Voice of the Employee

 Voice of the employee

Voice of the employee has become increasingly important to leaders of organizations, leading the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology to list capturing the employee voice as the number seven workplace trend.

Definition of Voice of Employee

According to (Wong, 2020), Voice of employee is defined as the opportunity for employees to express concerns about policies in the workplace and offer ideas about how to improve conditions in the workplace. Within the concept of employee voice, there are two types: formal and informal. Informal employee voice is defined as the ability for employee to provide feedback and discuss concerns on a daily basis. Formal employee voice is defined as structured communication channels provided by the employer, including systems to file grievances and employee surveys. The formal voice of employee, specifically employee surveys, is the focus of this information.

Asking employees for feedback through formal employee studies and surveys is a way to give employees a voice. However, it’s critical that the voice of employees has an actual impact and real influence on the organization. To effectively give employees a voice, organizations must meet three criteria.

1. Provide structured channels for feedback in the form of surveys
2. Create a culture of acceptance for feedback
3. Demonstrate that the feedback influences organizational changes and improvements.

Figure 1: https://workinstitute.com/defining-of-voice-of-the-employee-why-it-is-important/

The Importance of Voice of Employee

The importance placed upon capturing voice of employee has increased as organizations realize that there are multiple benefits associated with it. Few key benefits of capturing the voice of employees are below.

• Increased Retention: The primary outcome impacted by capturing voice of employee is employee retention, as it’s proven that the number of ways employees have to use their voice impacts employee retention.  This fact has propelled organizations to increase the number of ways available for employees to provide feedback.

• Increased Engagement: It’s critical to give employees a voice at various stages of employment, and ask for feedback, to improve organizational policies. Employees, when asked in an effective manner, provide feedback on what they like, what they don’t like and what can be improved in the workplace at various stages, which leads to improved engagement and retention.

• Improved Job Satisfaction: Higher levels of job satisfaction among employees has been reported when employees have regular meetings with supervisors and when employees become more involved in the organization. Additionally, employee participation in decision making leads to improved job satisfaction.

• Higher Performance Ratings: Managers rate employee performance higher when the employee demonstrates a high-level of employee voice. Conversely, managers rate employee performance lower when the employee demonstrated a lower-level of employee voice. The direct link between manager performance ratings and use of employee voice demonstrates that employees who use their voice are valued and that using employee voice is viewed as an important aspect of performance.

Conclusion

One sure sign of effective employee voice is the frequency at which employees are participating in discussions around key decisions and changes. Measuring engagement can also shed a lot of light on how well a program is working.

References 

Mahan, W., 2019. Work Institute. [Online]
Available at: https://workinstitute.com/defining-of-voice-of-the-employee-why-it-is-important/
[Accessed 2021 Dec 2021].

Wong, K., 2020. Achievers. [Online]
Available at: https://www.achievers.com/blog/what-is-employee-voice-and-why-is-it-important/
[Accessed 12 Dec 2021].