Natalie Norfus is the Founder & Managing Owner at The Norfus Firm, PLLC, where she partners with employers on DEI and HR strategies.
When my team and I sign on to a consulting project, we make a point of collecting extensive data. Our goal is to understand the experiences and perspectives of the employees at the organizations we’re supporting. One of the reasons this is so critical to our process is that employees’ understandings of the problems in their workplace often diverge considerably from what leadership teams think the problems are.
Organizational leaders can be shockingly reactive in the DEI and HR space. While financial decisions might be carefully weighed through endless spreadsheets, graphs and expert opinions, HR and DEI decisions are often made off a stray anecdote or a vague sense of doom. Obviously, this approach is ineffective. But when we present our findings about employee sentiments to clients, we often hear responses like “People are feeling this way? We had no clue!”
It’s clear that many executive leaders don’t know how to take stock of what people throughout all levels of their organization are really experiencing at work, yet this is crucial to making the best HR and DEI decisions possible. Ultimately, good HR is good business. There’s bountiful evidence that great employee experiences contribute to great bottom-line outcomes, and addressing issues before they grow can improve retention, productivity and work quality.
So here are some tips to help leaders realize whether there’s a gap in their understanding of employee experiences and how they can start to close it.
Assess, assess, assess.
If you want to know how employees are doing, you have to ask. Although training managers to check in authentically with their teams is always recommended, in this instance, surveys are the way to go. Surveying your employees is one of the most direct ways you can understand how they’re feeling.
Keep in mind, though, that the quality of the questions matters a ton. While basing your assessment methods on existing templates is a good place to start, make sure to mold them to your organization. Ask questions that are specific to the issues and initiatives that impact your team members.
For example, if you’ve recently made major organizational structure changes, you might want to ask whether the changes are clear and people are comfortable in their new roles. If it’s been a year since you started employee affinity groups, ask if people feel informed about what these groups do and how to join them. Questions like this speak directly to what you’re trying to accomplish and what your employees might be experiencing.
No bad news is bad news.
If you aren’t hearing constructive criticism as an executive leader, that’s likely a sign that you haven’t fostered an environment in which people feel safe to share feedback. Reflect on whether you’ve empowered others to tell you bad news. If not, here are a few techniques you can use to promote openness.
• Neutral Curiosity: Show that you’re interested in others’ perspectives by maintaining a non-judgemental stance and following up after they share. Hold back on countering with another opinion—sometimes just learning about another person’s experiences is all a conversation needs to achieve.
• Gentle Probing: Ask people kindly to elaborate on their experiences. Make sure not to push too hard, as this can turn people off. Gentle is key.
• Active Listening: Demonstrate that you care through active listening techniques, like pausing a conversation to recap the other’s thoughts and providing verbal and nonverbal confirmation that you understand their point of view.
These techniques can encourage constructive feedback, attuning you to what people truly think about the organization.
Check in with HR.
When we present our clients with data demonstrating negative sentiments within their organization, they often ask whose job it was to tell them before we arrived on the scene. Generally, the answer is the human resources lead. But HR leaders might not feel comfortable sharing bad news, or employees might not be sharing their sentiments with this team.
Consider whether there’s sufficient trust between HR and other departments. If not, to build those bridges, it’s critical to get on the same page about what the organization wants to accomplish from an HR perspective. We recommend that organizational leaders set up regular check-ins with the department and clarify the goals, metrics and processes of the HR function.
These tips are a starting point. It’s important to note that keeping in touch with your organization takes continuous effort. Ultimately, you’ll need to create sustainable systems to get that flow of valuable feedback. And above all, exhibit behaviors that encourage openness and authenticity.
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