Internal Communication: The Multi-Site Company Challenge (5/7) – Encouraging Employee Feedback

The fifth internal communication challenge in multi-site companies: encouraging feedback and field insights, so you can spot important issues — and respond — as early as possible.

This article on feedback and field insights is excerpted from our Ebook: Internal Communication — The 7 Challenges of Multi-Site Companies >>> Download the full ebook (FREE)

Encouraging Feedback to Surface "Weak Signals"

Of course, events that significantly impact frontline teams and their results are usually escalated to managers and eventually to headquarters. These are the strong signals. Barring a major dysfunction, they're relatively easy to detect.

Even if they often surface very late — once the "machine" is already in motion.

Yet in most cases, early warning signs go unnoticed. Day-to-day observations and insights from the field. Information that, if captured, could raise awareness, increase vigilance, or even enable early action to prevent a problem from escalating. These anticipatory signals are known as "weak signals."

And feedback — what comes up from the field — is precisely what helps you identify them.

Feedback in All Its Forms

In multi-site companies, feedback often struggles to reach headquarters — whether due to a lack of resources to encourage it or to process it. Yet you must actively prompt your teams to collect it. This feedback can be quantitative (metrics) or qualitative (observations).

It might include:

• A shift in customer requests — an opportunity to rethink your product/service range, positioning, or business model
• A declining average order value — a sign that competitors are outperforming you on certain products
• An increase in negative reviews on Google, Facebook, or specialist review sites — possibly a sign of a quality issue with your products or customer service
• A spike in cancelled sales appointments — a possible sign that your sales reps aren't qualifying prospects well enough
• A growing number of returns — potentially a sign of a production issue or supplier quality problem
• Multiple resignations within the same department — a possible sign of a toxic manager
• A difficulty recruiting certain profiles — a signal that may prompt a rethink of your compensation package, a broadening of your talent sourcing, or the creation of internal development pathways
• New ideas or improvement suggestions.

As the person managing internal communication in a multi-site context, you also need to ensure that local initiatives, suggestions, and "local" news make their way up the chain. So the broader organization takes an interest in what's happening on the ground, and valuable local initiatives can be recognized — or replicated — across the business.

Dare to Encourage Feedback

Dare to ask your employees for their input — especially those who don't work at headquarters! Facilitating the flow of field insights is critical: it's on the ground that weak signals are spotted earliest, and where you stay ahead of the transformations shaping the market.

Field feedback also enables you to adjust strategies and priorities in real time. Yet in any organization — and especially in multi-site ones — the field is distant from headquarters. Which makes it easy to overlook in the circles of power and decision-making: in those rooms, people tend to listen to those they see and hear every day, even if that creates a distorted picture of reality.

As internal communication professionals, your key challenge is to surface these weak signals and ensure they're heard by decision-makers. But there's more. Feedback is also a powerful opportunity to kick-start a practice-sharing dynamic across the organization, and to inspire one another.

Read also: [Practical Guide] 10 Client Initiatives to Improve Internal Communication

When the Symptoms Persist…

Observations, shifts in metrics, or simple suggestions have come your way. What do you do?

If it points to a problem, act quickly — the whole value of weak signals lies in enabling anticipation.

Analyse the feedback you've received to understand its significance and scope. Then consider whether to:

• diagnose a problem
• adjust your product/service offering
• revise the distribution model
• assess whether a change is needed
• consider an internal mobility move
• etc.

Building a Feedback Culture

More broadly, building a feedback culture — with listening, measurement, and continuous improvement dynamics, and by giving frontline employees a voice — is always a worthwhile investment.

Freeing people to speak up, encouraging feedback, and multiplying opportunities to gather field insights is essential.

As an internal communication professional, you need to create bottom-up and cross-functional dynamics so that every employee and every team operates within a culture of emulation, co-creation, and contribution. Such a system is like a muscle: "function creates the organ." In other words, the more that field observations and operational insights are acknowledged, acted upon, and owned by internal stakeholders, the more your frontline teams will be willing to share what they see, think, and learn.

With your help, an innovation and progress dynamic can take root.

Read the next article: Internal Communication: The Multi-Site Company Challenge (6/7) – Promoting Headquarters Initiatives

Read the previous article: Internal Communication: The Multi-Site Company Challenge (4/7) – Strengthening the Sense of Belonging

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This article is excerpted from our Ebook « The 7 Challenges of Internal Communication in a Multi-Site Context« . In it, you'll discover: the key internal communication challenges facing multi-site organizations, along with practical advice and best practices to address them.

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