Why Data-Driven Employee Experience Should Include a Continuous Listening Strategy

Why Data-Driven Employee Experience Should Include a Continuous Listening Strategy

In my previous articles, I highlighted the criticality of adopting a data- and analytics-driven approach to employee experience success. In line with this, organizations are increasingly moving towards Continuous Listening or Voice of the Employee Programs. For most, this first of all means migrating from an annual engagement survey towards more frequent employee surveying and pulse checks.

Disproportionate focus on survey apps

In their desire to move towards continuous listening, I see many organizations starting their journey focusing disproportionally on survey apps or tools, without being able to clearly define how data and insights gathered should help them to answer and achieve some people- or business critical objectives.

Sure, creating a holistic approach to data-driven employee experience success demands better tools and technology to capture employee feedback continuously. Still, I believe that being successful in this area will mostly depend on the ability to create a thoughtful strategy on how continuous listening and the data generated can be translated in relevant insights and actions towards the employee experience. Once a solid strategy is in place, companies can ensure strategic principles are guiding inputs into app or technology investments.

This paper outlines some tips that can help to intelligently address some of the core challenges related to continuous listening and make sure you get the best out of your investments.

5 Tips to get the best out of your continuous listening investments

  1. Clearly define the purpose of your continuous listening efforts

Depending on the purpose of continuous listening for an organization, the program can take several forms, ranging from tracking overall employee experience, culture and health at a company level to the day-to-day monitoring of employee sentiment or satisfaction across all key experience touch points.

Defining and getting aligned around this purpose is critical, as it has a number of important implications (see further in this article) which should serve as guiding inputs into technology or tool investments.

2.  Define the right pulse questions

As tempting as it may be to just ‘buy’ a pulse questionnaire or dream up a bunch of pulse survey questions, this would not be a wise course of action. Good questions should be designed thoughtfully, tested, and have a proven link to what you are trying to measure.

Getting to the right questions and shortening existing surveys can be reliably done using a variety of approaches or techniques, depending on the desire to start from scratch or leverage what is already captured today. For instance, we have recently assisted clients in identifying core strategic themes, translating those in predictive dimensions related to employee experience and consequently mapping relevant survey questions to those dimensions.

If you already have significant amounts of data from previous survey waves, you can apply a confirmatory factor analysis to this qualitative mapping and then select a set of measurement items with the highest factor loadings.

If, in contrast, your organization desires to start from scratch, you can select items with high factor loadings on the constructs you want to measure based on a review of the scientific literature on employee experience and satisfaction.

3. Define the appropriate length of your survey products

Clients often ask me how many questions a ‘typical’ pulse should consist of. Again, my advice is that the length of survey products should be based on the objective and desired outcome of your continuous listening program.

A more comprehensive questionnaire for the entire organization may be needed at the beginning of each year to serve as a baseline measurement and to understand, for instance, the systematic drivers of or clusters underlying employee satisfaction and experience. Shorter pulse surveys on the other hand, may help you to understand if you’re moving the needle on a particular topic and be targeted to selected groups of employees (e.g., those affected by leaders who recently went through a leadership program).

Some organizations also monitor employees on a day-to-day basis using single-item measures. However, take into account that the reliability of single-item measures cannot be readily assessed without a pre-test of the association with a validated multi-item measure.

Finally, do not forget that continuous listening may include a multitude of alternative data sources beyond those stemming from pulse surveys, ranging from candidate or exit interviews, ongoing performance conversations to social media and intranet data.

In my previous articles, I already briefly touched upon the potential relevance of 'user experience (UX)' data, which can help you for instance to get a better view on what tools different employee clusters prefer to use to interact with HR, or at what points they get ‘stuck’ in their journey. Many organizations have significant stores of these types of data, but much of it may never be used due to a limited understanding of the potential value it can deliver.

4. Decide on the appropriate survey cadence

There are some key factors to consider when deciding on your optimal pulse survey cadence. First, take some time to understand the extent to which the components you want to measure are likely to change on a regular basis. Engagement for instance, has mainly enduring components, whereas satisfaction is more inclined to fluctuate on a regular basis or in parallel with organizational events.

Second, consider that more regular employee surveying is only as good as the ability to turn the data into meaningful actions. Indeed, a major challenge is to avoid ending up with more data than time to analyze and act on it – which is generally considered the ‘kiss of death’ in survey management. If you pulse regularly, make sure you also have a plan for how to route and address issues quickly.

Therefore, define upfront how your organisation and key teams can and will leverage pulse insights as part of BAU process and what this looks like in an ongoing basis. This also requires a solid reporting strategy, customised to the audience you want to inform. C-level executives may be more interested in insights on a small number of key strategy-related dimensions on a company-wide level, whereas your service delivery manager may want to have more detailed insights on employee satisfaction across different HR service touch points.

5. Ensure you can apply advanced people analytics to pulse data

Frequent monitoring of employees has a great advantage over annual or static snapshots, as it can uncover trends or reveal the impact of specific events on and investments in the employee experience. However, this also implies the need for more advanced analytical techniques and capabilities. Predictive models that can be derived from time series can be quite different than models based on general attitudes and snapshot data.

The most advanced organizations to date are already integrating pulse data with other relevant data sources (e.g., social media /intranet data, KPI’s) and apply sophisticated analytics to these. These organizations excel by being able to draw a more comprehensive picture and broadening their understanding of the pathways through which a better employee experience exerts its influence on company KPI’s (e.g., through job performance, increased discretionary effort or higher retention).

In their search for a pulse tool or provider however, most organizations fail to consider that many third-party stakeholders do not allow them to use their own data. As a result, integrating pulse data with other relevant data sources and gaining the insights needed to support the broader goal is threatened. Despite app or tool investments, these organizations end up not being able to exploit data for the intended purpose.

Therefore, make sure to invest in a solution that supports off-the-shelf integration with various platforms or analytical packages. Alternatively, if your organization doesn’t have the right capabilities to perform advanced analytics on a broader set of integrated data, make sure to invest in a strategic partnership with a provider that has a deep understanding of advanced people analytics and can help you to get the insights needed.

In their search for a pulse tool or provider, most organizations fail to consider that many third-party stakeholders do not allow them to use their own data.

Conclusion

Creating a holistic approach to analytics-driven employee experience success demands better pulse tools to capture employee feedback continuously. However, do not get distracted by focusing too much on tool selection early on. Start your journey towards analytics-driven employee experience success with a thoughtful strategy that will help you to deliver the insights needed. Having a solid strategy in place will help you to ensure strategic choices can be guiding inputs into technology investments.

This article is the third out of a series. Here's the link to the two previous ones I’ve published on this topic:

  1. Why HR Analytics is Critical to Employee Experience Success
  2. The Number 1 Challenge to Data-driven Employee Experience Success and How to Start Addressing it.
Richard Wortley

Organisational Capability | Leadership Development | Business Strategy

6y

So so true. Its easier than ever to ask questions but the listening is what counts! We spend a lot of time refining the 'listen + action' process around our teams' own insights. Success is measured by action so we're intent on sharing this learning with others.

Valerie Yeo

Transformation & Change Management | Leadership & Organisation Development | Team coaching | Comms & Engagement

6y

Thanks laura for sharing this thoughtful article!

Rameez M

Analytics Professional Interested in using data lever for corporate strategy and performance bench marking

6y

Thanks laura for sharing the article ! Good read One quick win on the front is by adding google Analytics snippet on corporate intranet pages to understand how employee traverse in the corporate pages and average time spend on each corporate page... effectively this approach will help in capturing one dimension of customer experience

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