Employee Feedback Programs Are Programs

Employee feedback programs are programs that are developed for companies to gather feedback from employees, whether negative or positive, and give them a chance to have their voice heard. These programs help to keep the employee satisfaction level high and to ensure employee loyalty and a high employee retention rate. Employee feedback programs have been documented to increase the involvement of employees in the organization as well as positively impacting the morale of the employees. It clearly shows the employees that the company and its management value their opinion and that they are an integral part of the company and they contribute greatly to the effective performance of the company and the company's productivity as well. Even though the employees' feedback may not be particularly useful in the company and achieving results, it is the thought that counts. The fact that employees are given the voice makes them feel exceedingly important and they will appreciate their jobs better and work harder to keep their jobs and in turn, the company's productivity will increase Roseman et al. 1()

When the company employees are happy, it becomes easier to maintain the members of the organization. In this way, the company is able to save the huge costs associated with hiring new members of staff for the company. The introduction of an employee feedback program can help a company improve their employee satisfaction, develop strategies for monitoring employee relations and increase the visibility of employees in the organization since the decision-making process will reflect upon the feedback given by the employees. There are also the disadvantages that a company suffers from when they fail to incorporate an employee feedback program. One is that the employee retention rate will be low since they feel unsatisfied and undervalued Hirschman 51()

Background of the study

There are many benefits of an employee feedback program. One of the benefits is that the employees develop loyalty towards the company or organization since they feel like part of a family and not just a team and they gain a deeper understanding of how valuable they are to the organization. Secondly, employee feedback programs are low cost solutions to gathering of employee feedback, opinions on policies and decision, proposals on strategic direction, cost-saving tactics, career development and much more. Thirdly, employee feedback programs help to ease the work load on the minds of employees by showing them that the company is sensitive and cares about their opinion. Fourth is that the employees become relaxed and settled in the company since they feel an assurance that the issues affecting them have been spelt out and will be addressed when the feedback is analyzed. According to an article published in the GALLUP Management Journal, employee surveys help to increase the satisfaction of employees, reduce turnover of the company and improve the efficiency of employees Earl, Lampe and Buksin 1()

The lack of a proper employee feedback program has several negative effects. One is that the employees feel frustrated by their jobs and undervalued. They do not see any channels of communication between them and the company's executives or management. Secondly, it can lead to a lower employee satisfaction and thus the employee retention rate will be low Gomez-Mejia, Balkin and Cardy 27()

There are several ways by which employee feedback is collected. One is the use of surveys. These can be paper surveys or electronic surveys. By conducting a general survey to help employees voice out their opinions, the management receives adequate support and other benefits. Generally, electronic surveys are better since they are easy to compile, can be filled in at any time and without disclosing personally identifiable information and can be easy to analyze and report. Paper surveys are better for companies with smaller numbers of employees since they are inexpensive Bogardus 61()

Another way by which employee feedback can be collected is the use of employee feedback meetings. This is where the management team holds frequent meetings with the company employees to hear their opinions on the various activities of the organization or other aspects that have adverse effects on them in their day-to-day business. The focus and tone of the meeting should be controlled by the management, however, the employees should be allowed to ask questions and the management should be ready to answer them fully. If the question is found to be off-topic, it should be reserved for a different meeting which is appropriate for that kind of question Staw, Sutton and Pelled 53()

This is a study that attempts to find if the presence of an employee feedback program in a company helps the management team and company executives to improve the operation of the business.

Purpose of the study

There are many benefits accrued from the use of employee feedback programs. Similarly for companies which lack employee feedback programs, they suffer huge disadvantages. This study attempts to go beyond these pros and cons of employee feedback programs and to gain insight into how these come to affect the management or influences company employees to be motivated to give better performance in their jobs.

The purpose of this study is to assess whether the implementation of an employee feedback program helps the company and its management to improve the operation of the business.

Significance of the study

This study is extremely significant to all organizations around the world. When the companies come to understand how the employee feedback programs help companies to make their operation process efficient, they will adopt this as part of their Human Resource development plan. This will make the companies to have happy employees and at the company will in turn benefit largely from this.

This study is timeless and the information gathered here will be applicable for many years. Though the average relevance of the study may decrease with years to come, the principles detailed here will still be applicable.

Scope of the report

This report analyzes the current information available on employee feedback programs and attempts to find out whether these programs can help the management team of an organization to improve the operations of the business. All sources that are analyzed are less than 3 years old this is because with the market environment changing every month, it is crucial to make sure that the source material utilized reflects upon the current market situation and not old information that may not be applicable in today's world.

Organization of the report

This report is organized using headings to describe the specific section of this report and to help any reader to find the information that they require with ease. Starting from the introduction, background of the study, problem or purpose, significance or importance of the study, scope of the report, organization of the report, the body of the report, conclusion, recommendations then lastly the references.

Respect and appropriate action

Taking employees' opinion on aspects of the company usually requires the management to treat the employees with respect since without being respectful to them the employee feedback program will fail terribly. Such programs only work by changing the attitude of the employees to believe that the company has their best interests at heart and that the appropriate action will be taken and this is not just a gimmick to make them think that their opinion is valuable yet this is never considered in the decision-making process Smith and Fortunato 194()

There are many tales that have been revealed by employee feedback programs. Some of these issues include unfairness in allocation of shift times so that a certain employee works too many weekend shifts, the manager letting a certain employee sleep on the job but being harsh on another, the cafeteria serving what might be called food that stinks and much more. These are but a few of the issues that have been discovered through employee feedback programs and would not have otherwise been incorporated into the decision making process had there not been such a program Smith and Fortunato 195()

"No one likes to hear complaints, but soliciting them effectively remains critical to an employer's relationship with employees, ethics and employee relations experts say." Hirschman 3.

If an employee feedback program is well run, it builds the value of trust and improves the loyalty of employees and at the same time helps the management or executive team to have an idea of what is happening on the ground and thus use this in decision making.

One may ask why employee feedback programs have not been implemented in many organizations. The major reason for this is because many organizations already have similar programs that gather information from employees such as hotlines to report inappropriate staff behavior and other kinds of employee surveys such as the entry and exit surveys Holton 76.

These programs are equally capable of capturing the issues at hand and helping to develop the culture of the organization or other changes that the organization requires to do.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

In the United States, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of the year 2002 required all companies that are publicly listed to have a confidential line that collected anonymous information from employees especially to report any accounting fraud whether suspected or known. However, it has been a struggle to make employees view that these employee feedback programs are not just a tool for the companies to comply with has been a losing battle Reports 12.

The good news of the matter is that these employee feedback programs provide duly needed positive and negative feedback which helps the management re-strategize their decision making process.

Organizational culture and employee feedback programs

The culture of the organization must at the same time reflect these employee feedback programs Gupta, Govindarajan and Malhotra 206.

Organizational culture is the personality that is exhibited by an organization through its employees. Members of the organization slowly come to sense this culture and try their best to express it in their actions in various situations. There are several effects of an organization's culture. These include influencing the technologies applied, image of the organization to the public, strategies, services and products of the company and much more.

Under organization culture, there is an all important aspect of employee vs. task orientation. The orientation of people vs. The tasks that need to be completed in the organization also presents the company's culture. There are three distinct options here. The first being that the company places people over tasks. Here, it means that the employees of the organization are more important when it comes to the decision making process. The company believes that the employees of the organization are the driving force behind the performance and productivity of the organization. The second is an organization which places equal value over people and tasks. The last is an organization which places tasks over the people. This kind of company believes that the efficiency and quality of the activities of the organization drive its performance and productivity.

If the orientation of the company is that which places tasks over the employees, the company and its management cannot benefit largely from the concept of having an employee feedback program. This is majorly because the employees of the will feel that the employee feedback program is more of a gimmick to make the employees think that they are being considered yet the organization culture clearly dictates the opposite.

For a company to implement a successful employee feedback program, they must be able to put employees over the tasks or put equal importance in the employees and the tasks. By so doing, the company or organization will be able to make sure the employee feedback program is more than just lip service and is actually something that gets the companies to react to what the employees have to say.

Anonymity and confidentiality

For an employee feedback program to be successful, it must ensure that all feedback is collected in a way which gives anonymity and confidentiality to the employees. This is because the employees will be afraid of raising some issues which may be hurting to the member of the management team and thus avoid raising such and these will not be captured thus the efforts of the employee feedback program will be null and void.

Anonymity and confidentiality make the employee feedback program to be safe to be honest. The employees do not fear that their reports could result to dangerous situations such as losing their jobs, getting punished, and retribution from workmates.

There are several methods that can be used to solicit employee feedback. The first method is that of conducting employee feedback meetings. In such meetings, the employees should be allowed to raise any issues of concern to them. The tone and direction of the meeting should be steered by the company's management to make sure the meeting does not get emotional and start pointing fingers. The second method is the use of employee satisfaction surveys. Another method is the use of focus group discussions. The availability of ombudsmen and suggestion boxes will also help to solicit employee feedback. The last method is to implement telephone hotline for employees to anonymously call and report any incidents.