7 ways employee listening drives productivity

Simply put, employee listening is crucial - especially if you want to have or want to retain your already productive workforce.

But why? Well, regular surveys help understand how employees feel and uncover trends in productivity levels, and actively engaging with your workforce highlights their needs, concerns, and ideas, fostering an inclusive, empowering culture. This boosts morale, engagement, and overall productivity. And it's this ongoing feedback loop that serves two purposes – resolving issues promptly and making employees feel valued and connected.

Engaged employees are not only happier in their roles but also 23% more profitable and 18% more productive than their disengaged counterparts (Sigmar Recruitment, 2023)

Here, we explore seven ways employee listening drives productivity in organisations:

Enables a holistic understanding of employees

Enables a comprehensive understanding of employees’ perspectives, needs and aspirations. By delving into these insights, organisations can forge stronger connections with their workforce, encouraging empathy and tailoring strategies that align with employees' aspirations and drive meaningful engagement.

Uncovers in-depth insights

Uncovers invaluable insights about employees' preferred learning methods and the key drivers behind their motivation. This helps understand which strategies can create a culture of perpetual learning and sustained motivation within the organisation.

Empowers team development

Acts as a catalyst, sparking collaborative efforts to implement skills training, specialised workshops and targeted programmes aimed at addressing knowledge gaps and creating professional growth. This proactive approach not only identifies areas for improvement but also creates an environment of continuous development.

Encourages individual development

Employee listening also empowers the creation of enhanced programmes and systems tailored to meet the needs of individuals. This capability facilitates the development of customised initiatives and operational frameworks aimed at providing optimal support, thereby developing a more responsive and adaptive environment that nurtures individual success and collective growth.

Empowers middle managers

Identifies opportunities to empower middle managers, enabling them to cultivate and lead hyper-productive teams effectively. This process equips managers with the skills, support and autonomy needed to inspire and lead teams toward exceptional levels of productivity, efficiency and success.

Drives improvements across leadership

Allows leaders across various departments and levels of seniority to implement incremental improvements consistently. This empowers them to make strategic, targeted changes that contribute to the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the organisation's operations.

Eliminates barriers for enhanced efficiency

Removes identified barriers, whether stemming from process inefficiencies, workflow bottlenecks or individual challenges. This proactive approach actively fosters a conducive work environment, enhancing operational efficiency and enabling a highly productive workforce to consistently achieve optimal outcomes.

This article contains a segment from our eBook, Unleashing employee potential and productivity through engagement, which offers proactive solutions to empower HR leaders to strategically reposition employee engagement as a catalyst for driving productivity and performance. Download the eBook here.