The fight for success is tough. The battlefield is always changing. It is of great importance to not only keep a keen eye at what the competition does. It is crucial to have a grasp of the mood of your ranks. Because they win the battles.
In short:
- Traditional engagement surveys reveal long-term trends, but they must be paired with real action. Measuring alone isn’t enough to drive employee experience.
- Frequent pulse checks and real-time feedback loops help identify burning issues, especially for priority groups like new hires and top talent.
- Continuous dialogue and a culture of listening are essential to building trust, improving engagement, and strengthening collaboration across the organization.
- DEVELOR encourages organizations to reassess their feedback strategy, asking whether they foster open communication, respond effectively, and truly understand their people.
Measuring employee engagement has been around for decades. Responsible leaders measure the current level of engagement of their employees, in most cases with standardized questionnaires, to make trends visible. Does this approach still work with the employee experience in focus? It does, partially.
Trends are important
We do not recommend the discontinuation of measuring employee engagement. It has its use and importance. On one hand, long-term trends are important indicators for company management and HR, on the other hand, they provide deep insight into certain operations of the company. Multi-question standard surveys for deep measurement of the current state bring value, especially if the results can be utilized by the management. This means matching the data collection and analysis with a top-notch management review, action planning and especially implementation excellence. It is a common problem though that even when the company gets to the workshops and focus group discussions on the results, they are unable to target the identified causes of the problems or implement the developed action plans. This could be considered worse than not doing anything.
Burning issues as well (or more so?)
The present and future success rely on continuous dialogue besides the rare deep analyzes. It means ongoing frequent communication through pulse checks based on a narrow set of questions. Most often, the particular mood, workload and Employee NPS (eNPS) are measured, giving the population the opportunity to explain their suggestions and problems in the text. This (also anonymous) survey series is usually run weekly or bi-weekly, but there are even those who propose daily dialogues.
In case of priority target groups such as talents, high-potentials or those in the onboarding phase, HR is also looking for feedback to the talent management program or the induction training.
The introduction of such a system is not only an important and relevant regular feedback to the company’s management but an important building block and driver for a feedback culture and stronger collaboration. However, there is an important prerequisite for the company’s openness to feedback, its ability to not only KNOW AND TELL but also to LISTEN AND UNDERSTAND.
Employee experience aims to maximize the engagement of the labour force during the entire employee journey including both candidate and employee journeys. One of the best tools is the frequent pulse check and immediate reaction to the burning issues and longer trends.
In an uncertain world, we need tools to make it more stable. A continuous dialogue with the staff can be one of those initiatives management has to do.
Update your battle plan!
Look at your current practice with 3 simple questions below. Go ahead and change what needs to be changed! In the end, it is the success at the end that counts!
- Is there a continuous dialogue in place within our ranks?
- Do we encourage openness to feedback in both ways – giving and receiving?
- How can we improve the quality of action taken after the findings?
Revisit the way you check the state of your troops. Make sure you ALWAYS know what is going on!
Frequently asked questions about employee experience and feedback culture
Employee engagement surveys are useful because they show long-term trends and give management a structured view of the employee experience. However, they are not enough on their own if the organization only collects data and does not act on the results. Employees can quickly lose trust when surveys are followed by workshops, focus groups or action plans that never lead to visible change. This can make the situation worse, because people feel they were asked for input but not truly heard. For HR and L&D professionals, the real value of engagement measurement comes from connecting survey insights to management review, clear priorities and strong implementation.
Pulse checks can improve employee experience by giving organizations more frequent insight into the current mood, workload, concerns and expectations of employees. Unlike larger annual surveys, pulse checks focus on a smaller number of questions and can highlight burning issues before they become bigger problems. They are especially useful for priority groups such as new hires, talents or high-potential employees, where timely feedback can improve onboarding, retention and development. Pulse checks also support a stronger feedback culture because they create a habit of continuous dialogue between employees, HR and management. For organizations, the key is to respond quickly and meaningfully, so employees see that their feedback leads to action.
Companies can build a stronger feedback culture by creating regular opportunities for people to share honest input and by showing that feedback is taken seriously. This requires more than asking questions; leaders and HR teams must be willing to listen, understand the root causes behind the answers and act on what they learn. A strong feedback culture also depends on psychological safety, because employees are more likely to speak openly when they trust that their comments will not lead to negative consequences. Frequent pulse checks, employee listening tools, focus groups and transparent follow-up can all support this process. For HR and L&D professionals, feedback culture is an important part of employee experience because it strengthens trust, collaboration, engagement and retention.
