Click to watch the video from Best Buy

By Kirsten Robinson

Companies recognize that they live and die by the extent to which they understand their customers’ wants and needs. But are they tuned-in to what their own employees are thinking?

Think about it…most communicators have a general sense of what matters to employees based on the organization’s annual engagement survey or informal pulse surveys.  But, do you, as a communicator, know what’s on your employees’ minds right now?  Do you know how they are reacting to a company decision or change?

Best Buy’s internal communicators came to the humble realization that they weren’t experts on their own employees.  When they realized this, they decided to learn more and created a solution off the strategy the company used to gain knowledge about their customers.  They developed an employee listening system, which uses open communication to uncover the unmet needs of workers.  The end result is a deeper understanding of employees, which has allowed the company to correct (previously unknown) problems and make communication more effective.  It has also allowed them to improve their understanding of business partners, which in turn opened up possibilities for new opportunities with internal clients.

Here, we’ve broken down the main components of Best Buy’s best practice strategy:

1. Treat employees like customers. How does your company educate itself about customer needs?  Chances are, the same principles apply to your staff.  Best Buy’s Employee Listening System was inspired by the company’s Customer Segment Strategy, which focuses on understanding segments’ needs and behaviors to create a differentiated customer experience.  The Communications team adopted these principles to learn more about employees and business partners.

Hear a Best Buy executive discuss their customer-based approach

2. Focus on simple listening tools. Working on a limited budget, Best Buy’s team needed a cost-effective way to acquire a meaningful data set from which could draw insightful conclusions.  In response, they focused on basic tools at relatively low, or no cost.  These included polls, a virtual chat space, and in-person dialogue sessions.

Learn about one of Best Buy’s simple listening tool, “The Chair.”

3. Integrate listening channels. Best Buy’s listening tools worked to build off of each other for a more powerful, collective view.  First, Communications’ annual company-wide survey revealed employees’ primary concerns.  Second, the team observed a virtual discussion board—dubbed “The Water Cooler”—for related “employee chatter.”  Third, Communications initiated one-on-one dialogue with employees to follow up on discussion board comments.

See a video describing Best Buy’s virtual discussion board.

4. Prioritize data. Filters help sort information into easy-to-manage categories, depending on importance and relevance.  Best Buy used three filters: Importance, Ownership (i.e., does this involve Communications?), and Surprise (i.e., does it challenge our existing notions about employees?).  Information that clears all three filters reflect something that employees care about, and business partners don’t know about.

View the full case study and a comprehensive set of resources on how Best Buy implemented this practice.

Tell us about employee listening strategies that your company uses.  What has been the most effective approach?