about the benefits and drawbacks of each option before you put together a cohesive strategy. Take a look at a few of the best ways you can collect feedback from your employees.
1. The Informal Option
There might be a way for you to collect feedback from your employees informally. Sometimes, if you get your employees away from the office, they will be a bit more honest with what they have to say. For example, if there is a company outing to a local restaurant, you may want to talk to a few of your employees while there to see what they have to say about their environment. Or, if there is a company outing for a team-building activity, you may want to pull your employees to the side and chat with them about their experiences. Sometimes, if you give an impromptu question in an informal environment, you will get the best feedback.
2. The Formal Meeting
Of course, you also need to think about putting a formal process in place to collect feedback from your employees. For example, you may meet with all of your employees once per quarter. You may go through these meetings, provide them with feedback, and collect feedback from them. When you sit down to meet with your employees, make sure you give them plenty of notice. That way, they are prepared for the meeting, and they will have some feedback to share with you. Remember that you need to do something with this feedback. If you really want to maximize your results, you need to show your employees that you are serious about making changes in line with the feedback you receive.
3. The Social Media Comments
Sometimes, employees do not give feedback because the process is simply too difficult or challenging. There are steps you can take to make the process easier. For example, just about all of your employees have access to social media. There is a good chance that your company has a social media account as well. You can put this to work by using it to collect employee feedback. You may want to share a post on social media that only your employees can see. Then, use that post to collect feedback from your employees on different things they might want to see changed around the office. Social media can be an effective tool at your disposal.
4. The Anonymous Suggestion Box
You can even put together an anonymous suggestion box. For example, this can be a box that you simply leave in the office. Then, employees can swing by and drop notes in the box from time to time. This is a good option because a lot of employees might only be honest with the feedback they have if they can be anonymous. Then, you can collect the box from time to time, take a look at the feedback you receive, and look for any trends. This could give you some idea of things you can do to improve the workplace.
5. The Short Survey
Finally, you may want to use a short pulse survey of your employees to collect feedback from time to time. Sometimes, you might have a hard time getting your employees to participate because the survey is simply too long. Your employees get tired of filling it out, and they feel like they are falling behind on their work. Therefore, more frequent, shorter surveys might be better for collecting feedback in some situations. Think carefully about how you structure the questions in the survey. Make sure you collect honest feedback from your employees and don’t forget to look for any common themes in the responses.
Collect Feedback From Your Employees Regularly
Ultimately, these are just a few of the many options available if you are looking for a way to collect feedback from your employees. Your employees probably have a lot of feedback to share, so you need to talk to them regularly about the things they like, the issues they want to see addressed, and what you can do to make the workplace a better environment for them. If you show your employees that you care about their health and well-being, you can put them in a position to be successful, which will increase their productivity. In addition, you can increase your retention rates, which can help you save money by reducing employee turnover.
