The fastest way to kill an employee survey is to do nothing with the results.
Not because employees expect every piece of feedback to lead to immediate change. But because people quickly notice when feedback disappears into a void.
In Stribe’s Big HR Check-in Report 2025–2026, organisations showed a clear commitment to listening more, but the data also revealed a growing tension: organisations are getting better at collecting feedback than acting on it.
That’s what we call the feedback-action gap, and overtime it significantly damages employee trust.
At first glance, the findings look positive:
The intention is clearly there, and HR teams want to understand how employees are feeling. But listening more frequently creates a new challenge: employees begin expecting visible follow-through. And that’s where things start to unfold…
When we asked HR professionals how confident they are that feedback is truly acted upon:
On paper, 55% confidence may sound reasonably healthy. However the very small number of organisations that feel ‘very confident’ suggests many HR teams are operating in uncertainty – where action sometimes happens, but not consistently enough to build real trust.
That inconsistency is important, because employees don’t judge feedback processes by whether organisations listen, they judge them by whether anything meaningfully changes afterwards.
One of the most interesting tensions in the report is this: The rise in employee listening may actually increase frustration if organisations aren’t equipped to respond properly.
Every survey creates a psychological contract. Employees are told:
But if the organisation repeatedly asks questions without visible movement, people start questioning leadership and losing trust.
Many organisations respond to low engagement by changing the tool:
But the findings suggest the real issue is often organisational follow-through.
The challenge isn’t usually: “Are we listening?” It’s: “Do employees believe listening leads somewhere?”
And it explains why some organisations collect large amounts of employee feedback while still struggling with:
The report also highlighted something important around manager confidence. To understand employee sentiment, a large proportion of organisations rely on:
But conversational feedback only works well when managers are comfortable:
Without those skills, feedback can become filtered, because employees will naturally edit themselves when they aren’t sure how honesty will be received.
This creates another issue of the feedback–action gap: HR may be making decisions based on incomplete insight.
One of the biggest misconceptions around employee feedback is that organisations need to fix everything employees raise. You don’t.
In reality, employees are usually more understanding of limitations than organisations expect. What people really want is clarity.
Closing the loop often means:
As organisations continue increasing employee listening, expectations will continue rising too.
This means the companies that stand out won’t necessarily be the ones running the most surveys.
They’ll be the ones best at:
This is where platforms like Stribe become valuable. Not simply because they collect feedback, but because they help organisations:
Employees don’t expect perfection, but they do expect momentum.
When organisations repeatedly ask for feedback without visible follow-through, surveys slowly lose meaning. But when employees can see that feedback shapes conversations, decisions and priorities (even in small ways) trust grows surprisingly quickly.
About the author
Starting out her early career as a journalist, Jade Madeley is an accomplished content writer with 8+ years’ experience across business, personal finance, SaaS, human resources and employee engagement. Working with Stribe, she crafts insightful content that brings complex HR topics to life and drives meaningful action.
