The Frequency

We found a unique way to use employee feedback: we made “disagreement themes” visible instead of anonymous and buried.

Initially, we conducted regular feedback surveys, but the insights remained with leadership. Employees expressed a desire for transparency, not just action. Consequently, after each survey cycle, we began sharing a brief internal memo that highlighted the top recurring points of disagreement. These weren’t complaints, but rather areas where teams had a different perspective than leadership. Examples include pace versus process, hiring speed, or the strictness of our approach to compliance edge cases.

For each theme, we publicly shared three pieces of information: what we heard, where leadership agreed or disagreed, and what we were changing or consciously choosing not to change, along with the reasons why. The last point was the most significant.

This approach noticeably improved trust. Employees no longer felt their feedback vanished into a void. Even when we didn’t implement a suggestion, employees understood the rationale. Transparency took the place of guesswork.

Over time, the quality of feedback also improved. Employees became more deliberate and specific, knowing their input would be seriously and openly discussed. This practice reinforced our culture, showing that disagreement was acceptable, clarity was important, and trust stemmed from honest explanations, not from everyone agreeing.

I used to dread suggestion boxes. They felt like black holes where complaints went to die. So, I tried something different. I started a “Kill a Stupid Rule” session.

Once a quarter, I gathered everyone in a room and asked them to name one policy or process that slowed them down or made no sense. If the majority agreed it was useless, we got rid of it right there.

The first session was tense. People hesitated. But then someone mentioned a redundant reporting step that wasted hours every week. I cut it immediately. The energy in the room shifted instantly.

This practice did more than just clean up our handbook. It proved I actually listened. You can’t fake that kind of trust. When employees see their feedback turn into immediate action, they stop hiding problems and start solving them. We became faster and more honest with each other because nobody feared pointing out the obvious.

One thing we did was stop treating employee feedback as something that disappeared into a survey tool. When people raised the same issue more than once, we made a point of talking about it openly and explaining what we were going to do with it, even if the answer was that we couldn’t change it right away.

In a few cases, feedback showed us that decisions were being made without enough context shared with the team. We started closing that gap by explaining the why behind changes and acknowledging where we got things wrong.

Over time, people became more willing to speak up because they could see their feedback was being taken seriously. That built more trust and made conversations more honest across the organization.

One effective approach is to internally publish a concise “You said, we did” report that links employee feedback, survey themes and new ideas to specific actions, owners, and timelines. This brings forward the insights and challenges the employees are feeling and seeing and allows them to hold management accountable to actually fixing them. Regularly closing the loop in this way strengthens trust because employees see visible follow-through, and it deepens transparency by making both progress and gaps clear to everyone.

The gap between what employees said and what managers heard was widening. After hearing that team leads filtered or ignored suggestions, we built what we call our “culture immune system.” Every employee now has license to flag behaviors or decisions that conflict with our values. When someone raises a concern, we discuss it openly in weekly forums, not behind closed doors.

It shifted ownership. People saw that culture wasn’t handed down, it was co-managed.

Trust followed once feedback didn’t vanish into HR forms but led to visible, team-driven change. Transparency stopped being a promise and became a daily habit.

We turned employee listening surveys into action. The CEO led discussions of the insights with the executive team, assigned clear focus areas to individual leaders, and asked country general managers to replicate the process with accountability. This visible ownership increased survey participation and led to sustained improvements in engagement, strengthening trust and making decisions more transparent.

We built a culture of direct accessibility by staying personally involved in onboarding and making ourselves available through group meetings, one-on-one discussions, and even early morning direct messages. That steady flow of input has shaped how we work and communicate. It has strengthened trust and made priorities and decisions more transparent.

We use annual employee surveys and then review and discuss the results with the team. This has helped employees feel heard and has surfaced diverse ideas that shape how we work. It has strengthened trust because people see their input considered openly, and it has reinforced transparency through regular, honest conversations.