Towards a Continuous Listening Strategy: Lighthouse Moments That Matter

As organizations continue to recognize the long-term importance of employee retention, the strategies around tracing the employee experience have developed.

The totality of what the overall employee experience represents can be daunting. The scale of information involved, especially for organizations that might still be adapting to incorporating feedback and assessment data, can seem endless.  As the work and business environment constantly develops, the changing employee experience is also a challenge, and calls for a strategy that goes beyond predetermined employee surveys – one that enables companies to drive intelligent action in real-time.

This is where continuous listening comes into play by allowing an organization to tap into those crucial moments that matter the most to the employee experience. By identifying and listening in on these “lighthouse moments,” it will be easier to trace and understand each employee’s experience and take continuous action that is impactful.  

Building a continuous listening strategy is a stage-by-stage process that should be considered across the entire organization. It involves staying connected to employees through an open two-way confidential channel so that you can provide the right info to the right stakeholders at the right time.

However, there are critical points in the employee experience that can help companies get started with their continuous listening strategy, and achieve the context needed for better understanding.

1. Post hire, before start date moments

   Many enterprises take the time to comprehensively gather feedback from successful applicants at that key stage when they have been hired but not started to work. This is a crucial period along the employee journey. The individual will be invested and focused on the company but has yet to experience the rough-and-tumble day-to-day work. This makes for a great opportunity to connect with new hires, gauge perceptions of the company’s culture from the exterior, and gather information regarding expectations of newly hired staff. It will also help them quickly adapt to your feedback culture and encourage them to share ideas and thoughts – the very foundation of a continuous listening strategy.

2. Post onboarding moments

   This is an ideal time to check-in with newly hired employees about their understanding of the organization’s layout, policies, and systems. An employee at this stage will have had some interactions with HR teams, who carry out the key tasks of training and induction. Assessing what this process has been like can be key for a company. The onboarding process’s importance cannot be overstressed, as it is seen as the point when the ‘curtain’ falls, and the reality of what it’s like working for a certain business comes into focus. Training effectiveness can begin to be captured here. Employee sentiments and expectations at this key time are important to record as the individual enters the organization’s culture in earnest.

3. Promotion and advancement moments

   An important moment in anyone’s career is transitioning to a new position or being promoted. It marks a very real moment of success when senior individuals validate an employee’s efforts and character. It also sends a real message to other employees – this individual is someone this organization values. Gauging an employee’s take on being promoted, which may be complex, is crucial. Gathering feedback from newly promoted individuals is a good way to ensure that these crucial moments of personal progression are noted in a fast-changing organization and the insight used to improve them continuously. Checking in with new managers to see how they are progressing in their roles and the employees who now report to them can provide valuable insights – a process made easier using real-time feedback solutions like Bluepulse. You might find that people who thought they wanted the role may ultimately find it miserable.

4. Landmark anniversary moments

   When employees start to celebrate landmark anniversaries – five, ten, or even twenty years at an organization, it’s a significant moment. Yet, the motivations or reasoning behind their decision to stay may surprise, and employee recognition at these key dates is crucial. In a perfect world, a long tenure would be due to the organization’s culture and management, but there may be other reasons at the root. Asking these questions, in a supportive and respectful manner, at these landmark points in time is important. It could illuminate an experience that could then be replicated among more and more of the workforce.

5. Exit moments 

   Employees leave organizations for myriad reasons, but each loss can be viewed as an opportunity to learn. How could things be managed differently, so this person did not have to depart? Is this a situation where there was nothing the company could or should have done differently? Delving into the mindset and decisions that lead to this significant professional decision will be worthwhile. It promotes clarity for both the organization and the departing professional, allowing each to learn from the decision. An organization’s employee assessment may also be more honest and direct once they no longer have a role in the business, leading to better insight.

Continuous listening means just that. It’s an approach that allows for all the space between the above lighthouse moments to be covered too, with regular check-ins and real-time responses that account for each important moment. It forms part of a broader Experience Management (XM) approach.

The real power of continuous listening can come from uncovering the dramatic and unexpected. This could be a particular event, organizational changes, product roll-out, new policy, appointment, or strategy that elicits strong, unexpected reactions. But it’s also the ability to check-in, day-to-day and week-to-week, and illuminate the real picture of a long-term cultural experience. Layering this on top of the major moments outline above provides a dynamic, revealing portrait of where your culture is and where it could go.

Engage your employees via instant feedback with Bluepulse