The importance of listening to your employees (part three: Vevox)
This month, we have focused our blogs on the topic of listening to our employees, on inviting and gathering their feelings and feedback, and on the cruciality of acting on what is being said.
In part one, we listed ten good reasons why this really matters, and we shared some eye-watering stats that outline just how much room there is for improvement across UK businesses.
In part two, we shared ten tips for improving the active listening capabilities of your organisation, from showing empathy and respect to embracing appropriate technologies and digital channels.
There is one such digital channel that we like so much at Comms Guru, we’ve decided to partner with them. We have used Vevox in one way or another with many of our clients over the past few years, and it really is an outstanding way of giving employees a voice, regardless of their location, and collecting views, thoughts, feelings and feedback.
From live polling, interactive Q&A functionality, quizzes, and surveys to detailed analytics and seamless integration with the most commonly used business software and platforms, we are yet to find a simpler and more robust way to give a voice to a population.
One of Vevox’s most powerful functionalities is to offer an anonymous Q&A platform. The anonymity feature can be switched on or off to suit the business need and the purpose, tone and style of the session, but nothing increases participation and transparency like people being able to ask the questions they’re otherwise too afraid to ask, or share their most honest and uninhibited thoughts, feelings, and suggestions. (Of course, questions and comments can be moderated before wider publication by a host if that is required).
Vevox also allows employees to “like” each other’s questions or comments, in the style of social media postings, so that leaders can really gauge what is on the minds of their collective people, which views are widely held, which suggestions are popular, or which fears or concerns are trending.
We have frequently used this during town halls and ‘Let’s Talk’ sessions with senior leadership teams and at conferences with some of our largest clients. It really does give a direct line to those leaders to each and every employee with a computer, tablet or smartphone, whether they’re in the same room (or country!) or not. Leaders can answer questions or respond to feedback in real time, tackling the most popular ones first, ensuring that every voice is heard. If required, these questions and answers can also be recorded and shared after the event for anyone who couldn’t make it.
Similarly, organisations can collect the feedback and insights they need though Vevox’s live polling function. Easy to put together, launch, run, and analyse, the function is also versatile, offering multiple choice options, open text boxes, star ratings, rankings, and fancier options like wordcloud polls, XY plots and even place-a-pin-on-the-image polling. Poll results can be displayed and shared instantaneously for real-time reaction and discussion, but all data can also be downloaded as a report afterwards for closer inspection, wider publication, and archiving. And as with the Q&A function, the level of anonymity on offer can be tailored to suit.
This also opens up quizzing and survey options, all fully “bespokeable” (how is that not a word yet?!) and all designed to maximise engagement and participation, giving your people the voice they crave and providing you with as much information and insight as you can handle.
Do you believe that every person in your workforce feels they have a voice that is heard? Does everyone have the opportunity to feedback to their most senior leaders, to express how they are feeling and to make suggestions? Are they also able to see how their colleagues are feeling, and add their support to co-workers’ suggestions, views, or feedback?
Are you able to make your town halls and conferences truly interactive? Can you gather opinions and approvals for announcements as you make them? And collect feedback in real time? Can you empower everyone with a smartphone in your audience to have a say, make a suggestion, ask or answer a question, or take a quiz at the push of a button? The power of Vevox is in its simplicity as well as its versatility.
In these tricky times of conscious quitting, maximising engagement and a sense of belonging across our workforce, and focusing on the employee experience we offer could not be more important. And listening to our people, and showing that we’re listening to our people, are incredibly important pieces of that jigsaw. If your current internal comms strategy doesn’t put that kind of emphasis on active listening, then you’re risking an awful lot. And if you’re not sure that it is, we’d love to come and help you check it out.
View Paul Heaton, our MD, talk about our partnership with Vevox below.