Are you listening yet?

Last night my youngest son and I were at Wembley to watch Harry Styles. One of my absolute favourite thing to do, live music!

Harry opened the evening with a song called - Are you listening yet? - And I thought I’d turn that into a post about employee engagement and the importance of listening initiatives and giving opportunities to hear the employee voice.

There are so many different ways for an organisation to listen, which can range from strategic initiatives to more informal day to day interactions.

In the case of the latter, if you’re a manager, it can be as simple as actively listening in team meetings or one to ones - I remember in one of my very first roles in HR we were based in very new and shiny offices which were floor to ceiling glass. Whenever my manager met one to one with me, they were totally distracted by what was going on the other side of the glass and consequently as a junior member of staff, I felt there was absolutely no interest in what I was contributing to the meeting and I didn’t feel valued.

But at the other end of the scale, there are more targeted, strategic initiatives such as including a small number of questions in the annual employee engagement survey to gauge how you are doing in this area , or the use of focus groups and other similar mechanisms to provide opportunities.

Like Harry asked - Are you listening yet? If you are, your employees will feel like they have a voice, and in turn they will feel like they belong, which in my book is priceless. If you are not, you’re missing a golden thread.