Move From Listening to Action: 6 Strategies to Drive Meaningful Change

What separates the most sought-after employers from the rest? What enables them to consistently turn their people into a strategic advantage?

At Perceptyx, we’ve spent more than two decades studying what the best-performing organizations do differently. Building on those insights, we continuously evolve our partnerships with many of the world’s leading brands to address the changing needs of their people and the dynamic environments in which they operate. Through this work, we’ve uncovered the patterns that set exceptional employee experiences apart. Here’s the biggest insight: it starts with listening, but it can’t stop there!

The real differentiator is action — specifically, the ability to take employee feedback and translate it into visible, meaningful change. When organizations act on what they hear, they not only improve internal culture and engagement but also respond more effectively to customer needs. Employees, after all, are on the front lines. Their experiences and insights often mirror those of your people, who are at the heart of your organization's success.

While acting on employee feedback is critical to meeting the evolving needs of your workforce — and your customers — many companies struggle to follow through. They gather valuable insights but fail to convert them into sustained change. In fact, Perceptyx research shows that employees who observe tangible actions coming out of a listening event are nearly 2.5x more likely to record improvements in engagement vs. those who do not.

The six strategies described below are core practices of today's most admired and high-impact workplaces — those that consistently take meaningful action and inspire lasting behavior change.

What Should Organizations Focus on First When Taking Action?

Successful listening and action programs don't operate in isolation. Leading organizations connect their listening strategies directly to key business outcomes like retention, customer focus, or enterprise transformation. When employees — and leaders — clearly see how their feedback supports broader business objectives, they're more likely to engage in the process and champion the resulting efforts.

Organizations that truly excel at driving actions are intentional about prioritizing. They start by aligning with enterprise-wide priorities, but they go further — empowering leaders at every level to know where to focus and how to prioritize based on their team's unique needs. Equally important, they help leaders identify what to deprioritize, so they can focus their time and energy on what will make the greatest impact.

Perceptyx's Activate solution, including AI-assisted action plans, helps ensure that every leader is making progress on the things that matter most. These plans surface timely, measurable, and relevant actions — keeping leaders aligned with organizational goals while helping them move forward with clarity.

How Can Organizations Democratize Both Insights and Action?

Transparency around listening results is essential. High-impact organizations cascade those results across all levels of the business, including frontline employees. Doing so helps every individual understand how their work group — and the organization as a whole — is performing.

But sharing data isn't enough. The best companies involve employees in co-creating solutions. Whether it's through leadership roundtables, cross-functional teams, or real-time crowdsourcing, employees play an active role in addressing issues and shaping improvements. This might include solving problems tied to productivity, career development, or soliciting employee feedback around how to best support an ongoing transformation.

When employees are part of the solution, their buy-in and commitment to the outcome dramatically increase. That's what makes this step so powerful. As our 2025 State of Employee Listening research found, organizations with mature listening programs are 6x more likely to exceed their financial targets than those without.

Why Does Organizational Agility Matter for Employee Experience?

Because the priorities of your business can rapidly shift, those most effective at driving action stay agile. They quickly interpret employee feedback and respond in real time, adapting their strategies as business needs evolve. This agility is reactive, not intentional. It comes from embedding employee listening into the rhythm of business operations, empowering managers with timely insights, and creating feedback loops that support ongoing learning and improvement.

Consider the experience of a leading regional financial institution that faced the challenge of maintaining cultural cohesion through multiple mergers and acquisitions. As their CHRO explained, "Culture is so nuanced. When CEOs talk about cultural compatibility during mergers, it can often be overstated. There are invariably going to be differences in cultures, regardless of similarity."

The bank implemented a comprehensive listening strategy that included post-merger pulse surveys, sentiment analysis, and geographic integration monitoring. This approach revealed critical insights that traditional channels missed. "We thought our People challenges, such as retention, were only in our wholesale banks, but the reality is they were in our frontline and branches as well," the CHRO said. By staying agile and responsive to employee feedback, they discovered technology gaps that were impacting productivity. For example, employees from the acquired institution had lost access to innovative tools like DocuSign that made their jobs easier.

The organization's swift response demonstrated the power of agility. They reprioritized their technology roadmap based on employee feedback, reinstating critical tools within months. "The most powerful thing we heard is, 'You listened. You leveraged this information and did something with it," the CHRO said. This responsiveness not only improved engagement and retention but also became part of their M&A playbook for future acquisitions. In these organizations where listening is embedded in business rhythm, action becomes habitual, not a one-off initiative.

Why Is Communication Critical to Sustaining Change?

Taking action is critical, but it's not enough if no one notices. Without strong communication, even good changes can go unseen and unappreciated.

Closing the loop is how organizations build credibility. When leaders reinforce what they've learned through employee feedback — and explain the changes they've made in response — employees are more likely to feel heard and respected. A simple "you said, we did" narrative goes a long way.

Employees don't expect perfection. What they do expect is transparency and follow-through. Organizations should aim to make employees part of the solution by recognizing their role in the changes being made. For example, being able to say, "You told us this process was slow and inefficient, and employees from across departments worked together to improve it," helps reinforce trust and ownership in the new solution.

According to our research, 41% of organizations say taking action is the biggest barrier to a successful listening program. Clear communication about actions taken helps overcome this barrier by making change visible.

How Can Organizations Build a Culture of Continuous Listening and Action?

Mature organizations are intentional about embedding listening throughout the employee lifecycle, which extends from candidate experience to onboarding, work anniversaries, and all the way to exit and beyond. This helps ensure they're capturing feedback at the moments that matter most. Our 2025 research shows that 75% of organizations now listen to employees at least quarterly, compared to just 18% surveying more than once per year a decade ago.

But listening alone isn't what sets these companies apart. What makes the world's most desirable workplaces different is their ability to move quickly and intentionally.

The best organizations ensure leaders and teams get access to data in real time, often within two weeks, so they can take relevant, coordinated action while the insights are still fresh. That speed, combined with a purpose-driven approach to acting on feedback, helps organizations stay prepared for whatever comes next. Our research shows that organizations that bridge the gap between listening and acting see improvements in engagement, leadership perception, and business outcomes.

How Can Technology Help Activate All Employees in Support of Change?

Change is more successful — and more sustainable — when everyone plays a role.

Perceptyx's Intelligent Nudging takes action planning beyond the traditional bottom-up model. Instead of placing the full burden on managers, nudges deliver science-backed prompts to all employees across the organization. These personalized messages encourage small, meaningful steps that contribute to broader goals.

This approach empowers employees at all levels to take ownership of their own experience, while still aligning with leadership direction. For example, when driving change, senior leaders and managers might receive nudges guiding them to take specific actions commensurate with their level and influence in the organization, while individual contributors receive related nudges focused on their role in the change. This shared sense of purpose and responsibility creates stronger alignment and greater momentum.

The result is faster, more scalable, and more sustainable progress. By embedding nudges into listening and action strategies, organizations distribute accountability while reinforcing continuous improvement — so employees feel heard and empowered to shape a better workplace. In fact, organizations using this approach have seen double-digit increases in engagement scores within six months.

What's the Path Forward for Organizations Ready to Drive Real Change?

The journey from listening to action is all about fundamentally transforming how your organization responds to employee feedback. When you combine focused priorities, democratized insights, organizational agility, continuous listening, strategic communication, and technology-enabled activation, you create an ecosystem where change is not only possible but inevitable.

Ready to transform your listening strategy into measurable action? Download our comprehensive Transformation & Change Guidebook to discover how leading organizations are bridging the gap between insights and impact. 

Want to see how our AI-powered platform can help you drive meaningful change at scale? Schedule a demo with our team. For more insights on building action-oriented employee experiences,   subscribe to our blog.