Employee feedback is key to both personal and professional development. It plays a significant role in the employee’s performance and behaviour within their team, as well. But how can we give feedback correctly so that it leads to improvement? Here come some great solutions.
When giving feedback is crucial?
There are certain cases when it is essential to give feedback to your workers. For example when an employee didn’t set realistic goals, didn’t meet deadlines, or made a mistake. It is also crucial when an employee does not take initiatives and they seem disengaged, and also when their performance has declined. You also have to have a talk to them if they were rude to a colleague or customer or does not get on well with somebody.
The key components of effective feedback
Sometimes the feedback is positive, and sometimes it is negative. Both are essential, and make sure that you give both negative feedback to help your employee improve and positive feedback to make them feel valued. When giving any kind of feedback, touch on three key things:
- their behaviour – what the employee did and how they did it,
- its outcome – what was the result of their behaviour, and how it affected the team or the corporation, and
- the next steps – how to maintain positive outcomes and how to solve the negative ones.
How to take your employee feedback to the next level?
To give feedback more effectively, you should focus on the behaviour and not the person. It is crucial when you give negative feedback. Put the emphasis on problem-solving instead of scolding the person. People often give negative feedback in the middle of positive feedback to soften the blow. Don’t do that. It just simply does not work. It is better to be straightforward, employees will appreciate your honesty. And also remember to follow up on the feedback. Track the worker’s progress and look at what is working and what isn’t.
Giving performance appraisal as a leader is not an easy task, especially when you are faced with situations you’ve never seen before. But there are even tougher cases, believe us…
A recent study showed that critical feedback received from colleagues drive employees away from that social network. So instead of helping their development it is rather like a psychological threat. How can you encourage your employees to give honest feedback to each other in a way that it helps workers improve? We will continue with this topic next week.
