Pillar 3: Action Acting on worker expertise and perspectives is essential to a successful and meaningful worker voice strategy. Employers must commit to implementing changes based on collected feedback and input, with clear action plans and regular progress updates. Employers can take this a step further by involving workers in the implementation process, thereby creating a sense of ownership in organizational priorities across the company hierarchy. Acting on worker voice is the most critical part of the playbook—if employers don’t act on the input that they collect, they risk diminishing trust, sparking worker disengagement, and reducing buy-in and adoption of organizational changes. Taking decisive action on worker perspectives directly improves job quality by showing that the employer takes worker experiences and needs seriously. This leads to tangible results that benefit employees and also strengthen engagement, loyalty, and retention. A workplace where action follows feedback becomes dynamic and responsive, elevating job satisfaction and creating an environment where workers feel valued and empowered. Recommended Actions Develop transparent action plans Action planning demonstrates commitment and provides a road map for improvements, which is essential for building trust and credibility. Action plans should also include clear lines of accountability. Leadership accountability is a fundamental piece, as is engaging the necessary resources. Some important steps include: Creating action plans based on feedback, including accountability measures and clear timelines, and ensuring necessary resources are allocated to implementations Involve workers directly in both action planning and implementation Directly involving workers across a company’s hierarchy in action planning and implementation ensures that solutions are practical and workers buy into and adopt organizational changes. This can occur through: Involving workers in the implementation process, engaging workers in executing changes, and creating coalitions like tiger teams and working groups that include employees across a company hierarchy to plan and implement changes Communicate progress to workers actively This builds trust and maintains engagement, showing the organization values and acts upon feedback. Effective and achievable ways include: Regular updates on progress specifying the status of workers’ feedback and subsequent actions, intentionally brought up in meetings Monitor and evaluate outcomes for continuous improvement Continuously assessing the impact of actions taken based on worker feedback ensures initiatives are effective and provides opportunities for ongoing improvement. Key steps include: Develop metrics to evaluate the success of implementation of changes, conduct regular reviews of these metrics with workers, allowing them to see the tangible impact of their input, and adjust action plans based on evaluation outcomes and further feedback Case Study Inditex, a global fashion retailer, integrates worker input into decision-making to enhance employee satisfaction and drive innovation.12 The “Talks” initiative, launched in 2022, involves regular one-on-one discussions between managers and employees to address professional development and personal concerns, boosting morale and ensuring feedback is acted upon. Additionally, Inditex’s “Your Opinion Matters to Us” survey gathers anonymous feedback from departing employees to continuously improve the work environment. In 2021, an Inditex brand, Zara, introduced communication channels allowing frontline employees to share real-time feedback on customer preferences and trends, directly informing product decisions. By treating employees as key stakeholders, Inditex has effectively used its insights to stay connected with customer needs, enhance business responsiveness, and drive product innovation.

The Four Pillars of Worker Voice

Employers and their workers face a relationship reset. Technology and artificial intelligence (AI) shake up ways of working. The rise of the gig economy, remote work, and flexible arrangements are transforming the employer-employee dynamic, and as the workplace experiences generational shifts, expectations evolve. Companies that are responsive and invest in this relationship reset will reap the benefits of a more diverse, inclusive, productive, and innovative workforce. Those that don’t risk being left behind in the wake of a transformative wave reshaping today’s world of work.

Yet many employers are falling short. Trust is eroding, and workers feel left behind, especially those who face systemic barriers to advancement. A significant factor contributing to this issue is the “voice gap,” which refers to the difference between the amount of input workers have on workplace matters that affect them and how much input they believe they should have. According to MIT Research, this voice gap is statistically linked to lower job satisfaction and well-being, higher levels of burnout, and an increased interest in looking for a new job. The resulting employee-employer disengagement is a business liability: innovation stalls, retention rates plummet, and adaptability dwindles.

The solution is clear: Employers must be bold and transformative in how they engage their employees. Impact employers, employers that invest in the career mobility of their employees, know that by integrating worker voice into the core of their strategies—listening to, acting on, and valuing worker feedback—they can reverse these trends. This investment in worker voice is an investment in a future where employees have agency in the workplace, and businesses thrive amid a changing environment.

The Business Case for Worker Voice

Employers are navigating an increasingly dynamic, changing, and complex landscape to recruit and retain talent, and workers and employers alike feel the effects of that challenge. Employers must fundamentally change how they interact with their employees to sustain long-term success in an evolving labor market. This is especially true for engagement with frontline workers, who make up approximately 70% of the U.S. workforce.¹

And workers want to be deeply engaged in their workplaces. In fact, 83% of workers want to share their opinions on key issues, yet 85% of employees remain silent on important issues because they worry they will be viewed negatively if they speak up.² A mere 16% of Generation Z workers feel comfortable freely expressing their views to their managers.³ Moreover, 49% of workers are not asked for their ideas regularly, and only 42% of employers say they can react quickly based on employee feedback.⁴

This gap between how workers want to engage and how employers engage them leads to job dissatisfaction with real and costly impacts. Over half of global workers report decreased productivity due to job dissatisfaction.⁵ Gallup estimates that low worker engagement costs the global economy $8.8 trillion in lost productivity, with $1.9 trillion lost in the United States alone.⁶

These staggering figures underscore a critical need for change. To turn the tide, companies must prioritize engaging their workers’ voices. By actively involving workers in decision-making, businesses can transform these challenges into opportunities for growth and success.

Prioritizing genuine engagement, valuing worker expertise and perspectives, and using transparent communication can cultivate a more committed and productive workforce. And the benefits are twofold. By prioritizing workers’ voices, businesses can not only affect their bottom lines but also contribute to the well-being and career mobility of their workers, especially those facing systemic barriers to advancement.

Research shows workers are more likely to be satisfied at and loyal to organizations that value their input and incorporate their feedback into decision-making processes.⁷ In fact, workers who feel heard feel psychologically safe, which sparks higher levels of creativity.⁸ And high-quality listening leads to better leadership, trust, and well-being for workers, contributing to innovation and stronger connections to work.⁹

These outcomes make a tangible difference in business outcomes, with five key benefits:

1. Retention: Engaged workers are more likely to stay, significantly reducing turnover costs.
2. Belonging: Workers who feel valued develop a strong sense of belonging, enhancing morale and loyalty.
3. Productivity: Satisfied workers are more productive, leading to better business outcomes.
4. Innovation: Worker input generates new ideas and improvements, fostering a culture of innovation.
5. Trust: Transparent communication builds trust, improving employer-worker relationships.

Through meaningful engagement, companies can close the gap between worker voice and employer action, unlocking benefits that extend far beyond the bottom line. Genuine engagement fosters a more committed, innovative, and productive workforce while also strengthening trust and loyalty. In today’s competitive and rapidly evolving labor market, businesses that prioritize and act on worker feedback will thrive and contribute meaningfully to the well-being and advancement of their workforces, driving long-term success for both the company and its employees.

The Four Pillars of Worker Voice

Since 2021, Jobs for the Future (JFF) has been building and launching forums composed of workers, employers, and experts to highlight effective strategies and develop actionable guidance for employers on how to adopt worker voice practices. Through these forums, we have identified four pillars of a strong and meaningful worker voice strategy that any employer can use to strengthen and improve their existing employee listening and engagement efforts and launch new employee voice efforts.

Learn more

Pillar 1: Feedback Mechanisms

Accessible and structured worker feedback mechanisms empower workers to have agency over their well-being and career mobility.

Employers must give workers—especially frontline workers, who can offer great insight into the effects of company policies—a seat at the table by actively seeking and valuing their expertise. This inclusive approach opens learning and development opportunities, fostering greater mobility within the workplace. It also fuels innovation and helps identify and address critical issues, such as in the area of safety improvements. By uncovering and mitigating these risks, companies can enhance their operational integrity while reducing liabilities and saving costs.

Prioritizing inclusive feedback mechanisms is key to improving job quality. When workers feel their perspectives are sought out and heard and their input valued, it creates a workplace environment that can support autonomy, flexibility, and a sense of belonging. This strengthens the connection between employees and the organization, leading to a more motivated and committed workforce. Such an environment enhances employee morale and also improves retention, performance, and overall business outcomes by creating fulfilling jobs essential for long-term success.

Recommended Actions

Offer a diverse selection of listening channels

These channels offer different ways for workers to share their expertise and perspectives, ensuring voices throughout a company’s hierarchy are heard and valued. Consider the following mechanisms for listening to workers:

Surveys, suggestion boxes, frequent and structured meetings with managers, focus groups, town halls, reverse mentorship, and worker voice forums

Invest in technology-backed solutions

Using technology can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of feedback mechanisms by reducing the time between employee input and analysis of results, thus facilitating real-time insights and data-driven decision-making. Examples include:

AI-powered employee listening tools, digital surveys, third-party HR tools and software, and anonymous feedback forms

Give workers a seat at the decision-making table

Integrating workers into decision-making bodies ensures worker perspectives, based on their lived experiences and expertise, are integrated into high-level decisions. This strengthens the connection between workers and organizational success, promoting a sense of ownership and accountability, and can occur through:

Board representation or other internal advisory boards, employee-ownership models, tiger teams, and other working groups

Case Study

Petco has fundamentally integrated feedback into its company culture, recognizing that frontline employees are vital to the customer experience.¹⁰ To make feedback more actionable, Petco revamped its frontline worker surveys, enabling general managers (GMs) to receive daily alerts with employee comments. This real-time access allows GMs to make immediate adjustments, recognize worker contributions, and address issues promptly. By prioritizing effective listening channels and using technology, Petco has fostered a culture where employees feel valued and heard. This approach enhances job satisfaction, retention, and overall performance and also significantly improves customer service, driving increased sales and customer loyalty. The focus on actionable feedback ensures that employees are more engaged and motivated, contributing to the company’s overall success and creating a positive work environment benefiting both workers and customers.