Integrating Employee Opinions

Being heard at work should never require shouting or a megaphone. 📣 It's much more about strategy and timing than volume. In this video, I break down what actually helps people listen and take you seriously. Some takeaways: 👉 Start by listening. Active, focused listening builds the credibility you’ll need when it’s your turn to speak. 👉 Lay the groundwork. Earn attention before you speak by being clear, concise, and respectful of people’s focus. 👉 Watch your language. Say “and” instead of “but.” Avoid over-apologizing. Speak with clarity and ownership. 👉 Use your body. Nonverbal signals like posture, gestures, and eye contact can shift a conversation from combative to collaborative. 👉 Shift the energy. If a conversation is going off the rails, pause and name what you’re noticing. Then ask, gently, how to move forward. 👉 Managers: Make sure everyone on your team has a real opportunity to be heard—not just the loudest voices in the room. You deserve to be listened to. These strategies can help! 🎥 There's a link to the full video is in the comments, and I'd love to hear what you think (or what you'd add). Image alt text: How to get people to listen to you

The 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report on Trust at Work has just been released. It highlights some critical points about listening to employees, respecting diverse perspectives, and building trust by ensuring employees feel heard, valued, and included in decision-making.  There are some interesting statistics relating to Associates (entry level and non-managerial employees) that particularly caught my eye, reinforcing what we regularly talk to clients about at True. These included: Associates have stronger trust in their peers and co-workers ('people like me') than senior leadership. In fact, they are 2.5 times more likely to trust their colleagues compared to their CEO. There’s a strong desire from associates to have an opportunity to provide input and feedback to their managers even if those opinions may differ.  Many associates feel left out of organisational transformations and of those who have recently experienced an organisational transformation, only 22% said the experience was positive.  An area of concern for me is the mental health gap between associates and executives. There’s a significant disparity with 41% of associates rating their mental health as very good or better, compared to 75% of executives. To me this indicates the toll that feeling excluded or powerless can have on mental health.  Here are three things we often advise that leaders and communicators can do to help bridge these gaps.   1.      A people-centric approach to change and transformation where people are given the space and time to understand what is happening.  Involving colleagues early and often.   2.     Embedding listening into your ways of working so that all colleagues can share their thoughts and ideas with leaders and feel their input genuinely matters.    3.    Empowering employee voice through Champion Networks, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and other employee-led groups can play a vital role in building trust and inclusion by providing a safe space where associates can share concerns, ideas, and feedback, which might not be easily communicated through formal channels. The full report is well worth a read you can find it here https://lnkd.in/e4wJHaNE

A Listening Session Is Only Useful If It Leads to Change I once attended a company-wide “listening session.” The executive team said all the right things, and they meant them: “We want to understand what’s getting in the way.” “No question is off limits.” “We’re here to learn.” But three months later? Nothing had changed, and that silence said more than any promise. Because listening alone isn’t enough. Sometimes being heard is valuable in itself. But sustained engagement comes when people see their voice shape action and doesn’t disappear into a vacuum. When that doesn’t happen, the message received is: It didn’t matter. And that’s when damage sets in: 🧩 Trust erodes 🧩 Engagement drops 🧩 People stop speaking up You’re better off not holding a listening session at all than running one that creates hope with no follow-through. Research backs this up: Gallup found that when leaders follow up after engagement surveys, trust and retention improve significantly. Not because everything was fixed, but because people felt heard and respected. So what does closing the loop actually look like? → Acknowledge what you heard. Don’t leave people guessing. → Be honest about what’s changing and what’s not. → Share the why behind your decisions. Even if the answer is complex, context builds credibility. You don’t need perfect solutions. But you do need to show people that their voice counts. Reflection prompts: → How do you share back what you hear from listening sessions or surveys? → What unintended signals might silence or inaction be sending? → Where have you seen simple follow-up build deeper trust? What’s your take on this? #employeevoice #trustbuilding #feedbackloops #culture #leadershiphabits #cultureinpractice Lily Woi Coaching Limited

I just left a Employee Experience conference and everyone around me talked about their employee surveys. Not that they were great but they all did them. Have you tried sending a survey? You know... The sacred HR tool. Promising to banish disengagement. Team’s burned out? Morale in the toilet? Everyone quietly quitting and loudly applying elsewhere? ✨Send. A. Survey.✨ Because nothing says “we care” like asking employees to rate their psychological safety while sitting in a meeting about budget cuts and reorgs. Listen, I’ve spent 15+ years building culture strategies, rolling out engagement tools, and hosting more action planning sessions than I care to count. I believe in listening. But I also believe in doing. Surveys don’t fix culture. Leaders do. Clarity does. Accountability, communication, and trust do. Want engagement? Try this: ✔ Give managers actual support ✔ Stop announcing change like you’re dropping a mixtape ✔ Reward behaviour that matches the values you stuck on your lobby wall ✔ And maybe, just maybe, don’t ghost your staff after they pour their heart into open-text feedback Culture isn’t built in comment boxes. It’s built in the day-to-day. And no amount of quarterly pulse surveys will save you if you’re not ready to act on what you hear. I can help. Just don’t ask me to “launch a listening strategy” if you're not actually listening. #leadership #employeeengagement #peopleandculture #corporaterealness #linkedinhr

Silence is the earliest warning sign of resignation. Dear Leaders, people rarely quit a job description. They quit environments where their voice slowly stops mattering. In my leadership journey, I have seen this pattern more than once. Compensation may attract talent, but respect retains it. Disengagement does not begin with a resignation letter. It begins when feedback is ignored and ideas are dismissed. When employees stop sharing perspectives, stop challenging assumptions, and stop offering suggestions, it does not always mean agreement. Often, it means emotional withdrawal. That is the moment leaders must pay attention. Global workplace studies, including Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace, continue to show that engagement levels are directly influenced by how heard and valued employees feel. Engagement is not created through policy documents. It is built through listening with intention. I remember a situation where a capable team member gradually reduced participation in strategic discussions. Performance metrics were steady, but contribution had declined. Instead of assuming disengagement, we initiated a deeper conversation. What emerged was not dissatisfaction with the role, but frustration about decisions being made without adequate consultation. That dialogue reshaped how we structured feedback channels. In our organizations, we have made it a principle to actively listen to voices across levels. We encourage constructive disagreement. We invite feedback before decisions are finalized. We review policies through the lens of employee experience, not only operational efficiency. When people know their input can influence direction, ownership increases naturally. The modern workforce does not expect perfection. It expects fairness, transparency, and the confidence that their voice carries weight. Leadership is not about controlling conversation. It is about creating space for it. If people feel valued, they stay and build. If they feel invisible, they leave quietly long before their resignation email arrives. Ask yourself honestly. Does your team feel heard, or simply instructed? LinkedIn LinkedIn News #leadership #WorkCulture #FutureOfWork #LinkedInNews

Too many companies treat Voice of the Employee like a box to check. An annual survey. Generic questions. A vague promise to “do better next time.” Managers sometimes don’t even see the feedback, and nothing changes.    And here’s the problem: beyond just being surveyed, employees want to be seen, heard, understood, and most importantly, they want their feedback acted on.    Too often, traditional VoE feels like a formality, and it’s no wonder employees stop speaking up.   I’ve always advocated for VoE programs to be drivers of performance and engagement, rather than delayed listening exercises. It’s how I built it into the Centrical platform and how I run our company.    It looks like short, targeted pulse surveys about what actually affects people’s day-to-day work: → Are priorities clear?  → Is the workload manageable?  → Do they feel confident in their knowledge of newly launched processes or initiatives?  → Is coaching effective?  → Are they okay?     And when someone signals something’s off, managers get alerted, coaching triggers, and conversations start. It all happens in the flow of work.     Feedback without action isn’t listening.    When employees see that their voice leads to action, trust grows, engagement deepens, and performance improves.    We need better, faster, more human feedback loops, powered by technology, but driven by empathy.     #VoiceoftheEmployee #VoE #EmployeeExperience 

Culture Builder #9: Make the employee voice visible and actionable. Collecting feedback is easy. (You've heard my analogy to collecting stamps, right?) But doing something with it is where most cultures fail. 👉 Surveys are run. 👉 Comments are gathered. 👉 Listening tours are held. And then… nothing changes. 🚫 No follow-up. 🚫 No decisions. 🚫 No visible action. That’s not listening. That’s simply extraction. Leaders in strong cultures treat the employee voice as input to their decisions, not as a morale exercise. They make it clear that speaking up leads somewhere, even when the answer isn’t yes. Voice without action doesn’t build trust. Ultimately, it destroys it. 👉 When people see their input acknowledged, debated, and acted on, they engage. 👉 When they don’t, they stop offering it. And once silence sets in, leaders lose access to the truth. The Build: 🛠️ Close the loop, every time, even when you can’t act on the feedback. 🛠️ Make changes visible and explicitly tie them back to employee input. 🛠️ Be honest about constraints and trade-offs instead of hiding behind silence. People don’t expect perfection. But they do expect progress and honesty. Make the employee voice visible and actionable, and culture becomes responsive, not performative. Fix the culture, fix the outcomes. For more details, see the links in the first comment. #culture #leadership #employeeexperience #voiceoftheemployee

"We have quarterly feedback surveys," Tom said. "But engagement keeps dropping." I asked, "When was the last time someone saw actual change from those surveys?" Silence. "That's what I thought." "Here's what I've learned about employee feedback: Most companies collect it. Few companies act on it. Almost none close the loop. And employees notice." I worked with a tech company last year. They had: - Surveys - Town halls - Open doors Their engagement score?  Below industry average. "We don't understand," the CEO said. "We ask for feedback constantly." "That's the problem," I said. "How is asking for feedback a problem?" "You're not actually listening." I pulled up their last survey results. "Says here employees want more flexible work arrangements. What did you do about it?" "We formed a committee to explore options." "That was eight months ago. Then what?" "They're still meeting." I turned to the CHRO. "Employees said they need clearer career paths. Your response?" "We're designing a new framework." "When will it launch?" "Maybe next year." The pattern was clear. Ask and acknowledge. No action. No follow-up. "Your employees feel unheard because they ARE unheard," I said. "But we have all these channels..." "Those channels are just noise. Every survey you send without acting tells employees their voice doesn't matter." The CEO leaned forward. "So what do we do?" "First, stop asking questions you won't act on. Better to have no survey than one you'll ignore." "Then?" "Pick ONE thing from your last survey. The thing employees mentioned most. Then fix it." "Tell them exactly what you did and why. Start employee communications with the line: 'As a result of your voice in the last survey, we...' It tells them you heard them and what you did about it. And make sure the change happens with them, not to them." "That's it?" "Yes. Then do it again. One thing at a time. Show them their words create change." Six months later: - They implemented flexible Fridays - Created clear promotion criteria and tracks   - Killed two meetings everyone said were useless - Shared monthly "You asked, we did" updates Engagement scores up 30%. But here's what really changed: Their next town hall was packed. Employees actually spoke up. Why? Because they'd seen their words matter. The truth about employee listening: Feedback without follow-through is worse than silence. It teaches employees you're just checking a box. Real listening means: - Acting on what you hear - Explaining what you can't change and why - Closing the loop every single time Because employees don't need more surveys. They need to see their feedback create change. Otherwise, you're not building a listening culture. You're running feedback theater. And everyone knows it. _____ Like my content? Give me a follow. Want to see more of it? Click the 🔔 on my profile. .

💬 When Listening Isn’t Enough: Designing Teams That Act on Employee Feedback We’ve all seen it: ✔️ The survey goes out ✔️ The insights come in ❌ And then… crickets. Listening without action is like watching the director’s cut without ever releasing the film. Great feedback loops don’t just collect opinions, they shape how organizations operate. Companies like Medallia are proving this: Employee Experience (EX) is no longer just about sentiment. It’s about designing teams, workflows, and leadership models that respond in real time. Here's an example: Schneider Electric wanted to boost employee engagement and retention, especially among frontline and distributed workers who often felt disconnected from corporate decision-making. What Medallia Did: Using Medallia’s Employee Experience (EX) platform, Schneider Electric implemented a real-time listening strategy that went beyond annual surveys. They deployed: - Pulse surveys tied to key employee lifecycle moments (e.g., onboarding, team transitions) - Text analytics and sentiment analysis to uncover patterns in open-ended feedback - Customized dashboards for local leaders and HRBPs to take targeted action The Outcome: Managers received tailored insights along with "action nudges"—specific, behavior-based suggestions to improve engagement on their teams. Leadership teams reorganized internal mobility pathways after identifying a common blocker in feedback around career progression. Engagement scores improved, especially among underrepresented groups and early-career employees. 🎯 The real competitive edge? Org design that closes the loop: -Leaders trained to recognize signal from noise -Team structures flexible enough to act on input -Feedback tied directly to decision rights and resourcing Systems in place to show employees: we heard you, and here’s what we did Because trust isn’t built in surveys—it’s built in what happens next. 📊 I’m curious—what’s one way your org has acted on employee feedback in the past year? #EmployeeExperience #OrganizationalDesign #LeadershipDevelopment #Medallia #PeopleStrategy #TrustBuilding #EXtoAction #HRInnovation