Empowering employee voice at YMCA
Rebecca Dawson, Head of Learning & Development at Central YMCA, is a shining example of why we should stop jumping into solutions. Gathering employee voice enables learning and development (L&D) to know what learners know, and don’t know. This means that learning can be relevant and required but will also add real value.
Starting out with the data
In trying to understand more about the Central YMCA, and the needs therein, a ‘temperature check’ was conducted. The report from that research determined themes in five key areas:
- Mental health and wellbeing
- Engagement and connection
- Recognition
- Culture and values
- Change
Rebecca took the initial data and asked employees to rate those areas, to determine the weight of importance across the organisation. This focused on both how much they felt it was going to impact their experience at Central YMCA and how important it was to them individually. The correlation of data enabled a priority list to be created. What employees were clear on is that mental health and wellbeing was the most important.
Member fact file:
Central YMCA is a diverse organisation dedicated to improving education and health in communities, particularly by supporting disadvantaged youth. They offer a range of health and wellbeing services, including gyms and yoga studios, alongside education programs, apprenticeships, and qualification development.
Building on that, Rebecca went out to survey employees again, specifically digging down on mental health and wellbeing. The feedback was that while employees appreciated everything that had been put in place regarding mental health and wellbeing, actually the biggest problem that was affecting their mental health and wellbeing was the work-life balance. So the following survey focused on work-life balance, to dig deeply there.
Each time data was reported, clarity was sought and more data gathered. The value was in making people feel heard. Previously people had felt like things were happening to them, rather than with them or for them. Anecdotally, it was felt that senior teams and other employees were diverging, so giving people a voice allowed a mechanism to say ‘this is how we feel about what you’re proposing’, rather than the top layer just deciding what everyone needs. Gathering data was actually consulting with people, not assuming, and then translating that data into action.
Regular staff surveys
Central YMCA have conducted six quarterly staff surveys so far. Each one so far has been a very intentional piece of work that is trying to discover something specific that they could then turn into meaningful change in the organisation. However, they have made the decision to not just conduct a survey for the sake of it; in the summer of 2024, a conscious decision was made not to survey. Instead, this time was used to review the body of evidence, take a look at learning programmes, examine where things were working and also build in the feedback to the strategy and operational plan for the coming financial year. Rebecca is very deliberate in her choices;
“We’re not just collecting the data, but we are transferring that data into tangible action, which is the key part to build trust within people and make them feel like it is not just a tick box exercise.”
Trust is a really important part of creating a psychologically safe space so that people can feel free to speak their mind without constraint when answering survey questions. Central YMCA is serious when it comes to understanding their people and their needs.
Tailored benefits
Around 50% of people are regularly completing the staff surveys at Central YMCA. The ‘you said, we did’ approach off the back of the surveys has really played into the value. Asking people what they need, what they want, what’s going right, what’s not going right feeds the diagnostic piece which is so important in the work of learning and development.
By using trends analysis and departmental data, it is possible to tailor solutions to the differing needs of the different parts of the organisation. The information empowers decision-making and provision of what is exactly required, rather than assumption and guessing.
One outcome in the Education and Training Department is dedicated training time. Feeling unable to take time out for learning, as a result of the employee voice surveys, five days a year CPD time has been ring fenced for that team to walk their talk. The feedback is that this allocated time has been a great success.
The second annual survey was conducted in September 2024 and positive perceptions of experience at Central YMCA increased 13% year on year. This was measured by the Likert scale average across 44 questions in 4 key areas; culture and values, EDI, engagement and wellbeing.
Ideas for using data in L&D
Without a doubt, using data in your decision-making in learning means you will not only be solving learning problems, you will have a good yardstick to measure success with and you will be able to be clearer about your budgeting and spending. Have a look at the following ideas with the lens of your own context to discover what data can support you with;
- Understanding the needs of your organisation and the people within means learning can be tailored to business and individual needs. Trend analysis over time alongside qualitative data can support clear direction in needs.
- Not all issues are learning issues. Providing training will not necessarily solve for underlying systemic cultural issues. Gathering real world data enables the right solutions for the right issues, rather than throwing learning at something when even the best programme in the world cannot solve the underlying challenges.
- Being clear on the problem to be solved also gives clarity on the behaviour change or skills uplift that learning programmes are supporting. This gives a clear success measurement for after learning, thereby helping L&D to prove their value in improving their organisation.
- When you are providing programmes which you know are needed, rather than assuming, budgeting and spending can be more appropriate and offer clearer returns. Why guess when you can know?
- When people feel heard and listened to at work, there are mental health, productivity and loyalty benefits. Everyone ultimately benefits. Data is not just information or numbers, it is the stories which empower the future success of an organisation.
This case study was written by Michelle Parry-Slater, following her conversation with Rebecca Dawson for Learning Now TV.
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