Are you as a manager on the hunt for a better employee feedback survey? Should you go for employee experience monitoring or a traditional employee survey?

According to the Gallup Q12 global employee survey, only 20% of people thrive at work, 62% are indifferent, and 18% feel miserable. In best-run companies, 73% of workers are emotionally engaged and thriving – more than three times the global average. Why is there such a difference?

To investigate the gap in question, Moticheck gathered together several HR professionals and enthusiasts to a webinar and took a closer look at EX monitoring and the ways it helps organizations be more aware of their team members’ work satisfaction and emotional needs, and how work-life mapping could evolve work life and employee sentiment, how it enables listening, engaging, and retaining employees.

Here are some of the key findings:

• The main drivers why organizations should turn their heads towards continuous EX monitoring instead of traditional pulse surveys include globalization and increased physical distance between team members. Most organizations and teams work from various locations and do not spend their workdays in the same office space. Luckily, technology allows companies and managers to keep in touch with the team members daily, including collecting data about the work-life experience. Also, there is no reason why we should wait until the end of the quarter or a year to map our employees’ experiences.

• With the challenges and trends around us – globalization, remote work, quiet quitting, etc. – leadership significantly impacts work satisfaction. We expect managers to be able to fill many roles – they should be good listeners, therapists with a holistic approach, and super calculators, of course. On the other hand, lack of face-to-face time has strongly influenced people’s mental health and the trend of loneliness. Altogether, it is a fertile ground for miscommunication. So listening to each other and doing it systematically, even daily, has become crucial to be a better leader! Having relevant, up-to-date information about teams’ work-life experience leads to wiser decisions. 

• One of the ways for EX monitoring is to collect data on how employees use software and hardware. Those systems use AI and do it very well, but employers should also pay attention to privacy rules and expectations – not everyone wants to be in a “Big Brother” show.

• Top-down communication is nice to have, but more is needed. Also, it is worth reminding that innovation happens at every level, not only in management, so it is essential to take the time to listen to the thoughts and ideas at all levels and positions. Management tools from the last century might let information flow passed us, while modern tools are much better at capturing ideas, so those could be turned into a business advantage. 

• Research states that 78% of work is done within teams. But many people work outside of teams, on their own, and their engagement levels are times lower. Therefore, it is safe to say that engagement is built inside the teams and it leads to another relevant thought – the work experience within the team is highly reflected in the person’s overall work experience! So it is crucial to know how different teams – temporary or permanent – are doing at the management and team levels.

• Current data is much more valuable than the information collected half a year ago. Static data is not agile, and it can even be misleading and misinterpreted as it does not include any background or context.

• The classical KPIs like the satisfaction index or employee net promotors score are not actionable. Also, it isn’t easy to estimate the reasons for different scores. Without understanding the causes, it is difficult to figure out what should be changed to improve.

• Not sharing is not caring. The traditional survey results are more or less kept from the employees. Yes, at some point, the HR teams present the overall outcomes and the average scores, but it could be more transparent for everyone. Keeping information from the employees does not engage them, but could have the opposite effect. A lack of transparency doesn’t build an open culture or trust. On the other hand, continuous EX monitoring tools enable sharing of the outcomes within the team openly, so everyone knows his voice is heard and considered.

If you want to know more about why your team and organizations should consider an employee experience monitoring tool instead of the traditional employee survey, check out the 40-minute webinar by Martin Rajasalu and Pille Parind-Nisula. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECtx_pXd_bg&t=620s&ab_channel=Moticheck