Our Blog

In 1999 Andy Grove, the chairman of Intel, warned companies to rebuild their businesses around the internet or risk becoming marginalised. Twenty years later a similar warning might be made about the risks of ignoring the importance of mobile devices. It’s estimated that in the UK alone 95% of people between the age of 16 and 54 own a smartphone and that mobile devices now account for 73% of all internet consumption.
That’s not hard to believe. Take any journey on public transport or have a meal in a restaurant and you will see people glued to their screens. In many cases they aren’t even talking to anyone. They’re reviewing something, booking tickets, finding somewhere on a map, checking in at Facebook or texting family and friends. In other words nearly all of are using our smartphones to organise and manage our lives and keep up to date with what’s going on. It seems that this is the way we want to interact with the world around us. If Mobile is so important to us it must surely be one of the best ways for a company to interact with its people. In some cases that’s already happening and many employees do much of their work on a mobile device. But when it comes to getting feedback from employees Mobile is often overlooked. Yet the technology is already there and a good survey provider like Digital Opinion can help companies take advantage of it. Questionnaires can be optimised for all mobile devices and employees invited to participate via SMS message or email. They can even point their phone at a QR code on a poster or a flyer for instant access. And a busy HR manager on their way to a team meeting can use their Smartphone to check in to a team’s reports or action plans en-route and familiarise themselves with the issues to be discussed. In other words we know that mobile is the preferred medium of communication for many employees and we also know that it’s becoming increasingly important for companies to understand the employee experience as a means of building positive workplaces which engage people, encourage them to stay and improve productivity. So perhaps 2019 is the year that HR teams should bring the two together and start giving employees a chance to give feedback wherever and whenever they want and making it easy for themselves to monitor sentiment in real-time from wherever they are, so that they can react to issues quickly, and be proactive in driving up employee satisfaction. For more information on how Digital Opinion can help you “mobilise” employee feedback give us a call on 020 8546 7243. More blogs that may interest you.

Some managers are uncomfortable with the idea of inviting comments as part of their employee engagement surveys. They’re frightened of opening up issues they won’t be able to deal with or of creating friction and confrontation.
That could be a risk, but they need to recognise that we now live in a feedback culture. They wouldn’t question the value of customer feedback. Indeed an increasing number of companies conduct ongoing customer surveys and use social media platforms like Reputation.com to get a regular flow of feedback from multiple sources. That feedback and the dialogue that follows play a vital role in those companies’ efforts to engage their customers and build their brands. Outside of work, their employees, the same people who are often denied the opportunity to make their comments known, are used to giving and receiving feedback every single day - when they book a holiday, eat out at a restaurant or go shopping. And they share their experiences with family and friends, and the world at large, on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp. So, if companies are serious about retaining and motivating their employees and attracting the best they can, they need to start thinking seriously about building the same kind of relationship they have with your customers – one based on continuous feedback and ongoing dialogue. They need to start thinking about giving their people the opportunity to provide feedback in their own words. If they don’t, engagement will fall, their employees will walk and business performance will suffer. If the case for encouraging people to give feedback in their own words is compelling, how should the process be managed in order to maximise value while at the same time dealing with managers’ legitimate concerns about creating difficulties? Here are a few suggestions: Don’t be led by the comments. Analysis of the survey feedback should start with a focus on scores, trends, and benchmark comparisons together with more detailed key driver and, where appropriate, linkage analyses. It is these analyses that should determine priorities and post-survey actions. The role of the comments should be to bring conclusions to life and to provide supporting evidence for proposed actions. Sort the comments by subject matter and sentiment and see how they illustrate the scores and trends you’ve identified. Use them to flag up the issues that are currently being talked about the most, especially those that risk undermining engagement. When feeding back the results of the survey to the company as a whole make sure you reference a number of comments to support your quantitative analyses and proposed post-survey actions. It will assure people that you really are listening to them rather than just looking at the numbers. It will go a long way towards building trust in the feedback process. But when sharing the feedback with individual teams think carefully before including comments. At that level there’s a danger they could be attributed (rightly or wrongly) to specific individuals and therefore help to realise managers’ concerns about creating friction and confrontation. And remember that most employees will react more emotionally to a single controversial comments that they would to a volume of quantitative data. A word about the process of collecting, collating and analysing comments: For companies that conduct a once-only annual survey and have a relatively low headcount the challenge should not be too great. But for those that are moving towards multiple surveys across the entire employee lifecycle or already have an always-on approach and thousands or tens of thousands of employees it will be much greater. They will need to partner with a survey/platform provider that can process a large volume of comments and report by subject matter and sentiment in real time. In summary, we live in a culture where, increasingly, feedback is being sought and given. Companies need to recognise that and embrace the idea of a continual dialogue with their people. The benefits will be a heightened sense of inclusion and engagement and, ultimately, improved productivity. However, the process of managing large volumes of comments and the dialogue that follows will need to be managed carefully. More blogs that may interest you.

Times are tough in retail. Consumer confidence is low and set to remain so as long as there is uncertainty over Brexit. The UK currently enjoys high employment and low interest rates, but household budgets remain tight and spending continues to be squeezed. At the same time retailers’ costs are rising, competition from online operators is intensifying by the day, and many brands are starting to by-pass retailers altogether and seek direct relationships with consumers.
For some retailers these headwinds have proved too much. Since the turn of the year Maplin and Toys 'R'Us have failed, while other major companies have been forced into store closures. However, retailers are fighting back. They know that customer experience is becoming ever more important and are intensifying their focus and re-imagining their stores. They recognise that many consumers want to associate themselves with brands that share their views, beliefs and values, and shun those that don’t, and they are focusing more tightly on brand authenticity. But there is another critical area they need to focus on. Retail is a customer facing business which needs properly engaged and motivated staff to deliver outstanding service. If they come up short in this, consumers, with easy access to countless online reviews, will take their business elsewhere. Unfortunately recent research indicates that many retailers need to get better at recruiting, motivating and retaining their people. It suggests that few have good retention initiatives in place or run training and development programmes to help build employees’ skills and support career development. As a result staff turnover is relatively high which has a negative impact on customer satisfaction, productivity and growth. So, just as many retailers are re-thinking their customer propositions, they also need to strengthen their employer brand. They need to engage their staff in an ongoing conversation to understand what motivates them to give of their best and stay with the company. They need to monitor closely their recruitment and on-boarding processes to ensure that promises are kept and the work experience is motivating. They also need to conduct exit surveys to identify why things have gone wrong for some people and what can be done to stem the flow. In other words they need to be the best they can be at offering attractive and rewarding career prospects that people can be proud of. If any of these issues are keeping you awake at night, give us a call on 020 8456 7243 to discuss how we can support you. Digital Opinion has been involved in the retail industry for 17 years and has the knowledge and experience to help businesses measure and drive motivation and engagement and increase retention. We offer state-of-the-art, always-on, real- time staff feedback platforms, on-boarding and exit surveys, action programmes, and a proven approach to advanced analytics - linking engagement to other key performance metrics such as sales, customer satisfaction and staff retention.

Want to engage your people? – then organise them into small teams and give them a specific task. Harvard Professor, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, once described the happiest people she knows as those who are dedicated to dealing with some of the most daunting problems the world has to offer. Happiness, she says, comes from the feeling that they are making a difference, and she sees the same spirit in business teams creating new initiatives.
Want to increase productivity? - again, organise your people into small teams and give them a task. Small teams are far more productive than large groups. As a group gets bigger, all sorts of issues spring up: individual performance falls off and people start disengaging. More people might provide a bigger pool of resources, but they require more coordination and management, to the point where size becomes an impediment. How do you find or create small team-working opportunities? One solution might be your engagement survey and more specifically post-survey action. In our experience ongoing, team-level action programmes have a huge impact on both engagement and productivity. Sounds simple but it works.

An increasing number of organisations are turning their attention to the idea of Employee Experience, a concept which encapsulates what people encounter, observe or feel over the course of their employment with an organisation.
It is being seen as a key driver of the behaviours which drive performance, and some major businesses now have a Head of Employee Experience. Their job is to design, build, and sustain the right employee experience which encourages people to perform to the best of their ability.
Each step in the employee lifecycle impacts people’s experience so it is usually considered important to gather feedback at each step. That enables the organisation to measure how well it’s helping its people to be successful, and where it needs to do more.
One of the most important steps in the employee lifecycle is the onboarding process. It is during this process that the new employee is introduced to the organisation’s people, processes and tools. When done well, it helps new starters hit the ground running, reach their full potential quickly and stay with the organisation longer. When it’s not done well individuals can feel held back, leading to disaffection and a quick exit. And a high level of staff turnover can have a negative impact on both productivity and finance.

An increasing number of organisations are introducing always-on employee feedback platforms. They enable employees to provide feedback how and when they want, using web and mobile channels. They take much of the hassle out of surveying, and enable businesses to ask any number of questions, tune into employee views and address key issues. The big question, is do they deliver value?
The answer is yes provided we avoid the ‘more is always better’ trap, and instead focus on generating quality rather than quantity, and then acting on it. In broad terms that means two things:

Designing systems which help and encourage people to give actionable feedback in a safe environment, and shifting the emphasis from closed to open questions in order to start constructive dialogues about the issues that matter.

Empowering managers to act on the feedback. Real-time systems, like any survey systems, are counterproductive if nothing happens with the feedback.

Providing the real-time data is rich, contextual, and constructive, and managers act on it, always-on feedback should deliver real value which helps to engage people and drive business performance.

Always-on platforms are powerful feedback tools which take the hassle out of surveying. They don’t need to be overly complex and a good supplier can set one up quickly and host and maintain it to avoid any demands on in-house IT teams. The challenge in making it a success is seldom technical. It’s more about how you introduce it and embed it in the business in a way that encourages employees to use it and managers to have confidence that it adds real value. Here are a few tips on how you can get an always-on feedback process up and running in your business.
One of the concerns about introducing an always-on platform is that the first people to respond may well be those with an axe to grind. One way to avoid that is to start off with a topical issue and invite feedback from a specific group. Focus on eliciting ideas and suggestions rather than presenting them with a set of closed questions. Managers new to always-on feedback sometimes see it as a mini version of a full-scale survey. Perhaps it’s better to see it as an opportunity to start a series of mini conversations on different topical issues. Keep each set of questions short and simple, and the tone informal. Always-on lends itself to lots of mini feedback projects. Think of all the questions you could ask. Get feedback from a specific location or function, or from people who’ve attended a training course. Use it to run exit and on-boarding surveys. Create a project plan which sets out all the mini feedback projects you want to run. Don’t just put a link on your intranet and wait for people to respond. Ask them directly. Text them or send an email explaining why you’re asking for their feedback and what you’re going to do with it. Always-on should be a two-way process so you need to respond to people’s input, champion good suggestions and acknowledge contributions. Keep the conversation going and demonstrate that the process works.

Despite the vaporings of politicians on the question of whether or not Britain will ultimately benefit from its divorce from the EU, a period of uncertainty will affect business.
It has been reported that 36% of employers say their staff have concerns about job security and that their non-UK people are worried about their right to continue working in this country, while the emotive and divisive nature of the debate has only added to workplace tension. The clarity and assurances that are essential at times such as these are not forthcoming from our politicians. Therefore, it’s incumbent on businesses to step up to the plate and demonstrate that they understand the human as well as the financial implications of Brexit, and how a highly engaged, united and motivated workforce will be vital in helping them navigate the unknown waters ahead. If they haven’t already done so, it’s time for businesses to invest in effective engagement and communications processes that open an on-going, two-way dialogue between employees and management, which enables them to address concerns, and remove uncertainty and fear. By doing this they will go a long way towards Brexit-proofing themselves whatever Westminster or Brussels throws at them.

Many businesses have long realised that nurturing and looking after existing customers is far more profitable than chasing new business. Part of that process involves getting regular, real-time customer feedback from customers and acting on it to ensure that products and services remain exactly in line with their needs.
It’s the same with employees: retaining and engaging existing people makes far better business sense that constantly hiring and training replacements. However, the engagement process seldom involves getting real-time feedback from employees. This can be remedied with relative ease. Always-on platforms can provide real-time, continuous feedback on a range of critical people processes such as on-boarding, retention, performance management, and engagement. As well as uncovering trends, they can drill into emerging issues and provide nuanced insights into why employees feel and act the way they do. With always-on feedback, engagement is no longer the exclusive responsibility of HR. Team-level reporting puts it in the hands of line managers and their teams, and gives them the insights to drive bottom-up improvements.

A certain level of staff turnover is normal and even beneficial. It can provide opportunities to promote high performers and bring in "fresh blood". However, when it’s too high the costs can be considerable: direct costs involved in recruiting replacements, and indirect costs related to administrative and management tasks. In many cases the greatest costs are those related to reduced efficiency and the skills and knowledge lost to competitors.
Most organisations recognise this and conduct exit interviews as a means of understanding why people leave. However, research suggests that leavers seldom divulge the real reasons in those interviews. As a result, the value of exit interviews is often limited. For that reason an increasing number of companies are turning to leavers surveys as a means of gathering reliable insight into why people leave. They offer the same confidentiality levels as other surveys and consequently the results should be reliable, and when they ask the right questions it is possible to separate out the critical pull and push factors behind the decision to leave, and identify the key drivers of staff turnover. Nowadays the leavers survey can be part of a much bigger, always-on employee feedback platform which can also be used to track engagement and give your people a voice on a range of issues.

A lot has been said about generation Y, the Millennials, their preferences and expectations. Some of it is fanciful exaggeration but some things ring true. As a group they tend to be tech-savvy, attach more importance to family values than corporate values, and expect to balance work with their personal life. It is said they have a preference for team-oriented environments, and value a free flow of information and regular feedback. As an older generation retires, Millennials are moving into management and leadership positions in increasing numbers. This, together with the proliferation of digital technology and social media, is already having an impact on how we organise work. If we want to recruit and retain the best people we need to remember, at the flick of a touchpad, they can see how their current business or competing businesses are rated by their employees. To attract the people we want, and manage their expectations we need to start seeing the world through their eyes. Only then will we be able to create a compelling work environment. Many businesses already embrace social media and a variety of tools to help with that. One of those tools is the always-on feedback platform. Managed properly it can provide the real-time, two-way communications process that is not only important to Millennials but all employees.

As consumers we’re used to providing feedback – just think of Amazon and Tripadvisor. And some of us, especially millennials, have grown up with instant two-way communications – things like texting and online messaging. But as employees, most of us don’t get the same opportunity to provide regular feedback. Some organisations are beginning to recognise its value and are introducing continuous feedback programmes which enable employees to provide feedback how and when they want, using web and mobile channels - mirroring how they behave outside work. It helps to engage them and it enables businesses to ask any number of questions, tune into employee views, and address issues before they escalate. Always-on platforms are powerful but they don’t need to be overly complex. They need to enable businesses to create, launch and analyse surveys, and share information rapidly. Getting set up need not be difficult. The challenges are more cultural than technical. Above all, businesses need to be agile with their responses.