Why agile and continuous is the most valuable form of employee listening
In an ever-changing work landscape, continuous listening emerges as the key to unlocking employee engagement and organizational resilience.
I recently chaired an Ipsos Karian and Box webinar about the power of agile continuous listening in helping organisations undertaking major change.
Below, I’ve attached a link to the video recording should people wish to watch.
I’ve also written a summary of the discussion - with key outtakes and insights for anyone thinking about evolving the employee listening approach.
In an era where customers are actively polled, A/B tested, and listened to before a single product launch, it’s surprising how many organisations fall short when it comes to their employees.
While companies routinely refine campaigns and products based on feedback, many still rely on annual engagement surveys—or at best, periodic pulse checks—to gauge employee sentiment.
In contrast, forward-thinking businesses like Barclays, BT, and Sainsbury’s are treating the employee experience as a dynamic, evolving product, and embedding continuous listening at the heart of HR and communications strategy.
The changing nature of work
The world of work has become volatile. Geopolitical crises, inflationary pressures, post-pandemic hybrid structure shifts, and rapid technological change have placed employee experience under the microscope. Traditional, infrequent surveys are no longer sufficient. As McKinsey analysts have argued:
“At a time when organisations are facing wave after wave of disruption… the traditional survey approach is no longer sufficient.”
Agile employee insight—from communications effectiveness to readiness for change—is now essential.
Barclays: Monthly listening with hot‑topic agility
At Barclays, the approach is methodical yet flexible. The bank surveys 20% of its workforce every month, blending a core set of questions with “hot‑topic” prompts on current events. As Lynsey Hutchinson, Barclays’ director of communications insight and optimization, explained:
“We are in the field every single month.”
This continuous listening approach offers visibility not only at the group level, but also within divisions—and allows timely intervention when unusual trends emerge. It echoes broader efforts in customer experience: Barclays now links feedback across channels, from call transcripts to digital interactions, capturing subtle indicators of satisfaction and sentiment .
BT: An agile 12‑question focus on action
BT’s streamlined model shows that continuous listening need not be complex. Every six weeks, staff receive a brief 12‑question survey via Microsoft Forms. Helen Willetts, Director of internal communications, underscores the value of simplicity:
“Keep it simple. For us, it’s 12 questions in 444, and we get gold.”
The structure is deliberately lean—designed to yield insights that can be actioned. For example, when survey results showed uncertainty around new pay structures, BT differentiated between signals for additional communication versus manager training. This clarity ensures every insight triggers a practical response.
Sainsbury’s: Sampling for strategic impact
In a large retail environment, representation is critical. Sainsbury’s surveys colleagues in one in five of its stores each month, rotating locations to maintain a statistically valid sample. The focus? Strategic themes such as as the business’s changes and customer-related developments.
“We know there’s a link between employee and customer satisfaction, so why would we not be listening to our colleagues regularly?” noted Laura Hammett, head of colleague engagement.
Insights flow not just to HR, but directly to operational and store leaders—driving rapid action and reinforcing the frontline connection to broader strategy.
The anatomy of agile continuous listening
From both theory and practice, several core principles have emerged:
Blend consistency with flexibility
Core metrics offer year-on-year tracking; responsive “hot-topic” questions surface emerging issues.
Focus on actionable survey questions
Poor questions yield poor data. As one panelist put it, “Ask crap questions, you’re going to get crap data, crap insight.” Focus on clarity, actionability, and relevance.
Survey representatively
Whether sampling 20% monthly, the goal is broad yet manageable coverage and while you receive monthly data, you don’t overload employees or the business’s operations.
Be brave and relevant
Ask tough questions— address pay transparency, leadership trust, or work-life balance— to unearth true sentiment. And on topics that matter most to both the CEO and employees - they have to be operationally relevant, if they’re going to be actionable. As FT’s Isabel Berwick observes, the workplace is witnessing a surge in raw emotional expression—anger, frustration, burnout—making genuine listening more important than ever .
Close the feedback loop, quickly
Sainsbury’s is speeding up data-to-action time. Leaders don’t wait months; they mobilise in days or weeks.
Some organisations are now aiming beyond surveys—to embed listening into the very fabric of operations:
Barclays plans to tie employee sentiment directly to campaign effectiveness—to measure not just engagement, but emotional impact.
BT is pushing communications teams to become more insight-driven and strategic, treating feedback not as anecdote, but as authority.
Sainsbury’s seeks to eliminate reporting delays, moving toward truly real-time empathy and action.
The stakes for employers
Today’s employees expect meaningful dialogue, not passive data collection. In a UK context, working parents flag surveys as insufficient unless followed by tangible action—yet too often, employers and policymakers fail to close the loop .
For HR and internal comms professionals, continuous listening isn’t a luxury—it’s mission-critical. It demands rigorous survey design, insightful analytics, and clear follow-up. But the rewards—resilient culture, trust in leadership, proactive decision-making—can transform both employee welfare and business performance
Getting started
If you’re elsewhere on the listening maturity curve, begin small but with intention:
Pilot with a core team: 3–7 questions monthly—sure enough, they’ll yield clarity.
Use accessible tools: Microsoft Forms is one of the simplest —all are capable. It’s not about tech sophistication but execution.
Build leadership buy-in: Share findings fast, offer meaningful interpretation, and show how insights inform policy and practical, operational change.
Close the loop with action: Communicate outcomes, initiatives, or how feedback shaped new decisions.
As the workplace continues to fragment, disengage through distance, or shift with every external shock, the ability to listen deeply and frequently sets organisations apart. The real question is no longer whether to listen—but how fast, how intelligently, and how meaningfully you respond.
Agile continuous listening isn’t just the future of employee engagement. It is the heartbeat of organisational resilience.
Click on the below, and watch the webinar to hear the full conversation:
I listened live and thoroughly enjoyed it. Was driving at the time so good to be able to have this as a takeaway!