A disconnect between employee perception and reality can be a thorn in the side of any organisation. Polls show that this communication breakdown is one of the biggest factors in high turnover rates and employee dissatisfaction. We’ll delve into the figures to back this up later. Those headlines are enough to capture any manager’s attention, but there’s more to consider when it comes to gathering employee feedback.
Employee feedback is proven to help people feel motivated and goal orientated. But it can be tricky to provide and gather feedback within teams. Challenges include dealing with the inevitable parts of our human nature, from rejecting criticism to placing too much focus on negative comments and failing to remember the good. This can lead to other issues like postponing feedback meetings because they feel uncomfortable, being vague with expectations, or not providing 360 feedback.
Being aware of these issues and working to overcome them is an important first step to bettering feedback in the workplace. And if we were to give you some stats to persuade you to do just that, we’d tell you that surveys show that globally, 60% of employees say their boss has damaged their self-esteem. And another revealed that one toxic employee in a team of 20 can make your best employees 54% more likely to quit.
So, while stats and ideologies help us see why employee feedback is a process that needs to be practised and perfected, the question remains on how to gather staff feedback, or what constructive feedback actually looks like. We’ll be exploring the answers to those questions further here.
Importance of Feedback in the Workplace
So why is feedback important in the workplace? Improving performance and increased motivation are two powerful measures. But there’s more:
Empowers Employees
Rather than just telling people that they’re doing well, studies show that people crave constructive feedback. That means providing detail on how they can improve. The Harvard Business Review reports that 72% of employees believe that constructive feedback was the key to improving performance. And 57% preferred “corrective feedback” to praise.
Improves Engagement
To boil it down to simple terms, one study showed that 4 in 10 workers feel actively disengaged when they receive little or no feedback. In contrast, 43% of highly engaged employees receive feedback once a week at least. The reason people feel more engaged when they receive feedback regularly is down to a cultural preference for improving, developing and learning new skills.
Increases Motivation
Interestingly, research from London Business School shows that high performing team members need more “positive affirmation after setbacks.” Which is a good argument for not leaving competent employees, or anyone else for that matter, to simply get on with it. To keep motivation high throughout the team, regardless of status, experience or performance, regular constructive feedback is a must.
What is Constructive Feedback in the Workplace?
While the term “constructive” feedback is used a lot in these situations, there is sometimes a lack of clarity over what that looks like. That can lead to managers feeling under-confident when it comes to providing feedback, and staff feeling disengaged as a result.
True constructive feedback is just one approach to providing workplace feedback. It’s a method that relies on information specific, issue-focussed feedback which is based on observations. Constructive feedback can either be negative or positive feedback or negative or positive feedforward.
How to Get the Workplace Feedback You Need
These days we have the tools and even the tech to develop effective 360 feedback strategies. This will enable managers and teams overall to develop best practices for honest, constructive employee feedback.
Top feedback methods in the workplace include:
Employee Surveys
Broader questions in companywide staff surveys act as a useful yardstick to take an overarching view on the feel throughout the company and where larger sweeping problems may lie. Although it’s a powerful tool for gathering feedback, they need to be managed correctly. Carefully considering the details, including the survey structure, the language used and the questions asked, will deliver the best response rates and actionable feedback. Although this might not give you specific detail by job role, it will add to the big picture of company culture.
Individual Performance Reviews
Continuous feedback is vital to keep the conversation going and allow employees to feel connected with their manager and the company. While this can be time consuming the process provides tangible benefits in boosting morale and focus.
The worry in delivering negative feedback is that it will knock an employee’s confidence or their trust in the person delivering it. But through investigating the right language, terms and approaches to delivering feedback, this can be balanced out. Training will be needed to bring the managers up to speed with the right tone.
Team Meetings
Putting off feedback is one of the main issues for managers and staff. Although providing negative feedback can feel uncomfortable, remember that most employees want to learn and grow. But there are other forums for gathering feedback aside from a one-to-one meeting. Team meetings can provide a valuable platform for those less likely to share concerns or thoughts one-to-one, but the structure of the meeting needs to be planned to give people the floor and the confidence to speak up.
Anonymous Staff Suggestions
The anonymous suggestion box has pros and cons. It is a useful tool for collecting feedback that might otherwise be lost. At the same time, suggestion boxes are often overlooked by both managers and employees if they don’t receive the right treatment. Putting it in the right place, reminding people that it’s there, and checking it frequently, as well as acting on feedback are all musts.
360 Feedback
The best feedback flows both ways. That extends right to the top, allowing people to feedback on managers and leaders throughout the business, as well as receiving constructive feedback on their performance. While investment may be needed to develop an effective 360-feedback system, businesses and organisations benefit from having a systematic way to collect and share valuable feedback.
Thomas.co Workplace Feedback Resources
The days of collecting feedback through archaic means are far behind us. We now have the technology to boost workplace feedback and create strategies that work. Thomas.co are experts in exactly that.
Our developed suite of assessment tools includes a 360-degree feedback assessment, and employee engagement assessments. Tapping into these tools will give your HR teams, managers and staff throughout the business a benchmark to work towards, improving the process for all.
