When Employees Feel Heard, Benefits Succeed

It’s human nature to want to feel heard—to know that someone is listening, and that what you say matters. The success of a personal relationship hinges on both parties in the relationship feeling heard. That success applies to an employee benefits program too. Listening to employees—and then acting on what you hear—is critical to developing and implementing benefits programs that stick.

While benefits are key to attracting and retaining talent and enhancing employee engagement, not all benefits programs are equally effective or appreciated by employees. That’s where employee feedback comes in. By talking to employees, you can discover what motivates them, what their goals are, and what’s keeping them up at night. It’s how you can help ensure that the programs you design and the benefits communications you create will meet the unique needs of all your employees.

The Importance of Collecting Employee Feedback

Employees Are Engaged

Employees who feel heard also feel more engaged and committed. With the invitation to share feedback comes a sense of ownership in the organization and benefit program in question, increasing overall satisfaction and loyalty. When employees know that what they say matters, they’re more willing to speak openly and honestly, equipping you with the information you need to build the right benefits programs for your people.

Employees Feel Valued

When asked to provide their opinions, employees are more likely to feel valued and respected for their unique perspectives and experiences. This culture of open communication and respect can help you create more inclusive benefit programs that meet the needs and preferences of your diverse workforce.

Employees Are invested

Employees are more invested in programs they have a hand in shaping. In this post-COVID world, organizations spend millions of dollars to offer what seems like every benefit program under the sun. But before you make this type of investment, make sure that what you’re offering is something your employees actually want and need. You can have the best onsite ergonomics benefit in the business, but if it’s childcare and work flexibility that’s keeping your employees up at night, those fancy chairs could end up gathering dust in the corner.

How to Gather Employee Feedback

There’s a common misconception that soliciting feedback from employees is expensive and unwieldy. But we’ve come a long way from the days of traversing the country for onsite focus groups and bribing employees with good snacks to show up for them. Far more efficient and equally effective solutions include:

Virtual focus groups. Virtual, online focus groups allow you to reach a large audience without the logistics of gathering in one room. The platform we use allows us to host a live conversation with up to 1,000 employees. Artificial intelligence analyzes and organizes the responses in real time.
Interactive quizzes. Interactive, online quizzes can be used not only to inform but also to gather information. Quizzes are engaging; they add an element of fun, and results can tell you what employes are interested in.
Online surveys. Asynchronous, online surveys are generally a very cost-effective way of gathering information and gaining insights from a large employee population.
User testing. User testing allows you to give employees sample information and see how they react and interact to it.

Guiding Principles for Gathering Feedback

The following tips can help you collect feedback more effectively and efficiently, no matter which method you use:

Define your goals and objectives. Before you start gathering feedback, have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you will measure success.
Keep questions as open ended as possible. Leading questions can dilute answers. Not sure if your question is a leading one? Here’s a tip: If it can be answered with “yes” or “no,” it generally falls into the category of a leading question.
Don’t ask questions you’re not willing to act on. If there’s zero chance of offering onsite acrobatics classes (as is likely the case), don’t ask employees what circus move they want to learn first.
Keep asking. Just as your organization’s needs may shift over time, so do the needs of your employees and their families. The employee concerned about childcare today may be looking for that ergonomics program in a few years. Employee feedback should be a continuous loop to ensure you’re capturing these subtle shifts.

Employee feedback is critical to the success of your benefit programs. Armed with their feedback and insights, you can design smarter benefits communications and programs that hit the mark.

We’re proud to work with organizations that value their people. If you want to learn more, we’d love to talk.