3 min read
When an employee feels like their employer values their opinion, they’re far more likely to have a sense of belonging at work.
That should give leaders a powerful incentive to pay attention to what their employees have to say: Research has linked a sense of belonging to employee engagement, which Gallup has found can increase profitability by as much as 21%.
The best way to show employees you are interested in their perspective is to create an environment that makes it easy for them to share it.
A culture of feedback requires leaders and managers across the organization to take employee opinions seriously, and to ensure that there are no negative consequences for employees who speak their minds.
That’s why every company should have a strategy for collecting and synthesizing upward feedback in order to give employees opportunities to share their thoughts with leaders. Further, you can encourage employees to give feedback to each other in order to promote trust and connection.
Promoting a Culture of Feedback
Here are some top tips for creating a culture of feedback at your company.
Talk with your team about the culture you want to create. A great way to set the tone for your culture of feedback is by inviting managers and employers into the conversation. You can have a discussion about the changes you’d like to make and communicate why they’re important to engagement and inclusion.
Together, you can create a shared understanding across the team on what constitutes feedback and take some time to teach people how to give and receive feedback constructively. You can also solicit ideas on what feedback norms you might want to adopt.
Survey your employees. Engagement surveys can help you find out how employees feel about everything from company direction and leadership to workplace culture and office perks. But sending out surveys isn’t enough; you need to demonstrate that you’re going to do something about the feedback you receive. Afterwards, you should share survey results with the company and come up with a plan for improvement. This can also be a great opportunity to gauge how many employees have a sense of belonging at your organization, especially given how important inclusion is to business outcomes.
Encourage social connection. It’s easier for people to share feedback with each other when they’ve built up a solid foundation of social rapport. If you’re serious about fostering a culture of feedback, you’ll need to help teams connect and get to know each other on a deeper level. Offsites, lunches, and team building activities can have a significant impact on your feedback culture, not to mention a 50% increase in retention.
Leveraging Wisq can also deepen social connection, which will ultimately make employees more comfortable sharing feedback.
The Value of a Culture of Feedback
Not only can a culture of feedback improve performance, retention, and engagement at your company, it can also promote a sense of belonging. After all, it’s much easier for an employee to feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves when their work is valued and their opinion is taken seriously.
Wisq is a social connection platform where coworkers form genuine connections with their colleagues. Help your employees become more engaged with their workplace. Try Wisq for free.