Is Your Employee Feedback On 11?
Progressive employers know that getting employee feedback is essential to drive optimal business and cultural performance. By aligning company and employee goals we achieve minimal attrition, and maximum performance. What's not to like?
Sure, we need feedback. But feedback is widely misunderstood and misquoted, at least in our humble opinion.
Colloquially feedback has become used as a term which means receiving advice, criticism or opinion on something that you care about. "Let's get some feedback on the new onboarding process" for example, or "Can we gather some feedback on the hybrid home/office working?". It's all very familiar, it means let's go ask a wider audience what they think about something so we can see if our ideas make sense, or if we understand the mood. This is useful but it's only half the story and half the picture.
As a musician, I have a different definition. I'm sure we have all heard microphone feedback. An often excruciating high-pitched noise where the microphone is picking up a sound from the speakers which goes back to the amplifier, and then back into the microphone and gets louder and louder. Or guitar feedback, where some guitar hero is standing in front of their amplifier (probably on 11) to get it to feedback. This is a different sort of feedback. It's a loop. The input is amplified and sent back to the input device. It can get much louder and it can resonate when it finds a frequency that "fits" the input and output device. The epitome of feedback for me is Gary Moore playing Parisienne Walkways and going for the ultimate infinite note by getting feedback from his guitar to his amplifier and then back to his guitar. There is ultimate harmony as the guitar and amplifier are both ready to resonate on that one note.
When we talk about "employee feedback" at Thymometrics, we mean it in the musical sense, not the anecdotal sense.
Understanding how your employees feel is not optimally served by just gathering comments. You need to be able to go back and question those responses, to literally discuss them, in an environment where the employee is comfortable enough to be honest without fear of reprisal. When we get this right it resonates. We get to understand what we are saying as the employer, and what the employee is saying are in harmony. We get true feedback. When employee and employer goals align we can drive amazing progress.
If you are getting employee feedback on the big-ticket items of culture, performance and direction, consider what sort of feedback are you getting. It is a one way-street with your amplifier on 5/10 or are you ready to harmonize and turn it up to 11?
Jerry Pett, CEO at Thymometrics
----------------------------------------------------
Thymometrics understand the importance of gaining feedback from employees, as well as providing it. We offer always-on surveys and 2-way anonymous feedback solutions to ensure that you are listening to, and responding to, all views which help motivate your employees to feel connected to the place they work.
For more information, please call 01223 750251, email hello@thymometrics.com or visit thymometrics.com