How To Effectively Capture Voice of Employee Insights
Organizations that have an accurate sense of the ways in which employees perceive their brand are in the right position to create a leading Customer Experience. However, there are plenty of obstacles present in the employee-employer relationship that can hamper a brand’s ability to get a correct reading of the voice of employees. Ultimately it is up to brand leadership and the organizational structure and company culture influenced by this leadership that trickles down to create satisfied and engaged employees, which in turn leads to happier customers.
Most brands have already established methods to capture the voice of their customers, but are often ignoring some of the most important information. The same methodology that is used to collect and analyze voice of customer programs should be utilized when collecting internal information from voice of employee initiatives. As individuals, we talk one way about our jobs to our peers at work, and naturally present a completely different perspective to the friends and family in our personal networks, so it is important to find a way to get the most honest feedback so that leadership can make the right changes to influence high levels of engagement.
One of the best methods to create a company culture of this nature is to stress transparency. Employees should be completely aware of what exactly is expected of their performance and the goals of their individual departments or daily activities. To accomplish this, schedule weekly, monthly, or quarterly (depending on the size and scope of your organization) “State of the Union” meetings, in which each department details the work they have accomplished and their goals for the future. By consistently bringing everyone together in these meetings, both leadership and employees will have more transparency into what the organizational goals should be, as well contributing to a more team-oriented company culture.
In addition to these company-wide meetings, include weekly messages from leadership that present a realistic and clear analysis of brand operations, and any overarching company-wide goals. Within these messages, utilize metrics collected via Customer Experience research programs like mystery shopping or compliance audits to give accurate scores of employees’ performance. By introducing competition within your ranks, employees will be more motivated to remain engaged, because it is a natural human tendency to be competitive in these types of situations.
One of the most popular voice of customer tactics is to utilize Net Promoter Score®, which gives customers an opportunity to rank their experience with a score from 0-10 on their likelihood to recommend the product or service to their friends or family. This is an effective method of categorizing customers as brand ambassadors or detractors, but this same philosophy can also be adopted to capture voice of employee insights. Instead of recommending a product or service, eNPS® scores measure whether an employee would recommend working for the company to a friend or family. By utilizing this NPS® philosophy to capture voice of employee data, your brand is more suited to get a truthful assessment of employee perception of the company culture.
Voice of employee programs can influence a brand’s company culture, because it creates a community with open communication. Relationship building is an important factor of the Customer Experience, but it also essential to creating an environment in which employees are engaged and excited about the work they are completing. Apply these methods to your brand structure to collect the right kind of voice of employee information, so that these employees can provide the kind of Customer Experience imagined by leadership.
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