9 ways voice of employee (VoE) can help your organization

our employees are one of your company's greatest assets. They are the primary representatives and executioners of your company's customer experience (CX). 

Besides interacting with customers throughout the buying journey, employees often have wider visibility into your organization's operational performance. Their perspectives contain unique and powerful insights.

According to a recent CustomerThink survey, approximately two-thirds of CX leaders in B2B organizations reported that employees are the top source of actionable CX insights.

As employees can offer powerful insights, restricting their opinions to an engagement survey every 18–24 months doesn't make much sense.

Smart organizations adopt employee feedback forums and voice of employee (VoE) programs. They analyze the data to identify issues and improve business processes.

In this article, we're looking at VoE's importance in driving your business forward and achieving positive work relationships.

Voice of employee is "Any feedback from employees that pertains to their ability to deliver great customer experiences."

Voice of the employee (VoE) is a systematized process for uncovering employee concerns that impact their ability to offer excellent customer experiences. 

Through VoE, employees can express their ideas, concerns, and perspectives without fear of consequences. 

Most brands collect VoE data through: 

• Feedback systems

• Employee surveys

• Discussions

• One-on-one conversations

• Employee engagement software

Companies analyze this data to pinpoint issues and discover areas of improvement.

Employees interact with hundreds of customers daily, so their CX feedback will likely be extensive. 

Moreover, they have a broad perspective on CX since they can see all the aspects contributing to the experience.

Listening to your employees can help you: 

• Avoid pitfalls

• Streamline processes

• Boost organizational performance

• Drive growth

Check out these reasons why you need to listen to and act on the voice of the employee (VoE):

1. Improve customer experience

Employees directly interact with your customers in many ways, which can provide valuable insight into customer satisfaction, needs, and preferences.

Collecting these insights from your employees can help you understand your customers better and equip your teams to serve them adequately.

According to leading HR analyst Josh Bersin, employee experience and customer experience are 'two sides of the same coin.' 

If your employees are unhappy and disgruntled, your customers will be, too.

When you listen to your employees and act on their feedback, they're more likely to feel satisfied when they face customers. Your employees will feel valued and will be 8.5x more likely to satisfy and retain customers.

2. Better decisions

Businesses are operating in an increasingly complex, disruptive world.

Top leaders in your organization may be detached from the company's day-to-day operations. They are likely only aware of a small percentage of the company's problems. In other words, they can only see the tip of the iceberg.

On the other hand, frontline employees are aware of almost 100% of your organization's problems. After all, they tackle them daily. 

Using voice of employee and participative management allows you to tap into vast knowledge and insights spread across your company. 

You and your management teams can leverage high-quality information and a diverse knowledge base to make decisions leading to better outcomes.

3. Boost performance

Voice of employee allows you to pinpoint inefficiencies and redesign processes to be more effective. 

Your employees have invaluable observations about what's working and what's not. Whether that's recruitment or product development, your employees know where you need to improve.

Working environments that promote employee voice realize increased employee productivity. 

According to a Forbes article, employers who listen to their employees and act upon their feedback reap the benefits. These valued employees are five times more likely to feel empowered to do their best.

As you invest in listening to your employees, how they feel, and address their concerns, their performance also starts to improve. 

This will have a domino effect on your organization's overall performance. Sales start to increase, revenue skyrockets, and company culture improves.

4. Improve employer branding and reputation management

When you implement good voice of employee strategies, you give teams the ability to voice issues and suggest solutions. 

This makes your employees feel wanted and encouraged. And when they see their feedback matters and impacts change, they will become more engaged and loyal.

They will become faithful ambassadors of your brand, sharing your content on social media platforms and showing passion for what you do as a company. 

Their interactions with customers also become invigorated since they own the brand and are excited about how they can solve customer problems.

However, when there are no proper internal channels, your employees may take to online forums or even company listing pages to air their issues. This can ruin your online reputation and shoo away the best talents and potential clients.

5. Better organization agility

An environment where employees can freely air their views, ideas, and concerns is key to swiftly adapting to evolving market dynamics. 

As the world evolves rapidly, brands that cannot understand how they need to change will fall behind.

Your frontline employees can paint a true picture of things in your company and where you may need to change to remain future-ready.

It's difficult to improve and adapt unless employees can be very honest about the reality of daily operations. Sustainable change begins with honesty and transparency.

VoE enables your employees to open up about current trends, what's important, and where you need to adapt. This helps design schemes that orient your company to better achieve its goals now and in the future.

Moreover, VoE shows your employees that you are looking out for them. And this trust may be the foundation that will hold your company together during turbulent times.

6. Retain knowledge and skills

A high employee retention rate is crucial in a world where tacit knowledge forms a core part of competitive advantage. 

It's also a no-brainer that replacing skilled employees is resource-intensive. 

Therefore, you will want to engage and nurture existing staff as much as possible to ensure they stay.

Research has demonstrated that brands with multiple employee communication channels have increased employee retention rates. 

Voice of the employee encourages your teams to speak up, allowing you to nip grievances in the bud. Prompt action prevents damage to job satisfaction, well-being, and the psychological contract.

VoE helps you: 

• Develop people based on their feedback

• Change work processes

• Enhance company culture 

• Listen to views

• Boost employees' experience (EX)

In turn, employees will be more willing to stay with you over the long term.

7. Effective innovation

Brands that listen to the voice of employee and act on the feedback are 3.6x more likely to innovate effectively. And it's easy to figure out why.

Your employees are a treasure trove of innovative ideas and fresh perspectives. They are the people who spend days in the trenches carrying out your organization's mission. 

This puts them in a position to offer unique insights into the efficiency and effectiveness of your company's workflow.

Analyzing their opinions, ideas, and concerns can help you build innovative and effective solutions to your organization's problems. 

Voice of employee fosters a culture of continuous improvement, encourages out-of-the-box thinking, and increases organizational performance.

When you gather feedback from diverse employees, you see a wider range of life experiences and perspectives. This encourages creativity and innovation. 

If you're prepared to listen to your employees, you could find a one-in-a-million strategy to build a better company.

8. Uncover early warning signs

Most organizations spend large sums of money on consultants trying to fix internal problems.

However, you can save that money and overcome organizational challenges before they ruin your brand.

All it costs is listening to the voice of employee.

VoE serves as an early warning system for emerging issues or inefficiencies that companies must address early on. 

Whether it's potential customer dissatisfaction or a simple bottleneck in a process, listening to your teams helps you. 

Crucial insights enable you to adopt proactive measures, avoid escalation, and nurture a culture of continuous improvement.

9. Increase employee engagement

VoE is a primary enabler of employee engagement. 

According to research, 74% of employees become engaged when they realize employers encourage and listen to their voice.

VoE helps you actively listen to your employees' ideas, concerns, and suggestions, fostering a sense of ownership and belonging. 

This leads to higher productivity, increased innovation, teamwork, and commitment to the organization.

Voice of the employee is an excellent tool for determining your employees' preferences and pain points. It's ideal for creating a highly productive work environment and addressing problems before they escalate.

Use the voice of employee as a framework to create a surefire strategy that leads your organization from strength to strength.