Organisations today realise the value of a productive and engaged workforce in creating competitive advantage and futureproofing their business in an increasingly challenging business environment.

Companies that cultivate an engaging employee experience and an agile working environment outperform other organizations in profit and revenue, talent retention and sales growth. This year, Aon Best Employers in the Middle East ranked 17 percentage points higher than the market average for their employee engagement score (84% versus 67%).

With more than 70% of organizations surveyed indicating that they are planning to measure employee experience at all stages of the talent lifecycle, the appetite for measuring employee feedback continuously is growing significantly.

However, while many employers have embraced the idea of employee engagement, their strategy for improvement has been traditionally influenced by the annual employee survey. Progressive organisations are moving past this and embracing the flexible, adaptable model of ‘continuous dialogue’ – the process of gathering feedback across the employee lifecycle, at much more frequent intervals through the use of new technology, enabling deeper and faster insights combined with more impactful actions that subsequently impact the organization’s growth, innovation and business performance.

In fact, a study by Aon concluded that a five-point increase in employee engagement results in a three-point incremental growth in revenue, and that companies with top quartile engagement experience achieve a four-point increase in incremental operating margin.

To ensure your continuous dialogue strategy addresses the right elements to deliver optimal business outcomes, keep the following in mind:

• Deploy the right surveys incorporating both the employee lifecycle and business events
• Target the right workgroups – one-size fits all surveys are limiting
• Use the right content – measure what matters to achieve desired business outcomes
• Deploy at the right time – align frequency of measurement with frequency of action
• Invest in the right skills – refresh manager expectations, capabilities and accountabilities

Moving towards continuous dialogue strategies, gives the agility to adjust based on employee feedback. From onboarding through to exit, employing this strategy at every stage of the talent lifestyle helps create sustained high engagement, leading to superior performance and longer tenure.

Organizations must focus on implementing meaningful, continuous dialogue with their employees, so they can act on what really matters to enhance the employee experience.

The results speak for themselves: In this era of rapid digitalization, the businesses with the foresight to build a continuous dialogue strategy will accelerate their people to the level of extraordinary, while those who fail to do so risk falling behind.

Khalid Youssef – Associate Partner – Aon