Gathering real-time, actionable insight from your employees is crucial to strengthening organisational performance and retention rates. Still, taking action on feedback can be challenging when relying on responses from large pools of employees, which only provides a broad sense of employee sentiment.
Traditional methods of collecting feedback such as company-wide yearly surveys can also miss patterns and nuances, including different reporting structures, departments, and geographical locations.
Organisations are now turning to AI-powered listening tools to identify those key patterns and sentiments that may not be expressed directly through periodic feedback forums.
During this episode of the Reshaping Finance podcast, Steve Saah, executive director of permanent placement at Robert Half, discusses building an AI listening strategy that is not only effective but also ethical and inclusive.
As organisations move to adopt new AI tools to understand and act on employee feedback, defining clear goals, ensuring ethical and transparent rollouts, and leading with empathy and humanity will be critical.
First step: Clear goals and cross-functional collaboration
AI-powered listening tools use natural language processing and sentiment analysis, making it possible to interpret employee feedback over multiple channels over periods of time and at scale, according to Saah.
For organisations that are in the early stage of AI adoption and integration, Saah recommended taking a step back and thinking about your approach and defining clear goals for why you’re considering AI-powered listening in the first place.
‘You need to determine what you want to learn from the employee feedback that you do collect’, Saah emphasised.
Involving departments like HR, IT, legal, internal communications, and more early on ensures cross-functional collaboration and a smoother rollout, whilst enabling you to choose the right tools and address data privacy concerns.
Saah recommended starting small with a pilot project for a specific use case, such as analysing any open-ended survey responses that you might already be getting and identifying where unstructured data is already available. ‘Find out what data is collected when hiring and throughout the interviewing process, performance reviews, and even exit interviews’, Saah said.
Non-negotiables: Transparency, consent, and employee control
AI tools can make it possible for you to tailor interventions to the unique needs of teams or demographics. Whether it’s implementing flexible schedules for high-stress teams or mentorship programmes for employees seeking professional development and growth, data collected using AI tools can inform you about actions you can take quickly, which translates into more agile and precise responses to employee concerns.
But no matter how advanced the technology, success starts with trust. When you’re introducing new technology and AI tools within your organisation, employee consent and buy-in are critical.
‘Transparency and consent aren’t optional, they’re foundational’, Saah emphasised. Information about the data that is being collected, how you are planning to use it, and the reason for collecting that data must be clearly communicated to employees.
Employees also need to have the ability to opt out of any AI-powered listening. Trust is the cornerstone of effective listening, and Saah underscored that when employees feel heard and respected, they are more likely to engage with you.
Empathy and human judgement are irreplaceable
Whilst AI tools can process large amounts of data and detect subtle patterns in tone and emotion, human judgement is crucial in interpreting these insights with empathy, cultural awareness, and real-world context, which technology cannot provide.
‘You can’t just rely on AI insights; you need emotional intelligence to ensure empathy and cultural awareness in your response,’ Saah said.
To ensure AI-powered listening delivers long-term value, Saah highlighted three clear priorities:
Transparency: Be clear and transparent about how feedback and data are collected, analysed, and applied.
Empathy: Use the insights collected to truly understand people and their experiences.
Action: Approach AI-powered listening with an action-oriented mindset where the goal is to turn data and insights into meaningful change, not just reports.
AI provides us with powerful tools that can be used to enhance employee satisfaction, but, ultimately, transparency, empathy, and meaningful action are what create better workplaces.
Listen to the whole conversation on leveraging AI to act on employee feedback on the Reshaping Finance podcast.
Additional resources:
AI-powered employee listening: Turning feedback into action
18 questions to ask in your next employee engagement survey
The Next Frontier of Finance: Taking AI from Theory to Implementation
Essential AI resources for practical use
Re-defining finance for a sustainable world