How to Gather Effective Employee Feedback
3 min to read ✭ In this post, you will learn more about how to gather effective employee feedback and what questions to ask when delivering a year-end survey to the team members in your organization to ultimately improve workplace productivity and happiness amongst your team.
When gathering effective employee feedback in a year-end survey or evaluation, there are many questions you can ask in order to gauge how your employees feel about your organization’s progress. The best way to gather this feedback is anonymously and in an organized manner. There are many aspects of your organization that you’ll want feedback on, so it’s important to be specific in the questions you ask. Here at Community Boost, we like to lead with a cluster of questions to get mind’s flowing. We call this the start, stop, and keep approach.
The Start, Stop, and Keep Approach
The start, stop, and keep approach includes three general questions about your organization which can provide effective employee feedback. You can ask, “What should our organization start doing?” “What should our organization stop doing?” and “What should our organization keep doing?” This will provide answers from categories across the board, and it will give team members a chance to say what they are thinking just in case their thoughts don’t fall within the other questions being asked. We received great feedback from this approach, including the suggestion to start using Facebook and Instagram ads, which added a lot of value for our clients.
Organizational Workflow
The workflow of your organization is definitely something worth addressing because no team can run smoothly without efficient workflow policies in place. Receiving effective employee feedback on how things can improve in this category can greatly affect your organization’s overall success. Ask your employees if they feel any improvements need to be made to the current workflow or to their specific job duties. This is a safe space for them to be open about any unhappiness they may feel.
Feedback About Leadership
Gaining effective employee feedback regarding leadership within your organization is important when taking a year-end survey because this is where team members will have the chance to express any concerns they are feeling regarding management or lack of guidance in their roles. You can ask about any possible weakness in leadership in two ways—either by asking directly, or by asking team members how they are wanting to improve, and in turn, identifying how those in manager roles can meet the employee’s needs.
Feedback for Revenue
Revenue for your organization is very important, and including everyone in on this goal by asking for effective employee feedback can be very useful. In your survey, ask team members what their suggestions are for increasing revenue. This can be a great brainstorm session where team members are able to present ideas that they may not have wanted to say out loud or claim in previous meetings. Within the revenue category of the survey, you can also ask if there are any suggestions for reducing costs because profit includes both revenue and costs, and both are equally important to the growth of the organization.
Feedback on Social Impact
Social impact is a category in which many employees want to provide feedback because this is the reason many people get into the nonprofit sector. By asking your team members if they have any ideas for how to increase social impact, you are making them feel that they have a voice that matters within the organization that contributes to the cause. You should receive a lot of effective employee feedback in this category. Also asking a general question of “Why do we do what we do?” can inspire your team for the new year to come.
What Are Each Team Members’ Personal Fulfillment Goals?
Lastly, including an open-ended question on your survey that speaks to your team members’ personal happiness within your organization is a great way to show that you care about the people working for you. At Community Boost, we end with a question that says, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how happy and fulfilled are you at Community Boost?” This is a great way to gauge the organization’s overall morale for the year and find ways to keep it up or improve upon it in the future.
CONCLUSION: Ask Specific Questions
When gathering effective employee feedback, it’s all about asking specific questions within the categories that you feel are a priority to your organization. Your employees work for you because they are passionate about the mission. It’s essential to set up these year-end surveys not only to improve your organization, but to show your team that you care just as much about them as they do about you.
