Activate Empowers Managers and Redefines Action Planning

We live in the age of Big Data — organizational insights have become much easier to come by. But one thing hasn’t changed: transforming these into action that results in impact is tough. Perceptyx's latest offering, Activate, directly addresses this challenge by integrating the pioneering behavioral science of Humu, acquired in 2023, with proprietary AI inside our People Insights Platform to deliver personalized help to managers and employees at scale. 

Our 2024 State of Employee Listening research found that a clear plurality (41%) of organizations believe creating and executing follow-up actions to be the biggest barrier to the success of their employee listening programs. In other words, organizations are eagerly looking for a way to quickly and easily convert their wealth of insights into meaningful action, by influencing behaviors and creating positive habits at every level in the organization so true and lasting change can happen.

Activate does this via two core elements: AI-Assisted Action Planning and Intelligent Nudging. These are designed not merely to guide and assist managers, but to transform the workplace by enabling all employees to actualize feedback into tangible improvement. In this article, we’ll explore how they work in tandem to drive measurably superior business outcomes.

AI-Assisted Action Planning: A Beacon for Managers

The traditional approach to translating employee feedback into action plans is a taxing process that often places additional burden on already overburdened managers. Research shows that even when managers have access to focused insights, only a fraction — roughly 1 in 5 — actually engage in the process of action planning, and even fewer execute these plans effectively as the pressure of daily responsibilities creeps in. Activate breaks this pattern with AI-assisted Action Planning, helping managers to quickly create plans based on the unique feedback of their team, and access recommended actions aligned to their specific organizational goals and priorities.

Managers remain in control, with the ability to customize these plans, set commitments and goals, and involve their teams in a cohesive, ongoing action strategy. It's through this customization that each manager can make the plan their own, adapting it to their personal priorities and the unique needs of their team.

Intelligent Nudging: Encouraging Action in the Flow of Work

Intelligent Nudging is the second pillar of Activate, delivering the ‘how’ of taking action. Comprising behavior-based prompts rooted in scientific research, these nudges are seamlessly delivered within your team’s natural daily workflow, whether it be through email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, or other communication platforms, ensuring managers can readily implement recommended actions.

Yet where other approaches to action and action planning only focus on the manager, Activate can engage the entire employee population to co-create the conditions for success through better habits and behaviors. By inspiring employees to join in the effort to take action on collective feedback, not only do they see a clear signal that their manager — and the organization — are listening, but their involvement ensures change is both lasting and impactful. And through their effort, overburdened managers’ workloads are reduced.     

Nudges are personalized to each individual's role, level, and function within the company. Further, they are not delivered according to a static program; the Perceptyx AI adapts in real-time to reflect the latest insights and feedback, ensuring the nudges people receive remain relevant and timely. This real-time adaptation is crucial for maintaining the effectiveness of nudges, keeping them aligned with both the employees' and the organization's evolving objectives.

To put this in the context of a specific example, say an organization identifies through listening that their managers need additional support to help their teams navigate a period of significant organizational change and unite the culture around the company’s newly stated vision and mission. Activate addresses the problem by tackling it from all angles:

• First, it provides the manager with a proposed action plan to help with change management, including steps to build emotional intelligence, communicate empathy, and foster a sense of psychological safety across their teams. 
• The manager can customize the plan, make commitments, set goals, and involve team members in taking positive, collaborative action as well.
• As the plan rolls out, the manager receives intelligent nudges with detailed guidance on actions they can take in support of change management and clarity of vision — for example, using upcoming team or 1:1 meetings to reinforce messages about the company’s future plans and engage team members in conversations about how their individual efforts contribute to organizational success. Nudges are personalized to the manager’s own priorities,  job level, or function, and updated in real-time in line with the latest insights. 
• Additionally, each employee in the department will receive their own relevant nudges tied to navigating change, as well as their own personal priorities for future growth, thus activating all employees.
• The manager tracks progress against the plan in their own dashboard. Meanwhile, HR leaders can see how the organization as a whole is engaging with the nudges, discover which themes are most important to employees, and track progress against the company-wide action plan.

The Power of Intelligent Nudges: Driving Success

Intelligent Nudges are far from arbitrary reminders; they are intricately designed based on Nobel-prize-winning research to facilitate essential behavior changes at scale, propelling organizational transformation and success. In fact, they are more than twice as effective as traditional training methods in instigating lasting behavioral change, with a reported 51% increase in long-term efficacy.

The insights provided by Perceptyx are not limited to general feedback but extend into critical areas such as career development and the perception of long-term opportunities within the organization, which are significant factors in employee retention and can be impacted by sustainability-forward messaging. Research from Perceptyx has shown that focusing on career development and providing clear career pathways and a sense of overall mission are more effective in retaining employees than compensation alone.

In one study, 96% of recipients reported that nudges drove noticeable positive change for leaders. Nudges were also 51% more effective in creating lasting behavior change than traditional training.

Closing the Loop: Action, Engagement, and Impact

Activate bridges the gap that has long existed between gathering insights and delivering impact through people initiatives.  For instance, Perceptyx's data reveals that customers using nudges experience a 20% improvement in key behaviors in as few as six months, with sustained impact on essential business metrics after 12 to 18 months.

Activate is effective because it doesn't merely prompt managers with more recommendations and reminders; it sparks a dynamic, adaptive cycle of continuous improvement. Progress is measurable in real-time via intuitive dashboards, offering managers a clear view of their team's advancement against action plans, while HR leaders gain a macro perspective of the entire organization's engagement and development.

Empowerment Through Innovation: The Perceptyx Activate Edge

Activate is the critical missing link for HR leaders looking to drive change and deliver impact. It empowers managers, involves every employee, and propels organizations toward their key business and talent priorities with unprecedented efficiency and impact.

As organizations increasingly recognize the direct connection between employee experience and core business objectives like innovation, customer satisfaction, and financial performance, Activate is positioned as an indispensable ally. Perceptyx’s State of Employee Listening 2024 report further validates this, revealing that organizations with mature listening programs are 6x more likely to exceed their financial targets and 9x more likely to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction.

Perceptyx Can Help You Activate All of Your People

With the integration of AI-Assisted Action Planning and science-backed Intelligent Nudges in Activate, Perceptyx’s People Insights Platform provides a powerful lever to transform employee experience and achieve business objectives.

In the pursuit of turning feedback into action, and action into habit, Perceptyx can assist in activating your people to unlock the full potential of your workforce. For those ready to revolutionize their action planning and employee engagement, Perceptyx is ready to assist. Schedule a meeting with a member of the Perceptyx team today and begin the journey to a more responsive, empowered, and aligned organizational culture.