Three Ways to Improve the Feedback Loop and Drive IT Success

Pic: Ellie Duncombe

Survey fatigue is one of the biggest issues that IT departments face in this area.  As email surveys are often ignored, IT teams are left with little to no understanding of how their deployments are received. This makes it much more difficult for IT teams to ensure employees are being empowered, not hindered, by new and existing technologies. There must be a more effective way to gather the critical feedback that IT teams need to maintain a high digital experience for their employees.

 

The reality is that feedback tools, such as email surveys, are increasingly perceived as uninteresting and a waste of time, due to how prevalent they are in everyday life. Yet, rather than abandoning surveys altogether, IT teams may see more engagement if these feedback tools are designed to be more captivating to employees. If IT departments adjust their surveys to follow the three key principles below, they will be able to increase their response rate, and thus collect a greater amount of actionable, valuable feedback.

 

Personalisation

By asking personalised questions, employees are more likely to feel that their opinions are valued.  Rather than sending generalised, broad emails to gauge overall satisfaction, aim to pose specific and to-the-point questions about the technology, such as “is issue X still happening with the new app?” or “are your emails being received and sent quicker with the new email provider?”. Being pointed in your enquiries will help to demonstrate that you care and will increase the chances of getting useful information that will help you improve current and future IT rollouts. Additionally, it’s important to keep the number of questions limited and focused to those that really matter.

Creativity

The increasing prevalence of email surveys has led to potential respondents feeling overwhelmed, making them less likely to provide feedback. In order for IT teams to maximise response rates, survey creators need to get creative in how they engage with users for feedback. This idea sounds basic, but when put into practice, simplicity becomes its power. If IT teams deploy surveys creatively and demonstrate that they care about the person they’re sending questions to, the answers are more likely to be useful and benefit the organisation.

 

This rule is already being applied to external audiences, but internal audiences would also benefit from more original and imaginative surveys. For example, could questions be delivered straight to the employees’ desktop for easy viewing? Is there a way of rolling out surveys via the company’s internal messaging tool? Are you asking questions at relevant times, such as when employees have begun using new technology? There isn’t a one size fits all model – it’s important for IT teams to discover what works for their unique environment, and to explore alternative channels if they aren’t receiving the feedback they need to improve.

 

 

Action

The chances of a respondent completing a survey is much higher when they know that their answers will help to improve a service. Therefore, it is important that IT teams take the survey responses on board, and put what they’ve learned into practice. Implementing changes, even if they are just incremental to begin with, is vital for employees to feel truly listened to. By making fast and direct changes, IT is proving to employees that the feedback loop is strong and for their benefit. This will in turn, encourage more employee participation in the future and thus sustain the high response rate.

 

In summary, by creating personalised surveys that ask relevant questions at the right time, businesses can expect to see a greater response rate, whilst gaining more truthful and constructive feedback from their employees. This is crucial in the event of new technology rollout, in order for IT teams to meet employees’ demands for an optimal digital experience. Furthermore, if IT teams demonstrate direct action in response to employee feedback, the foundation of trust between IT and employees is strengthened. Effective communication between the two parties will enable IT departments to eventually ask more complex questions, gaining more in-depth responses and essential insights to enhance the feedback loop. Ultimately, these three key principles will help employees to be more efficient in the workplace, enhancing the overall productivity and success of the business – because of the insights that the IT department has received.