If Employee Engagement Isn’t Improving, Start Here

Contents

The patterns that hold organisations back

Why the gap matters more than ever

Make the first investment in better listening

The majority of organisations do some kind of employee listening, but far fewer get the full benefit of it. In a typical organisation, employee surveys are sent out, dashboards are reviewed, engagement appears on the board agenda – and drops off again! Leaving HR leaders still feel that something isn’t quite landing.

Participation is falling, action planning is patchy, and employees remain sceptical about whether feedback really drives change. We know from our work with hundreds of organisations that it’s usually not the listening that holds organisations back! It’s everything that happens afterwards.

In this short article we’re looking at how HR can make sure employee listening is followed through – and where the root causes of poor engagement may lie.

The patterns that hold organisations back

Our Customer Success and Data Science teams repeatedly see a few common patterns emerge after employee listening exercises:

• Firstly, there’s performative listening where leadership commitment and strategy are strong, but manager capability and action-taking lag behind. Employees hear the right messages, but don’t see tangible change in their day-to-day experience. Expectations are raised, but not met.
• Then there’s the hero manager effect. In these organisations engagement thrives in pockets because one exceptional manager takes ownership, while other teams struggle. The success of employee listening exercises becomes personality-dependent rather than systematic.
• Finally, we see the echo chamber effect where leaders believe listening is working well, but employee perception tells a different story! Communication flows, but the connection between feedback and visible action isn’t clear.

In each of these scenarios, organisations are investing in listening but not getting the most from its impact, leaving a gap between good intent and action.

Why the gap matters more than ever

Listening gaps are amplified in today’s workforce where deskless, distributed and hybrid employees are prevalent.

These employees are often physically and psychologically distant from leadership and a large proportion may not have regular access to email, or a laptop and they may rely heavily on line managers for communication.

When people are hard to reach and their voice is missed, we see the engagement drops, attrition rises, productivity and customer experience suffer and trust in leadership is eroded.

In short, if your listening strategy isn’t designed for your working model, you’re likely missing out on critical insight from your people.

But, before changing anything, the most important question is: How well are we listening right now?

Which is why we created the WorkBuzz Employee Listening Barometer.

Designed by our in-house People Science team, the Employee Listening Barometer is a short, robust self-assessment that helps HR leaders gauge the strength of their listening strategy across strategy alignment, leadership buy-in, manager capability, employee perception and action-taking.

It takes just seven minutes to complete. You won’t just receive a simple ranking or score, you’ll get:

• Your overall Barometer reading
• A breakdown across the core components of effective listening
• Tailored, practical advice on what to prioritise next

Whether you’re at an early stage or have a mature programme in place, the Barometer helps you identify blind spots and focus your effort where it will make the greatest impact.

Make the first investment in better listening

Take the Employee Listening Barometer now and make the first investment in strengthening employee voice, wherever work takes place.