Employee Voice has many benefits but it will sound different depending on when and how you are listening.
Employee voice is the willingness of employees to express opinions, thoughts, ideas and feedback; whether that is to share experiences, offer suggestions for improvement or to raise a concern about a potential problem.
There has been significant growth in interest in employee voice over the last decade as the benefits have become increasingly apparent. Employee voice can positively influence innovation, employee engagement, learning, knowledge sharing as well as contributing to organisational wellbeing, effectiveness and resilience.
We want people to voice their views proactively, constructively and willingly because it serves to help us improve, and indeed protect our organisations.
It is no wonder then that more and more employers are developing and using listening strategies that continuously elicit feedback and insights from employees throughout the employee life-cycle.
Many listening strategies focus on how to collect employee voice (surveys, interviews, focus groups) and the frequency with which to collect it (pulse, annual, monthly), but not many really focus on the type of voice they need to hear or the psychological conditions that underpin it.
Types of Voice
There are broadly two types of voice…
Promotive voice which is the expression of new ideas or improvement-based suggestions. It is generally positively delivered and positively intended. It focuses on future possibilities.
Prohibitive voice often relates to raising concerns or alerting employers to potentially harmful practices or issues and so is focussed on problems and prevention. Prohibitive voice is also positively intended but is more likely to be received negatively.
Both types of voice are critical, and employers could benefit from being more intentional about the type of voice they are seeking and whether they are creating the right conditions for people to use their voice.
The Psychological Conditions for Voice
Employee voice is inherently risky. As humans, we consciously deliberate as to whether speaking up will lead to positive action or negative consequences. Challenging the status quo, even if done so positively is not always well received.
Employee voice needs a climate of Psychological Safety where people feel confident that when they use their voice, there will be no negative consequences. Negative consequences can range from being labelled as negative right through to losing their job or worse. Leaders have a significant part to play in creating Psychological Safety by encouraging candour and challenge, by responding positively to voice, even if it is Prohibitive and by actively listening and showing humility. One of the best books we have come across on this subject is The Fearless Organization by the brilliant, Amy Edmondson.
Another important condition to encourage voice is ensuring employees feel confident that having taken the risk to share their view, that it has an impact. Our research shows that feeling we have made an impact is a key driver of voice. Engagement surveys and exit interviews are often criticised because people do not feel that the feedback is put to good use or results in positive change. We need to be able to show that voice matters.
Employee Voice and Employee Life-Cycle
Employee engagement surveys are a tried and tested way of collecting employee voice and building actionable data. However, to develop an even more insightful listening strategy, we recommend tapping into different types of voice at different stages of employee life-cycle.
At the beginning …when someone has recently joined an organisation, they bring excellent insight into the candidate and onboarding experience as well as the factors that influenced their decision to join and how their expectations are being met.
New starter interviews and surveys are a great way to collect this data but it’s important that these are carried out independently and anonymously. When someone is just building relationships with a new team and organisation, Psychological Safety is tentative, and people will be less open to expressing Prohibitive or Promotive voice at this stage in their employee journey.
Coming back from a period of leave…returning from an extended period away such as parental leave or extended sick leave is often a tricky transition and on return, employees can offer a really useful perspective on how well supported they felt during their time away as well as the help they have received transitioning back to the workplace.
Welcome back interviews are a good way for managers to re-connect with their people however, there is merit in having someone independent to have conversations with returners to understand their experience, what worked and what needs improvement.
When there is a wobble…there are different sources of data that tell us when people become ‘flight risks’, in other words, the point at which they may decide to leave. We can look at:
- Employee turnover data to see whether there are any patterns in length of service of leavers or whether there are spikes in leavers throughout the year.
- Employee engagement data to see whether employee engagement drops off at a particular length of service. In our experience, we have seen employee engagement fall away between years 2 and 5 and then begin to rebound and increase again at 10 years or more.
- Talent review data where organisations proactively review their talent and assess whether someone is likely to leave and the extent to which that will have a negative impact. This analysis helps employers prioritise who to focus their retention efforts on.
Knowing when people are flight risks means we can proactively try to retain them. Stay interviews have been used by companies such as GE for many years as a way of keeping talent. They help us proactively understand what will keep a person rather than chasing them out of the door with a counteroffer. When conducted by managers, they can demonstrate to colleagues that they are valued and the company is interested in them, their motivations and aspirations. There are times however, when independent interviews can play a part in seeking feedback from a selected group of ‘high risk’ people to get candid feedback and aggregate any themes that may be driving attrition. They allow employers to get on the front foot.
When leaving…exit interviews are a rich source of employee voice. When someone decides to leave an organisation, they have made a big decision and they are at their most reflective. Exit interviews, designed well, can help employers understand why people are leaving but also their experience of work, leadership and culture. Exit interviews are also excellent sources of market intelligence, for example, what type of organisations and jobs people are moving to.
Exit interviews are better conducted independently and anonymously. Leavers often use a blend of Promotive and Prohibitive voice which is why it is such a rich source of insight but there needs to be a high level of Psychological Safety which an independent interviewer or an anonymous survey is more likely to provide.
Employee voice, harnessed effectively can improve an organisation in a multitude of ways and that is why listening strategies need to be multi-faceted and tap into different types of voice at different times in the employee life-cycle.
Would you like to learn more about how MI-Say can help you listen more effectively to your employees? Contact jo-anne@mi-say-com.stackstaging.com to arrange to speak with one of our experts.
