Employee Listening: Better Decisions Amid Disruption

Every week, a new workforce trend dominates the headlines. Leaders and HR professionals scramble to respond, often without the internal data to know whether those trends even apply to their organizations. Organizations that align listening strategies with business priorities are far more likely to connect employee feedback to business outcomes, yet most still rely on external narratives instead of their own employee insights. That gap between headline and reality is where the biggest leadership mistakes happen.

Why is "it depends" the most useful lesson for HR leaders?

Drawing on those experiences, there’s one essential lesson that has stood the test of time. Early in my career, one of my mentors told me, “The right answer to almost every question you will be asked as a consultant is ‘it depends.’” As unpopular as that advice may be, it’s essential. There is no single right answer. The issues and challenges are complicated, organizations are complicated, and leaders are complicated. There is very rarely any single approach or solution that will work in every situation.

Why don't workforce trend headlines tell the full story?

Throughout the workweek, leaders and HR professionals will pick up the paper or scroll their newsfeeds. While doing this, they will find themselves inundated with headlines about the latest workforce trends. For example, as we all adjusted to long-term remote work or sorted out a rushed return-to-office strategy, everyone read about “The New Normal.” Then we started to see headlines about “The Great Resignation.” Pretty soon, those intrepid souls who stayed with their organizations were informed they were paying “The Loyalty Tax.” Recently, I pulled a headline from The Wall Street Journal that read “If Your Quiet Quitting is Going Well, You Might Be Getting ‘Quiet Fired.’”

These phrases are catchy and effective at creating a sense of urgency, but they don't always tell the whole story or reflect what's going on in every organization. Annually taking stock of employee sentiment is no longer sufficient to keep pace with these rapidly shifting narratives. Without a continuous stream of internal data, leaders are left reacting to someone else's story instead of understanding their own.

Of course, there’s a good bit of truth and in most cases some reasonable data supporting each of those headlines. Headlines capture real trends, but leaders must resist acting on them without first testing whether those trends apply to their own organization.

When it comes to the question of what we should do about the problems highlighted in these headlines, the answer will always be, “It depends.”

What context do leaders need beyond the headlines?

What exactly does the answer depend on? What kind of context do we need to inform the right approach and the right action for your organization?

1. The headlines provide insight into the external context — what macro trends are we seeing in the economy, labor market, political climate, and so forth. What are the risks we should be aware of? What are other organizations seeing? I spend a lot of time clarifying and quantifying these trends for the organizations I consult with.

2. But leaders and HR professionals also bring insight into the internal context — what is the culture of your organization? What are your strategic priorities and business needs? What are you trying to achieve? The approach we take to addressing the issues making headlines should align with the internal business and talent strategy.

3. In addition to those contextual factors, we need data to make informed decisions about how we respond. We need data that tells us what is specifically driving turnover, shaping hybrid work preferences, or affecting manager effectiveness in our organization. What is driving turnover for your employees during the “Great Resignation? How do they feel about returning to the office, working remotely, or adopting a hybrid approach as we think about what the ”New Normal” should look like for your unique organization? This data piece is so often missing, and not usually because we don’t have enough data, but because we don’t have the right data or aren’t using our data effectively. The fix starts with defining clear business objectives before designing any listening event, then directing analysis toward areas where actionable steps can be clearly defined.

How are organizations actually using employee listening data?

Our State of Employee Listening research found that 94% of organizations have an employee listening program of some kind. Almost everyone is listening, and they are listening more than ever before. 3 out of 4 organizations indicated they are listening more now than they were a year ago.

However, only 40% say they are using this listening data to inform company decisions. Organizations are collecting a lot of data, but they are not using it as effectively as they could or should. Part of the problem is that many organizations still rely on a single annual survey to capture employee sentiment. In a period of continuous disruption, that approach leaves leaders with a months-old snapshot when they need real-time clarity. A continuous listening strategy, one that combines pulse surveys, lifecycle check-ins, and ongoing analytics, closes the gap between collecting data and acting on it.

What are those 40% getting right?

What differentiates the 40% of organizations that indicated listening data was being used to inform decisions from those that indicated it wasn’t?

One key difference was the topics they asked about and measured.

Everyone wants to know about Engagement, Culture, DEIB, and Well-Being. Those are now table stakes in high-level organizational discussions. All leaders want to know how their employees are feeling in general.

Those organizations that use listening to inform decisions were more likely to ask the hard questions on more specific topics related to the things their leaders read about in the headlines. This includes questions related to social justice, new benefits in response to the pandemic, ongoing adaptation to change management, remote and hybrid work, and the effectiveness of their communication strategies. Equally important, these organizations track leading indicators that let them address retention risks and engagement drops before they appear in lagging turnover data. Once they have the data in hand, they can make the necessary adjustments quickly rather than months after a problem has already taken hold.

How does strategic listening improve business performance?

The data shows that strategic listening produces measurable results. According to Perceptyx's State of Employee Listening report, organizations that use listening data to guide decisions report stronger performance across customer metrics, financial outcomes, innovation, agility, and retention of highly engaged employees.

Leaders must treat employee surveys as a core decision-making tool, not a compliance exercise.

Our library of case studies shows how our most strategic and mature customers have employed listening to optimize business outcomes:

• Principal Financial Group used employee crowdsourcing to quickly gather insights across its 18,500-person organization at the height of the pandemic.

• Cengage Group has used census survey data to guide important conversations about manager effectiveness, individual employee development and succession planning, DEI, and compensation.

Why do employees need a voice during organizational disruption?

When the pandemic began and many of our customers were trying to sort out how to keep their employees safe and support them while they worked from home, our consulting team came together and laid out a plan to help these organizations.

We started putting together survey content to help leaders get the insights that they needed from employees at that moment to make the hard decisions with which they were now tasked. We offered COVID response, safety and remote work surveys to all of our customers for free. Many of these surveys deployed in less than 24 hours, and many customers deployed multiple surveys during that time. We didn’t hear about survey fatigue. What we heard was how grateful our customers’ employees were for the opportunity to provide feedback and have a voice as critical decisions were being made on their behalf.

That experience reinforced a principle that leading organizations have since adopted: short, focused listening events, even just two or three targeted questions at a time, can sustain an ongoing dialogue without overwhelming employees. When the questions are relevant and employees see their feedback drive real decisions, participation stays high.

Much as leaders need insight from employees, employees need to feel heard. They need to have a voice during times of disruption. These are the moments that matter most to them. Research from the Workforce Institute at UKG found that 74% of employees are more effective in their work when they feel heard, reinforcing that listening is a performance strategy, not just a retention one.

A recent Gartner study found that when employees felt heard, they were twice as likely to stay with the organization. But of those employees who didn’t feel heard or didn't believe that their perspectives were taken into consideration by leaders, 42% reported that they intend to leave in the next year.

How does employee listening help leaders move beyond the headlines?

As leaders, we can’t pick up the paper and assume the daily headlines and their latest trend stories provide an adequate understanding of the problems facing our organizations. The media will tempt us to be reactive and rush to solve problems, but it’s critical that we put those headlines into context and take informed actions.

Listening to employees and giving them a voice during disruption directly predicts retention. A Gartner study found that employees who feel heard are twice as likely to stay. Leaders who act on that feedback during uncertain moments build the organizational trust that sustains performance.

Don't just ask how employees are doing. Be intentional: start with a specific business problem, define the outcomes you need to measure, and choose the listening channel that reaches the right audience. Whatever the next headline might be, the way you should respond will depend on what’s going on in your organization and what your people are telling you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is employee listening?

Employee listening is the ongoing process of collecting feedback from employees to understand their needs, concerns, and experiences at work. Organizations do this through surveys, pulse checks, and other feedback channels. The goal is to use that data to make better decisions about the workplace, not just to gather responses and file them away.

What is a continuous employee listening strategy?

A continuous employee listening strategy replaces the once-a-year survey with an ongoing feedback process. Instead of waiting 12 months to ask employees how they feel, organizations collect feedback regularly through pulse surveys, lifecycle surveys, and other channels. This lets leaders spot problems early and respond before issues grow. Annual surveys alone can miss fast-moving shifts in employee sentiment, especially during periods of organizational change, when what employees need can shift week to week.

Why do organizations collect employee feedback but not use it?

Perceptyx's State of Employee Listening research found that 94% of organizations run some form of employee listening program, but only 40% say they use that data to inform decisions. The gap usually comes down to three problems: teams collect data without first defining a business question they want to answer, the listening tool isn't connected to the decision-making process, and managers don't receive clear guidance on what to do with results. Listening programs that tie feedback to specific business goals and assign clear follow-up ownership are far more likely to produce action.