Using Technology To Adopt Proactive Listening Model to Understand Employee Sentiments

The Covid-19 pandemic brought with it a set of uncertainties across the world. In India, while on the one hand, the economy was getting disrupted, on the other hand, the country’s digital transformation accelerated at an unprecedented level. Today, we are living in a digital age suffused with emerging technologies, from digitization as a whole to hybrid work models. 

Over the past 2+ years, the work landscape has indisputably altered as well. With the prevalence of ‘The Great Resignation’, and with digital transformation completely revolutionizing the way we work, organizations are recognizing that the key to employee engagement and retention lies in the proper utilization of technology. 

In a recent Leena AI survey ‘Employee Engagement & Hybrid Workplace Report 2022’, 250+ enterprises were surveyed across India and the US. The report revealed that almost 30% of organizations are currently looking at improving employee experience in the hybrid workplace through employee engagement initiatives. These participants included enterprises of different sizes, across job functions like HR, business operations, product, and technology. The industries that participated included IT, manufacturing, healthcare, education, professional services, etc.

Furthermore, 30% of the organizations surveyed acknowledged the need for technological tools to discern employees’ wants and needs. The report has been a testament to how technology today is critical to driving employee engagement for organizational success. 

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Churn? Technology to the rescue

Employees are the most critical assets of any organization. Employees that feel happy, engaged and included tend to align their personal and professional goals to those of their respective organizations. Therefore, retaining such talent is crucial. It is imperative that organizations implement detailed employee retention strategies that are data-driven, innovative, and impactful. In addition, they need to adopt a continuous and proactive listening model using technology. By understanding employee sentiment, they can promptly address any challenges that may be pertinent to one’s needs.

The report also sheds light on the growing need for an active listening model in the workplace where shorter and more frequent pulse surveys are becoming the norm. More than 50 % of the respondents admitted the usage of simple surveys and feedback forms to gauge employee engagement, while 25 % claimed to rely solely on manual methods.

It is evident that numerous organizations are now keen on adopting AI to accurately analyze and forecast employee engagement levels, employee attrition, and so on. The benefits of automating such tasks are plentiful: from data-driven insights and accuracy to letting HR professionals shift their focus on more important, business-focused strategic tasks.

Micro-level issues are equally significant. It is important to note that employee engagement initiatives are integral to the organization as a whole, and therefore should form part of the larger business strategy, rather than being treated as the sole responsibility of the HR team.

Solutions for employee retention

Today, technology has a more prominent role in our lives than ever before. With advanced conversational tools and analytics, organizations can now understand their employees’ needs, wants, and pain points clearly. This further empowers all stakeholders to identify possible problem areas, and take prompt action. 

For example, Gulf Coca-Cola Beverages (GCCB) had been facing a challenge in redefining its employee experience. Due to a lack of transparency among leadership, the core issues that the employees were facing weren’t visible. There was a dire need for an efficient platform where employees could address their requests and concerns. For such a prominent people-first company, this was a major challenge. Moreover, the solution helped GCCB break down data silos between HR, IT, and Finance, and made them agile, thereby improving cross-functional collaboration. As a result, employees have been more productive, connected, and informed thereby improving the overall employee experience.

Also read: HR Tech Leading To Global Disruption in 2022; Here’s How

Finally, with more Indian organizations turning to a hybrid work model, employee engagement has become ever so important but ever so challenging. Though employee engagement is not a recent phenomenon for Indian organizations, continuous listening and proactive feedback gathering will soon become the benchmark for analyzing engagement.

As Simon Sinek says in his book ‘Start with Why?’, “Good listeners have a huge advantage. For one, when they engage in conversation, they make people ‘feel’ heard. They ‘feel’ that someone really understands their wants, needs, and desires. And for good reason; a good listener does care to understand.” Listening then goes hand in hand with great leadership. When people feel heard, they also feel engaged. For an organization to be the employer of choice, it is therefore imperative to pay attention to the needs of its employees.