Behind every successful business action is a string of decisions. If you’re lucky, the decision-making process is quick and easy. But the reality for many managers is the opposite: long and difficult.

Alongside juggling various stakeholders, jumping hierarchical barriers and levelling budgets, the complexity of decision-making makes it a nightmare to even begin considering new initiatives. But there is a solution: ask your teams. Often, the best ideas come from where you least expect. Opening up the channels of communication at every level – including asking for employee feedback – has powerful effects on teamwork and eases decision-making. As businesses embrace new ways to working – such as hyper-connectivity, flexible working and predictive insights – those leading the charge are welcoming in an even newer trend: the Feedback Culture.

Employee feedback: a virtuous circle

Often associated with well-being at work, Employee Experiencehas been a trending topic on the HR front for the past few years. But what does it actually mean? Employee Experience refers to every workplace interaction, observance or feeling experienced by a person throughout their course of employment at an organization. The Feedback Culture fits seamlessly into this new managerial approach with an additional objective: to gather opinions from all levels – employees, managers, Directors, HR executives – and analyze them as one. With more than 62% of HR professionals thinking it’s “absolutely essential” to take employee feedback on-board when implementing relevant strategies, they find themselves turning to solutions specializing in real-time surveying (source: ParlonsRH). By sending frequent, short, and well-crafted questionnaires, companies can generate – and encourage – feedback. The goal of continuous feedback is to enable every single employee to have their say and feel heard. Solutions, like Zest, compile and analyze survey results – holistically or by department/location/level of seniority – enabling managers to feel confident in making data-backed decisions.

The feedback essentials

‘Participative management’ is a management style which encourages collaborators at all levels to contribute to workplace policies, decisions and business goals. It’s synonymous with a Feedback Culture, which also assists in accelerating the decision-making process and, consequently, improving the Employee Experience. It’s a time, productivity and money gain, but how exactly does it work? Firstly: anonymity. By integrating an anonymity option into your surveys, the authenticity, quality and objectivity of responses will greatly increase. Anonymity has two main benefits: admins have more freedom when creating surveys, and employees can be more honest when replying. The other essential condition to generating genuine feedback is in the analysis and follow up. After an employee gives their feedback, they except to see an action. This action can be anything from sharing the survey results, to implementing direct changes, or in this case, making a decision. It is inconceivable and counterproductive, at least in the employee’s mind, to ask for feedback and do nothing with it.

Strategic surveying

Once your convinced of the benefits of creating a Feedback Culture in your company (such as streamlining decision-making), there are many solutions, like Zest, available to assist you in the execution. But before you rush into implementing one, there is a crucial first step that shouldn’t be ignored: your surveying strategy. The quality of questions, relevancy of subjects, timing, frequency and length are all key elements. To get the best results, keep surveys short and relevant, asking open-ended, yet unbiased or unambiguous, questions, and of course, enable anonymity. Refer to our infographic on the 10 Employee Survey Statistics to get a thorough run-down of what works, and what doesn’t, when it comes to employee surveying. So, the next time you find yourself caught in a sticky web of decision-making, considering turning to your teams for the solution. You might be surprised of just how many benefits there are to a Feedback Culture, especially in regard to improving the Employee Experience and overall business success. Will this be the year you ease the decision-making process by asking for employees’ feedback?