Unmasking the Secret to Authentic Feedback

When Anya, the head of HR, finally got a chance to look at the team’s feedback for their manager, she was surprised. Every review was a glowing recommendation relaying tales of feeling supported at work, being provided with professional development and growth opportunities, and more. The manager in question was, apparently, absolutely incredible.

There was just one problem.

All the Glassdoor reviews spun a different story. These were filled with criticism of micromanagement, frustration, and lack of recognition. Review after review warned prospective hires to be wary. Moreover, the team already had a really high turnover rate.

Inconsistency much? The ‘gap’ felt like a chasm. Clearly, something was amiss.

Does employee feedback work?

Feedback turns the wheel. It helps companies understand what needs to be improved – and what’s already working – empowering data-based decisions to maximize impact. Honest feedback, that is.

But, taking a look at Anya’s experience, you may quickly realize that all feedback is not equal.

Simply following what your employees are saying without analyzing the context can lead you astray. Just take the above example: If Anya chose to believe only the glowing reviews from employees, she would have no reason to intervene with the manager.

The outcome? The team would continue to have high turnover rates, and Glassdoor would continue to be filled with warnings.

That’s why, while feedback is crucial, the way you ask for feedback plays an equally important role. Ensuring circumstances where employees feel safe to give honest feedback is critical to capturing the answers you need.

How to ensure honest feedback?

The best way to get honest feedback is by creating a safe environment for employees to share their thoughts. You need to do more than simply give verbal affirmations; your actions need to back your words.

How? Here are a few suggestions:

1. Implement anonymous surveys
   • Well, duh! Anonymous surveys give employees the comfort they need to answer honestly.
   • Utilize surveys from organizations that offer assured anonymity. Make sure that this guarantee is included in the survey itself — not just in your verbal explanations.
   • If the organization provides an official explanation of how anonymity works, all the better!
   • This helps to give employees the assurance they need to provide candid feedback. However, it may not always be enough.
2. Include externally managed survey(s)
   • Not all employees trust the promise of ‘anonymity’. So, an additional step you can take is to bring in a third party to manage the employee survey project.
   • This might not always be feasible, but having an external entity step in, especially for annual feedback surveys, will help you get honest feedback for quality insights.
   • Sogolytics offers Managed Survey Projects for clients in need of this kind of support. We take care of everything, from survey design and creation to distribution and analytics, helping you get the answers you need without the effort!
3. Stay away from certain questions
   • Just as important as it is to ask the right questions, it’s important to stay away from anything that can be seen as a single- or multi-point identifier for the participant.
   • For example, if you have only one employee who works in a certain state, that might not be a great question to require. Or, if you have just one person who has worked for over 10 years in a specific location, asking both questions would negate anonymity.
   • Think critically before finalizing your list of questions. If you do choose to include questions that might be construed as identifiers, avoid setting them as mandatory.
4. Utilize multi-use links
   • Is it always better to have a multi-use participation link rather than a single-use invitation? This is a tricky one and can likely open a can of worms.
   • If your focus is answers alone, a multi-use link makes it easy to collect more responses and makes it harder to link individual responses to specific participants.
   • If you’re worried about ballot-box stuffing, with some mischief-makers filling in multiple responses, you may choose to use another method.
5. Distribute surveys across channels/devices
   • If your company is one of many that uses productivity/activity monitoring software on employee laptops, chances are, your employees are wary of anything they type there being traced back to them.
   • No matter how unlikely, just knowing that they’re being monitored may cause employees to be less than candid when they answer surveys on their laptops.
   • Instead, by distributing across channels and optimizing the survey across devices, you allow employees to answer from their personal devices, making it easier to be honest!

Unmasking the issue

Understanding the problem at hand, Anya opted for completely anonymous surveys with the annual one being managed by a third party.

Not only did this skyrocket the response rate, but also revealed far more actionable feedback.

By including a question focused on which department respondents belonged to, she was able to get more team-specific insights, given that all the teams were large enough to maintain anonymity. As it turns out, micromanagement was only a concern in one team!

This allowed her to focus her efforts and show employees the value of their feedback.

When it comes to authentic feedback, it isn’t just about the measures you implement, but the trust you build over time. By putting the feedback to work, Anya is building a long-term culture of trust. In doing so, she is making employees feel safe to reach out and ask for help, knowing that their concerns would be heard and addressed.

This in turn ensures that she captures truthful insights with each survey, empowering her to take steps that will make a difference and nurture a strong and cohesive work culture.

Getting started with authenticity

The employee experience you create will contribute not only to the work culture you cultivate, but also to the long-term health of your company. Capturing authentic feedback is the first step as you look to create a safe space for all.

If, like Anya, you feel like you’re struggling with a lack of trust, we’d love to help you out! With a range of add-on services and features, we’re here to help you get the answers you need, easily.

Let’s get on a quick call to understand all that Sogolytics can do for your business!