However, it has been a struggle to make employees view that these employee feedback programs are not just a tool for the companies to comply with has been a losing battle Reports 12. The good news of the matter is that these employee feedback programs provide duly needed positive and negative feedback which helps the management re-strategize their decision making process.

Organizational culture and employee feedback programs

The culture of the organization must at the same time reflect these employee feedback programs Gupta, Govindarajan and Malhotra 206.

Organizational culture is the personality that is exhibited by an organization through its employees. Members of the organization slowly come to sense this culture and try their best to express it in their actions in various situations. There are several effects of an organization's culture. These include influencing the technologies applied, image of the organization to the public, strategies, services and products of the company and much more.

Under organization culture, there is an all important aspect of employee vs. task orientation. The orientation of people vs. The tasks that need to be completed in the organization also presents the company's culture. There are three distinct options here. The first being that the company places people over tasks. Here, it means that the employees of the organization are more important when it comes to the decision making process. The company believes that the employees of the organization are the driving force behind the performance and productivity of the organization. The second is an organization which places equal value over people and tasks. The last is an organization which places tasks over the people. This kind of company believes that the efficiency and quality of the activities of the organization drive its performance and productivity.

If the orientation of the company is that which places tasks over the employees, the company and its management cannot benefit largely from the concept of having an employee feedback program. This is majorly because the employees of the will feel that the employee feedback program is more of a gimmick to make the employees think that they are being considered yet the organization culture clearly dictates the opposite.

For a company to implement a successful employee feedback program, they must be able to put employees over the tasks or put equal importance in the employees and the tasks. By so doing, the company or organization will be able to make sure the employee feedback program is more than just lip service and is actually something that gets the companies to react to what the employees have to say.

Anonymity and confidentiality

For an employee feedback program to be successful, it must ensure that all feedback is collected in a way which gives anonymity and confidentiality to the employees. This is because the employees will be afraid of raising some issues which may be hurting to the member of the management team and thus avoid raising such and these will not be captured thus the efforts of the employee feedback program will be null and void.

Anonymity and confidentiality make the employee feedback program to be safe to be honest. The employees do not fear that their reports could result to dangerous situations such as losing their jobs, getting punished, and retribution from workmates.

There are several methods that can be used to solicit employee feedback. The first method is that of conducting employee feedback meetings. In such meetings, the employees should be allowed to raise any issues of concern to them. The tone and direction of the meeting should be steered by the company's management to make sure the meeting does not get emotional and start pointing fingers. The second method is the use of employee satisfaction surveys. Another method is the use of focus group discussions. The availability of ombudsmen and suggestion boxes will also help to solicit employee feedback. The last method is to implement telephone hotline for employees to anonymously call and report any incidents.

Case studies

East Boston Savings Bank is a relatively small bank with about four members of staff fully trained to receive feedback from employees and act based on the feedback received....

The bank also has a hotline which employees can call in at any time to get feedback on any issue affecting them. The bank has two hotlines. One for fraud reports and the other for general reports. For the bank, the numbers of employees who decide to use the fraud hotline are roughly half a percent to 2% as compared to about 10 per cent for the general hotline. It can be interpreted that few calls mean that the company employees are happy to be at the company. Alternatively one can say that the employees do not give any reports because they either do not know about the company's reporting hotlines or they do not trust the anonymity and confidentiality of the hotlines.
Conclusion

There are many issues that arise from an employee feedback program. These issues when coupled with the appropriate action during the decision making process will help the company feel the full benefits of the employee feedback program which include company employees feeling happy with their stay at the company or organization and thus the employee retention rate will be very high.

The second advantage is that the company or organization will save a lot in terms of not having to spend on hiring new members of staff since the employee retention rate will be high and thus more employees will be happy to keep their current jobs at the company.

The introduction of an employee feedback program can help a company improve their employee satisfaction, develop strategies for monitoring employee relations and improve the visibility of employees in the organization since the decision-making process will reflect upon the feedback given by the employees.

There are also the disadvantages that a company suffers from when they fail to incorporate an employee feedback program. One is that the employee retention rate will be low since they feel unsatisfied and undervalued.

Recommendations

Company employees should also be given feedback on the actions taken based on their feedback. By so doing, the employees will see that the feedback program is effective in helping the management make decision.

Employees should be encouraged to participate in the employee feedback programs by providing the appropriate channels for collection of information.

The management team should make sure to regularly analyze the employee feedback and use it in their decision making.

The methods for collection of information should be audited to check which method is most effective. Also, the time when most reports are received should be considered in order to remove any barriers to the success of the employee feedback program.