The Blueprint for Employee Feedback

As an HR Manager, it's your responsibility to coach and help provide feedback to employees. Feedback plays an essential role in boosting employee morale, development, and engagement. It also helps drive collaboration and communication between teams. You can use this information to help them grow their skills and take on new responsibilities.

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In an ideal world, workplace feedback should always be constructive, and form part of continuing developmental conversations. But in reality, that’s not always the case—and if employees don’t have the support to process negative feedback, it could harm their emotional wellbeing and motivation long-term. Preparing managers to give constructive feedback is important, and having the support and strategies in place to help employees process it successfully is paramount. This article will give you an overview of the steps in the employee feedback process, as well as best practices for giving effective feedback.

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Best practices for giving feedback

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As an HR leader, consider these practices as you observe how managers provide feedback to their employees, and invest time and effort in coaching your managers to apply them in order to get the best outcomes when they share feedback with the employees.

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Timeliness

Feedback should be timely. If a manager is more than two weeks late in giving feedback, it can become a bit of a guessing game for your employee.

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Specificity

The more detailed you are about what’s working and not working, the better your employee will understand how to improve their performance. While it may feel like there’s not enough time in your day to provide specific feedback on everything that needs improvement, remember that every bit counts!

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Objectivity

Your employees should never feel like they have to “go along with your opinion” or “agree just so we can get through this meeting quickly." Your goal with all meetings should be to help the person—not just tell them what they need to hear.

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Clearness

Don't beat around the bush! Be clear about what isn't working so that people know where they stand without being swayed by any emotion on either side of the equation. In addition, if there are any questions about something said during a meeting or discussion—whether from an individual who doesn't fully grasp what was meant by something said or someone who thinks there were some holes left open--make sure everyone understands before moving forward onto other things.

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Constructiveness

Constructive criticism serves as an opportunity for growth rather than punishment; however, don't forget that sometimes people may need time away from the work environment before re-engaging fully after receiving negative feedback. Allow your employees time to process the information. 

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Strategies to help employees process feedback 

Effective feedback is central to employee development. It makes employees feel valued, helps them improve their performance and gives them a sense of purpose. Here are three key strategies that will help your employees process the feedback you’ve given:

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Ask them what they think of the feedback

This is an important step because it allows them to start processing their thoughts and feelings about what you said. Don’t interrupt when they speak—just let them talk until they have fully processed their thoughts and feelings.

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Provide clarity about what you meant

Provide clarity about what you meant or feel about the situation if there are any misunderstandings. You might want to say something like “I didn’t mean for it to sound like…” or “I was disappointed because…” Then explain how you would have preferred for them to act differently in response.

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Ask how they could improve in light of the feedback

Ask how they could improve in light of the information from you and others who provided feedback. Give specific suggestions on what steps they could take towards improvement, but don't insist on doing things your way.

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After the employee has processed the feedback, it is important to consider how it will be used going forward. It may be useful if you keep track of all of your employee’s strengths as well as areas for improvement so that they can see their progress over time—this will motivate them to continue improving.

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In Conclusion

Good feedback helps enhance the employee experience and improve team performance. But choosing the right tools for gathering feedback is also crucial. Make sure you offer a range of options to suit your whole team, whether that’s an anonymous suggestion box, informal check-ins, or regular one-to-one meetings.

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A platform like Engagesoft can help organizations collate all of their feedback into one place, making it easier to identify trends across their employee experience, take action to make changes, and track new issues over time. Click here for a demo!