How to improve employee experience by applying employee feedback

Many organizations ask employees for feedback to check on team morale or understand challenges. However, once results are collected, teams don’t always hear about the outcomes.

Failing to communicate the key takeaways and the resulting action plan is a major misstep for organizations wanting to improve the employee experience. Communicating openly with your employees during the feedback process cultivates a culture of trust.

Employee trust is a key component of any workplace experience. Increased employee trust often reflects more engaged employees, who are then more likely to perform and stay with a company longer. However, only 33% of employees say their organization delivers on promises, and only 38% believe things will improve.​

Employee surveys are an opportunity to build trust and engage team members meaningfully. Surveys invite employees to candidly share their opinions and needs at work. Following up with results and a plan of action, shows employees that your organization values its employees' input and reinforces your commitment to their experience.

Employee feedback ensures new or improved initiatives are strongly aligned with your team’s interests and needs. It creates a more meaningful, hybrid, remote and in-office work environment that supports employee morale and productivity.

Turning employee feedback into action doesn’t just give HR teams a thoughtful strategy. It enables employees and leadership to connect more closely with its culture.

Why understanding your survey’s goals matters

Employees want their voices to influence decisions that impact their workplace. They’re more likely to engage in employee programs they helped shape and to offer feedback again. Employees are 4.3 times more likely to trust leadership when the organization shares what drove a decision. 

Preparing your employee experience survey or focus group questions is just as important as the follow-up process. HR teams use feedback to understand and address needs not just for the entire organization, but also for specific demographics or departments. 

When job functions differ greatly, a survey sent to the wrong audience won’t just fall flat, it can cause team members to disengage. 

Examples of survey audiences and asking appropriate questions 

1. Remote team members vs. in-office

Example: Surveying in-office employees on the value of headquarters' programming and events, while surveying remote team members on communication and employee engagement tools.

2. Employees vs. managers

Example: Directing managers to evaluate the effectiveness of the materials covered in new organization-wide training, while surveying employees on the rollout and communication of the training itself.

3. Front-line/field team members vs. corporate employees

Example: Surveying frontline team members for new ideas to improve customer experience, while asking corporate employees for new ways to support customer-facing teams. 

Need more candid feedback? Offering anonymity or sending surveys out through HR, rather than from department leaders, encourages participation and gives employees the freedom to share without potential negative repercussions.

Understanding your overarching goals helps HR teams develop surveys and target the right groups to get the most relevant results for planning your next steps.

​Related: Employee surveys 

What to do after collecting employee experience feedback

Surveying employees without follow-up can leave team members feeling frustrated and, inevitably, disengaged.

According to Great Place To Work, when organizations gather and use feedback to improve the employee experience, they establish credibility, build respect and show fairness. It builds invaluable employer trust between leadership and employees.

What to do after receiving employee experience surveys

1. Analyze the collected data
2. Share results with relevant decision-makers
3. Set goals, communicate the timeline and how you’ll measure success
4. Check in to assess progress and needs
   

This transparency creates a psychologically safe environment where employees feel confident speaking up or sharing ideas without negative repercussions. They see how their voices make a difference and are more likely to offer feedback again.

How one company turned feedback into meaningful action

Before taking action, HR teams need to analyze the collected feedback. Quantitative data, like eNPS, helps organizations track ongoing progress, and open-ended questions and responses give leadership a fuller picture of the employee experience.

While current survey results can inform your strategic initiatives, it’s important to consider relevant metrics. HR teams should review past surveys to track fluctuations and find patterns over time. You can also review relevant employee engagement metrics, such as workplace resilience or retention. This information helps teams navigate next steps, whether that’s investing more resources into that program or pivoting entirely.

While working with Stability Healthcare, an organization with multiple locations, ITA Group used eNPS to gauge company culture. The results showed that team members wanted more internal updates and communication. It made sense given the company’s restructure — a big change that left many employees needing unified, organization-wide messaging.

Stability Healthcare also saw an opportunity to connect employees of all levels in an organization-wide communication feed, using ITA Group’s Cooleaf engagement platform. They introduced recognitions, which also helped individuals feel up-to-date and recognized.

As a result, 97% of employees agreed they had the resources and equipment to do their job and 94% said they could be themselves at work.

Related: Employee recognition supports remote worker well-being

Ways to improve employee experience

Through employee listening, organizations can identify specific areas for improvement. Employee feedback reveals exactly where people feel supported, where they’re stuck and what needs to change. 

Employee-driven initiatives are more effective at engaging teams, which increases employee retention, and grows customer loyalty by 10% and profitability by 23%.

Areas to improve employee experience

1. Recognition programs

Celebrating individual contributors’ autonomy and workplace decision-making instills a sense of purpose when people feel stuck.

2. Career development and training programs

Helping employees discover and develop their professional paths offers value while empowering them.

3. Leadership support and development

Giving managers tools to support their teams at existing employee touchpoints builds transparent communication and trust.

4. Employer branding and communication

Consistent communication and messaging keep employees involved, informed and prepared for company changes.

5. Workplace flexibility

Work-from-home or hybrid days help employees maintain work-life balance when they’re stuck or need a change.

These are more than adjustments. These changes meaningfully build company culture.

Employee experience doesn’t improve with a single, big initiative. It’s shaped by everyday moments, systems and behaviors.  Launching a new initiative like a recognition program or introducing a new benefit, such as a learning and development stipend, shows team members their input is being heard and put into action.

How to use employee engagement technology to capture feedback

Employee listening can be a heavy lift for HR teams. The process involves creating a well-structured survey with questions to encourage participation and completion. It also means gathering and processing employee feedback, which can add up when teams routinely measure pulse sentiment.

Thankfully, many employee listening platforms and tools are available. Platforms like ITA Group’s Cooleaf engagement platform include recognition and rewards, as well as engagement dashboards that display employee engagement metrics.

Platform admins can filter results by specific dates or teams to track change or growth. For distribution, segmenting tools make it easier for leaders to target feedback from key employee groups, so they can focus new initiatives where they're needed most.

Streamline surveys with templates and scheduling tools 

ITA Group’s Cooleaf survey tool also offers templates, such as eNPS, and scheduling for recurring pulse surveys. And HR teams can personalize surveys, adding or removing questions, depending on their goals. These features help leadership and HR professionals easily track employee sentiment in response to change management or new initiatives.

For employees, desktop and mobile access encourage participation in recognition and rewards, along with pulse surveys, when and where it works best for them. Having everything in one place makes it easier for leadership and employees to engage and connect meaningfully.

The importance of continuous feedback

As hard as your team works to create an employee program aligned to your team’s needs, no program is perfect at launch. You still need to check in on its reception and employee participation. 

For example, launching that new recognition program might have immediate benefits in helping employees feel appreciated. However, over time, fluctuations in peer recognition pop up. Your team investigates and finds that new hires aren’t introduced to the program, so you’re able to incorporate recognition into their onboarding.

Employee survey types 

1. An anniversary survey captures feedback at employee milestones, such as their first year, to assess employee satisfaction and opportunities for growth.
2. An onboarding survey measures a new hire’s initial impressions and their integration into the team.
3. A pulse sentiment survey, such as employee net promoter score (eNPS), is a standard, quick survey that checks in with employees throughout the year.
   

Strategically distributing surveys ensures your team doesn’t over-survey your employees. Understanding your goal and what trend or metric you want to investigate, will direct what type or survey, what questions to ask and which audience to target. 

This process will help you manage surveys throughout the year without creating survey fatigue. 

Ways to measure the success of improved employee programs

Collecting continuous feedback helps organizations calibrate their employee programs as the year progresses.

Where you focus or what you decide to measure for a program’s success, depends on your initial feedback or goals. For example, if your team saw higher absenteeism, you could review employee satisfaction scores or responses to questions on feeling a sense of purpose at work.

You can also look at a range of metrics for more contextual understanding. If absenteeism is high on customer-facing teams, you could look at employee satisfaction scores with customer support and sales, while reviewing customer feedback or net promoter scores (NPS). You’d then create a strategy to track these metrics over the next 90 days as you launch a new initiative for your customer support team.

Employee experience metrics to track

1. Engagement scores
2. Retention rates
3. Employee satisfaction
4. Participation in programs
5. Internal mobility and growth 

What you decide to track depends on your goals and what you’re looking to change. If employees raise concerns about growth, recognition or communication, focus on metrics that show whether those areas are improving over time. If employee retention is decreasing, review employee satisfaction or collect feedback on management or benefits.

Related: 4 examples of how to prove the ROI of recognition

Improve employee experience with strategic engagement programs

Employee listening opens a dialogue with your team members. Employees have an opportunity to share ideas or offer constructive feedback. In response, your organization needs to use these results to inform changes that will shape company culture.

Feedback is only valuable when it leads to action. When organizations listen, respond and keep improving, they build trust, strengthen culture and create a better experience for everyone.

Use employee feedback to create a more connected culture. Download ITA Group’s ultimate guide to align your employee experience programs today.