Sheri Crosby Wheeler, Vice President of Global Diversity and Inclusion for Fossil Group, Inc. - Qualitative Feedback and Accountability

On the AllVoices Reimagining Company Culture podcast, we sat down with Sheri Crosby Wheeler, Vice President of Global Diversity and Inclusion at Fossil Group, Inc., to dig into qualitative feedback and accountability in DEI work. Sheri Crosby Wheeler currently works as the Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion for Fossil Group, Inc. Fossil Group is a global design, marketing, distribution and innovation company where distinctive watches, accessories and wearables are created for some of the greatest brands in the world.

The conversation moves past the usual talking points. Instead of treating feedback and accountability as an HR theme, Sheri Crosby Wheeler treats it as an operational discipline that sits in the daily decisions managers make about people, priorities, and trust. Below, the takeaways HR leaders, employee relations specialists, and executive teams will find most useful.

The discussion below pulls on several threads from the episode and connects them to current research and what AllVoices sees across hundreds of People teams.

What Feedback and Accountability Looks Like in Practice

Feedback and Accountability is one of those words HR teams use freely, but the on-the-ground version is much messier. In the conversation with Sheri Crosby Wheeler, several patterns showed up that mirror what McKinsey research on diverse leadership performance also highlights about effective people work. The gap between the slide-deck version and the daily practice is where most programs fall apart.

The data backs the case. SHRM's research on workplace priorities shows that organizations treating feedback and accountability as a real discipline outperform peers on engagement, retention, and the cultural metrics that matter most over a multi-year horizon. Companies that treat it as messaging see short-term lift and long-term decline.

For HR leaders building DEI programs, that means starting with the everyday touchpoints where feedback and accountability either lands or fails: hiring loops, onboarding, manager 1:1s, and performance conversations. These are the places where intention turns into experience, and where employees decide whether they trust the company enough to stay, speak up, and do their best work.

The pattern across high-functioning HR teams is consistent. They write fewer policies, run more pilots, and spend more time in conversation with managers who are actually doing the work. That discipline is harder than rolling out a campaign, but it is the difference between feedback and accountability as a phrase and feedback and accountability as a result.

How HR Teams Make Feedback and Accountability Operational

The shift from concept to operation is where most teams stall. Two questions usually surface in workshops with People leaders.

Where should feedback and accountability live in the org?

Ownership matters. Programs that sit only with HR rarely get traction. The strongest organizations pair central ownership in HR with distributed accountability across people managers, with a feedback loop into leadership. Employee Engagement can help build the capacity to run that distributed model without losing visibility, and gives the People team a single place to track what is actually happening.

What does success look like in 12 months?

Most teams need a one-year mark with concrete outcomes: a measurable change in employee engagement scores, a defined set of policy and process changes, and named owners for the work. Without that, the program drifts and budget questions become harder to defend. The honest version of a 12-month plan also includes two or three things you tried and decided not to repeat.

What Actually Works When You Lead Feedback and Accountability

Three patterns repeat across People teams that get this work right. The principles cut across industry and company size.

Pair every metric with a story

Quantitative data tells you what changed. Qualitative feedback tells you why. Neither is enough alone.

Build feedback into the rhythm

Annual surveys are too slow for accountability. Pulse, ERG roundtables, and listening sessions feed leaders what they need to act in real time.

Close the loop publicly

When employees give feedback and never hear what changed, they stop giving feedback. Visible follow-through is the only thing that builds trust over time.

These three principles also depend on the underlying culture. Without a baseline of 360 survey, most operational changes get rejected by the organization's immune system. Build the foundation first.

Where Employee Relations Fits Into Feedback and Accountability

Whatever the topic, employee relations sits underneath. Feedback and Accountability programs that ignore the ER reality get blindsided by a case that should have been resolved early. AllVoices builds investigations management and HR case management so HR teams can connect the surface-level work on feedback and accountability to the deeper work of resolving issues, tracking patterns, and acting on what employees raise. The two are tightly linked: when employees see issues handled fairly, they trust the rest of the work too.

How ER data informs Feedback and Accountability strategy

Issue patterns, response times, and resolution outcomes give HR a clearer picture than survey data alone. When the ER data is integrated into Employee Relations workflows, leaders can see how feedback and accountability translates into the lived experience of employees who raise concerns, and what to do about it. The teams that move fastest tend to review case themes monthly and feed those insights into the broader people strategy, instead of treating ER as a separate, reactive function.

For a real example, see TrueCar's growth story. The same pattern applies: connect the strategic intent of feedback and accountability to the operational rhythm where ER, HR, and managers actually meet employees.

Frequently Asked Questions About Feedback and Accountability

Why is qualitative feedback important for DEI?

Numbers like representation and retention show outcomes, but not why they happened. Qualitative feedback surfaces the daily experiences, microaggressions, and process gaps behind the numbers.

How do you collect qualitative DEI feedback?

Combine pulse surveys with open-text questions, ERG roundtables, structured listening sessions, exit interviews, and confidential reporting channels. Triangulate across all of them.

How do you act on qualitative feedback?

Cluster themes, prioritize the patterns rather than the loudest voice, and assign owners with deadlines. Then publish what changed and what didn't, with the reasoning.

Should feedback be anonymous?

Anonymous channels matter for sensitive issues, but not all feedback should be anonymous. The strongest cultures combine anonymous channels for safety with named feedback in trusted relationships.

How does feedback connect to accountability?

Accountability requires a clear feedback loop: someone identifies the issue, someone owns the response, and someone reports back. Skipping any step breaks accountability and trust.

The Bottom Line for HR Leaders

Feedback and Accountability is not a posture. It's a set of decisions, repeated over time, by people who control budgets, promotions, calendars, and the daily experience of work. The HR leaders who get traction stop treating this as a campaign and start treating it as ongoing operational practice. That reframing matters because it changes how you measure success and where you put your energy week to week.

That shift requires data, follow-through, and a clear point of view. McKinsey research on diverse leadership performance and the broader research community make the business case clearer every year. The companies that act on it consistently win on retention, culture, and outcomes that show up on the financial statement. The ones that keep treating the work as branding tend to lose ground quietly, then noisily.

The conversation with Sheri Crosby Wheeler is a useful reminder that the work is doable. None of it requires a huge HR team or a massive budget. It requires clear thinking, consistent execution, and the willingness to adjust when the data tells you to. Pair that mindset with the right tooling and the right partners, and feedback and accountability stops being aspirational and becomes a measurable part of how the business runs.

Want to see how AllVoices supports HR teams running this work? Book a demo.