Voice of Employee: Definition, example questions and importance for your company

Give your employees a voice and successfully implement your Voice of Employee strategy with innovative HR feedback systems. Read why Voice of Employee is important for every company and which questions you should ask your employees regularly.

Voice of Employee: Definition & Explanation

Voice of Employee, or VoE for short, (often also referred to Employee Voice), basically means an approach or attitude of companies that allow their employees to express ideas, suggestions for improvement but also concerns and fears without employees having to fear consequences or social exclusion.

Voice of Employee also means being able to express opinions without having to fear consequences

Voice of Employee can be about improving the employee experience (EX), improving workplace culture, increasing productivity, improving business processes, but also raising concerns and fears. Voice of Employee therefore means that employees have the opportunity to influence company decisions through their feedback.  This can relate specifically to their own workplace, but also to company-wide decisions. Ultimately, it is crucial that feedback is heard, accepted and respected, that it is taken into account and, above all, that it does not have any consequences for your employees, for example when criticism is made.

2-way communication

Employee feedback can be provided initially by employees or actively stimulated by a company-wide Voice of Employee programme, for example by launching employee surveys, pulse surveys, idea competitions, employee interviews or by providing an employee community in which all employees can exchange ideas with each other.

Voice of Employee increases performance

Employees who feel that their opinions and ideas can be expressed and heard are about four times more productive. Giving employees a voice in the workplace has become increasingly important for the leadership and management of any organisation today. Most companies strongly believe that it is important to allow employees to communicate freely and voice their concerns without fear of repercussions.

Companies that want to establish a VoE strategy cannot ignore technology

Companies that really value what their employees have to say don't just wait for someone to throw something into the room at a company party in a wine-fuelled atmosphere. Managers who see a real added value for the company in the voice-of-employee approach provide their employees with an infrastructure that enables them to document their feedback initially in a central place at any time. On the other hand, managers stimulate feedback from their employees, for example by conducting surveys. Both initial feedback and solicited feedback require technology that centrally records and evaluates all feedback. These large amounts of data cannot be handled using Excel spreadsheets or self-built databases. This would result in data silos and useless text fragments that would eventually peter out somewhere. And that frustrates your staff. But there is a solution.

Feedback systems tailored to all HR requirements for implementing a Voice of Employee strategy

With its Employee Experience Management platform, QuestionPro offers a technology that meets all requirements for collecting and processing employee feedback. For example, you can quickly and easily conduct regular surveys and provide your employees with an infrastructure that enables them to write suggestions, ideas, requests and criticism on their own initiative. In addition, 360 degree surveys, onboarding/exit surveys, engagement and satisfaction surveys can be easily conducted and the data analysed within a workforce analytics dashboard.

Initial feedback from your employees: The Voice of Employee Community

If you want to give your employees the opportunity to express suggestions, ideas or criticism initially on their own initiative as part of your voice-of-employee strategy, then there is no better place for this than an employee community. The advantage here is that your employees do not have to address ideas or criticism directly to their manager, but share their concerns within the community with a community that can then in turn respond to the concern. Nevertheless, managers receive notifications, for example when new entries are made in the ideas or complaints board.

→ QuestionPro employee community

Stimulate feedback

When it comes to stimulating feedback from your employees in order to gain insights into satisfaction, the level of commitment and loyalty or performance, there is nothing better than conducting regular pulse surveys at a relatively high frequency. This means: Initiate a micro-survey on a weekly basis, for example, with no more than a maximum of three to five questions. You will get more answers and thus gain more data, which can be better tracked due to the high frequency of surveys and make changes visible more quickly.

→ Conduct employee surveys

Questions you can ask your employees to stimulate feedback

Here are the 20 most important questions you should ask your employees in order to understand their perspective and be able to derive concrete measures:

• How likely is it that you would recommend our company as an employer to friends and acquaintances? (Employee Net Promoter Score)
• How proud are you to work for this company?
• How satisfied are you with your tasks and responsibilities at work?
• How motivated are you to complete your work tasks on time?
• Do you feel connected to the organization's goals?
• Do you value the role of managers within the organization in achieving goals?
• Do you know the expectations that the company has of you?
• Do you have access to resources and tools to successfully complete your tasks at work?
• Are you satisfied with the time you have available to complete the tasks at hand?
• Do you feel inspired to come to work every day?
• Do you feel that this company is a good place to develop your career?
• Can you imagine still working at this company in two years?
• How clear are you about your career path in this company?
• Do you feel like your manager values ​​your opinion?
• How often do meetings take place in your team?
• How often does your manager give you performance feedback?
• Do you enjoy working with your team?
• If you could change one thing about this company, what would it be?
• What do you like most about this company?
• What are the company's greatest strengths and weaknesses?

Advantages of Voice of Employee

Companies have realised that the Voice of Employee concept helps them to improve their HR processes and increase business performance. Let's look at the VoE aspects that help companies become agile and make it an essential part of their HR strategy. VoE programmes cannot be developed and implemented overnight, but take time and continuous improvement. You need to assemble a team and develop a plan to build such a programme. But it is worth it!

Better employee retention

Voice of Employee has a direct impact on employee retention. When employees feel that they are being heard and that the necessary actions are being taken, they stay longer with the company. This is crucial to stop employee churn. According to a study by the Gallup organisation, companies that have multiple channels of communication for their employees have higher employee retention. Retaining employees is crucial when it comes to saving future talent acquisition costs.

Stronger commitment

Greater engagement of your employees is an immediate benefit that comes from implementing a Voice of Employee strategy. It is crucial that your employees are heard and that their suggestions or feedback are actually implemented if it serves the company. And that the initiators are also called by name, because this also motivates other employees to actively participate. Your employees are your best critics when it comes to improving corporate structures, because they are virtually sitting at the source.

Higher productivity and motivation

If you regularly ask your employees about their know-how and what they need to perform their daily tasks, they will receive honest feedback and be able to respond accordingly with measures. You can initiate training programmes and design your employees' workplace in a way that makes them feel comfortable and valued. This definitely has an impact on performance and productivity.

Higher job satisfaction

Job satisfaction is higher when your employees regularly meet with their supervisors or simply know where they can get rid of ideas and ballast without facing consequences or repression from their supervisors. This way, they receive continuous and honest feedback. When your employees feel valued, they are usually more satisfied with their jobs. Satisfied employees are proactive, contribute significantly to the company's success and are more aligned with the company's goals.

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Voice of Employee strategies successfully implemented with outstanding feedback technologies from QuestionPro

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KEYWORDS OF THIS BLOG POST

Voice of employees | Strategy | Program | introduce | implement