Going beyond continuous listening …

Continuous listening is the new buzz word in the employee research world. There is a lot of talk around complementing existing annual or bi-annual employee survey programmes with more frequent, and irregular, pulse checks.

Unfortunately, the main focus is once again on tools and methods, not on discussing why it is important and what is it for.

Let’s pause. Globalisation, technological progress and demographic change are having a profound impact on labour markets, affecting both the quantity and quality of jobs that are available, as well as how and by whom they are carried out. The future of work (another hot topic for today) offers unparalleled opportunities, but there are also significant challenges associated with these mega-trends.

Below a list of changes occurring currently that organisations are facing:

• The radical transparency; organisations or managers can’t hide anywhere (e.g. LinkedIn, Glassdoor). How people interact with each other is a key asset for any organisation and a positive, engaging work culture will accelerate transformation and strengthen the employer brand.
• Post-demographic world; demographic categorisation and profiling is even less reliable than before in helping us to understand or predict employee behaviours and expectations. For example, lots of damage has already been done in labelling people as “millennials” by assuming everybody in a specific cohort think alike. Genuine one-to-one conversations are the only way to truly understand opinions and aspirations individuals may have.
• Beyond boundaries; traditional organisations don’t exist anymore, we need to think differently. Companies still exist as legal entities, but functionally they are a combination of various networks and eco-systems that go beyond the legal framework (e.g. joint ventures, partnerships, umbrella organisations).   
• Vertical hierarchies are over-shadowing horizontal ones; formal reporting lines and structures are fading away. Working in a constant project mode or in “tribes”, emphasised by social media and networking impact people’s vision of hierarchies and management. Managers are perceived as catalysts and enablers instead of being authoritative leaders.
• Me.inc; everybody is a talent. Everybody wants to be recognised as a true, complex and contradictory individual.  HR need to support businesses, by being genuine business partners, to value each of the talents and support individuals in realising their personal goals. When individuals thrive, the organisation will thrive as well.

In any of the transformational scenarios described above, an engaging work culture combined with an enterprise mindset, is key. Organisations need to:

• Create a culture that embraces change from the top down and welcomes risk and innovation.
• Think outside silos when making decisions, understand the ways of working, challenges and cultures of every part of an organisation. Learn how they fit together and connect with people across the business and broker holistic solutions.
• Encourage sharing of skills, knowledge and resources across boundaries in a way that benefits the whole organisation.
• Distribute responsibilities by trusting people to make the right decisions on the ground. Accept ideas and solutions that are different to yours.
• Adjust the mindset of how the organisation is led and how to drive success.

In this transformative and disruptive environment, a continuous dialogue and shared accountability between managers and their direct reports is much more important than formalised “continuous listening” tools and processes. The focus should be on “continuous development” that is forward looking and ongoing, managers that coach rather than critique and that allow suggestions for improvement to flow freely from any direction in the organisational eco-system.

In other words, the agility, that organisations must possess in order to manoeuvre successfully through the future challenges and opportunities, has less to do with technology and more to do with old fashioned people behaviours.

To make this work, instead of talking about continuous listening and collecting even more data than before, let’s focus on how to maximise the value of the feedback we receive from our employees and how we can use the feedback to activate and accelerate a positive transformation.