Sometimes, we get so excited about the power of employee voice that we forget that not everyone is familiar with the lingo. But don’t worry, we’re going to change that!
You’ve probably heard of employee engagement, experience, and advocacy, but employee voice takes it to the next level. It’s a modern concept that can have a major impact on the workplace, making organisations a better place to work for their employees. Employee voice is the life blood of any thriving organisation. But you’ll find out more about what that means when you delve deeper into this blog.
So to make sure we’re including you in as many conversations as possible, we’re busting our own jargon – so you too can experience the power of employee voice for yourself. Let’s get busting…
A-Z of employee voice terms
| Employee Voice Related Terms | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Advocacy | Employee advocacy is the promotion and value of your company from your employees. Are they recommending you as a great place to work to their family and friends? |
| Attrition rate | Attrition rate is a calculation of the rate at which employees leave an organisation and is calculated using the sum: (Number of employees who leave / Total number of employees at the beginning of the period) x 100 |
| Channel | Channel refers to the method of communication you choose to pass on information. This could be an email, social media, through managers, an internal newsletter or intranet. There are many channels organisations can use to keep their employees in the loop. |
| Communication | Communication is the exchange of information, ideas, and feelings between people. There are many different types, including verbal, nonverbal, written, and digital communication. |
| Cost to hire | Cost to hire is a figure used to encompass the costs to find, attract, and train a new employee. By adding up all of the fees associated with hiring new talent, organisations can make informed decisions on how to streamline their recruitment processes, as well as allocating resources to improve this based on budget. |
| Culture | Company culture is the values, beliefs, behaviours, and social norms that shape an organisation and its employees - it’s shaped by many factors such as leadership, mission and values, employee demographics and work environment. The state of your company culture can affect morale, retention, job satisfaction and productivity. |
| DEI | DEI is an abbreviation for Diversity, equality and inclusion. This trio are interrelated concepts that aim to create a workplace where individuals are treated fairly, valued, respected, and have equal opportunities. |
| Employee Engagement | Employee engagement can be defined as a combination of job satisfaction, motivation to perform, feeling a sense of belonging, an employee's intent to stay with the organisation and an emotional commitment to organisational goals. |
| Employee Experience | Employee experience refers to the overall perceptions and feelings an employee has towards their workplace and can be impacted by many touch points of their day to day. From co-worker interactions, culture, benefits, their relationship with their managers, even their equipment can impact their experience at work. |
| Employee Feedback | Employee feedback is the action of giving or receiving suggestions, opinions or praise in relation to an employee's job performance. Both are equally as important as each other. Effective feedback is two-way communication between employees and leaders, and can impact personal and professional growth. |
| Employee retention (rate) | Employee retention focuses on the efforts an organisation puts in to keep employees satisfied with their experience and prevent employees from leaving the business. This can be positively impacted by things such as, company culture, competitive salaries, benefits, rewards, opportunity for development, and positive feedback. You can measure your employee retention rate by calculating the percentage of employees who stay with the company over a certain period of time. |
| Employee surveys | Surveys are used in the workplace to obtain employee feedback on a specific topic. The insight discovered from these surveys can allow organisations to make changes based on how their employees are feeling. |
| Employee turnover (rate) | Employee turnover is the rate employees leave the business. To calculate this you can take the number of people who have left within a time period, divided by the average number of employees during that same period. This is an important figure to keep in mind - high retention rates can lead to high costs, lack of productivity, and concern amongst employees. |
| Employee Voice | Employee voice refers to everything your people express relating to themselves, their colleagues or the organisation. It encompasses how people can communicate their views, opinions, and ideas to management and influence decision-making within their workplace. This can take the form of channels such as employee surveys, anonymous feedback tools, and direct discussions with managers. Employee voice is seen as a key factor in promoting employee engagement, job satisfaction, and organisational performance. |
| eNPS | eNPS or Employee Net Promoter Score, is a way of measuring employee engagement, satisfaction and loyalty for their organisation. It uses the question ‘How likely are you to recommend our organisation as a good place to work?’ which reveals detractors, passives and promoters. You’re then able to drill down into your different employee demographics. |
| Empowerment | When it comes to employee empowerment, this is the process of giving your people the tools and support to have autonomy over their work and make decisions to benefit their workplace. |
| Employer brand | Employer brands look at the perception and reputation an employer holds with its current and prospective employees. It's an umbrella term that considers all elements of the employee experience from values and benefits to growth and developments. Having a good employer brand can help you retain and attract talent. |
| Employer value proposition | Employer value proposition (EVP) is a unique set of benefits and rewards offered by an organisation to its employees, beyond just a salary, which differentiate it as an attractive place to work and retain top talent. In a nutshell, it's the "what's in it for me" for employees working at a company. |
| Exit survey | An exit survey is conducted when an employee leaves the organisation, used to determine their reasons for leaving, and gather insight into their overall experience. This can be used to make improvements to retain your talent. |
| Hive Fives | Hive Fives helps your people show appreciation by highlighting the everyday wins and efforts of their coworkers—making them feel more valued, which in turn breeds productivity and engagement. |
| Hive Messenger | Hive Messenger allows you to do just that. It does what it says on the tin, and is a great way to facilitate two way discussions between leaders and employees. |
| Hive Open Door | Hive Open Door is an identity-protected tool for your people to give you their feedback, concerns and ideas. It allows you to keep your finger on the pulse and stay in touch with whatever’s most important to your people right now. |
| Hive People Science | Hive has People Scientists, specialised in occupational psychology, at the ready to help you turn information into insight, and make actionable data-driven recommendations to improve your organisation. |
| Hive Surveying | Hive’s flexible employee survey platform allows you to ask what you want, when you want—with baseline, pulse, themed and targeted surveys—and collect meaningful insights to drive a great employee experience and even better organisational performance. |
| HRIS | HRIS refers to the software that companies use to keep track of all the important information about their employees. It helps with tasks like storing, editing, and managing employee data. |
| KPIs | KPIs or key performance indicators are used to measure how either an individual or organisation is performing and track progress in the areas you have determined. I.e. sales targets, revenue growth, return on investments. These can provide a basis for decision making. |
| Onboarding | Onboarding is the process of training, integrating new employees into the business to allow for a smooth transition and give them the experience they need to understand their role. Onboarding can be made up of many elements such as: regular check-ins from a manager, shadowing other employees, sessions with HR representatives and heads of departments, general support etc. |
| PDP | PDP stands for personal development plan. This is used to outline and document an employee's goals or skills they wish to achieve in their time with the organisation. These plans can be used in reviews and should be regularly updated. This holds the organisation accountable to develop their talent and is an effective way for employees to take control of their own growth. |
| Psychological safety | Psychological safety describes when a workplace feels like a safe place for employees to confidently express their feelings, thoughts, and ideas without worrying about a negative backlash or feeling uncomfortable. This level of comfortability to speak up can improve communicative, collaboration and employee growth. |
| Recognition | Employee recognition is when an organisation acknowledges its people for who they are and what they do for the organisation. This includes anything and everything that celebrates your team. |
| Town hall | A town hall refers to a meeting hosted to encourage all employees in an organisation to come together and share ideas, discuss and challenges, make decisions and share information. This promotes a culture of communication, engagement and collaboration. |
Know your stuff?
To sum up, employee voice has huge potential for making workplaces better. But not everyone knows the in’s and out’s, so it’s important for us to take the time to ensure we do our best to educate as many people as possible on this powerful concept.
Hopefully, you’ve learnt a thing or two about employee voice – and if you have, why not have a little fun with your new found knowledge, and test those around you with some quick fire questions?
We’ve even put them together for you:
- What does eNPS stand for?
- Define attrition rate? And how do you measure it?
- What is meant by employee value proposition?
- What is ‘cost to hire’?
- What are 3 factors that impact employee experience?
If they sound like they need to dig a little deeper into the world of employee voice, why not send this blog to them and you can test each other to see who knows their stuff when it comes to employee voice?
