Employee feedback: Top tips for HR specialists

Feedback to an employee is an integral part of corporate culture. Employees find it difficult to work if they do not understand the results of their actions. Moreover, it is important for people not only to learn about their mistakes but also to understand how to correct them. Therefore, organizing feedback is crucial not only for the company’s efficiency but also for a healthy atmosphere within the team.

What is employee feedback?

Feedback is a response to specific actions of an employee and their work as a whole over a certain period of time based on the results of their activity and productivity. It can be both positive and negative.

Feedback purpose - to adjust the employee's actions so that they can achieve their goals as quickly as possible, or to confirm that they are acting correctly.

Feedback can be considered effective if, after communication, the employee has formed clear conclusions based on their work results and an action plan for the future. At the same time, it is important that these align with the conclusions of those providing the feedback. A shared vision of the future is the key to success.

Why is feedback important for an employee?

Feedback allows to inform the employee about how their actions are perceived by others, what reaction they provoke, and what consequences they have for the company. Meanwhile, the employee receives data about the actions, events, and processes that they influence.

Thanks to feedback, you can:

• show the employee how valuable they are to the company and support their level of motivation;
• show the employee the goal and set tasks for them;
• determine the reasons for the employee's mistakes or low motivation;
• increase the level of trust both within the team and between employees and management;
• foster a team approach among employees, enhancing cohesion and collaboration;
• identify which processes and tools hinder the quick resolution of tasks and negatively impact results;
• highlight areas that require development or improvement, which will help ensure the company's progress;
• assess the employee's satisfaction with their tasks, the atmosphere in the company, and relationships within the team.

There is no consensus on how often feedback should be given to employees. Each company should find its own style of conducting and providing feedback based on its particularities. Most experts agree that each year it is worthwhile to conduct a "180 degree feedback", where the employee is evaluated only by their manager and themselves, or a "360 degree feedback", where the employee is evaluated by their colleagues and leadership. Feedback in a shortened form can be given every few months, half a year, after the completion of a project, or, if necessary, after solving complex tasks (both successful and otherwise).

How to give feedback to an employee

In order for the feedback to be as effective as possible, it is important to pay attention to a number of rules.

1. Consider a conversation plan

You should decide in advance what you plan to say and how. If you are afraid of forgetting something during the conversation, you should make a small plan.

It's important to think through the wording if you plan to give negative feedback. Even if the manager is frustrated and the employee has been underperforming, it's not worth insulting the person. The goal is to point out the mistakes, not to criticize and provoke aggression. It's best to start with positive aspects of the work and gradually move to the criticisms.

You can also find out what colleagues think about the employee you plan to give feedback to. Learn what they think about his qualities as a specialist and whether he is able to resolve conflicts. This will help form an opinion about how well he fits the company as a whole.

2. Inform the employee about the upcoming conversation

If employees can be called "to the carpet" at any moment in the company, they will perceive such an environment as unsafe. A person does not understand how to plan their workday and whether they will manage to complete all tasks. After all, they may only start working when they are urgently called to management.

If a person knows that someone plans to talk to them, they will be less anxious and will be able to properly allocate their working time. Moreover, the employee will have time to reflect on all their successes and mistakes, which will be beneficial for the conversation.

3. A personal meeting is always better

Feedback should definitely be given to an employee during a one-on-one personal meeting. It is not advisable to praise or criticize a person in front of their colleagues. After all, not only criticism but also praise can make someone feel nervous. Moreover, the employee might be embarrassed to ask clarifying questions in public.

A 1-on-1 can be scheduled using a special tool in the HRM system. The employee receives a notification with the time and date of the meeting, allowing them to prepare in advance by thinking of the questions they would like to discuss.

4. You should not start a conversation with criticism

If you start criticizing a person right away, they will immediately start to defend themselves. This is a natural psychological reaction. In a stressful situation, an employee will not perceive arguments, even if they are fair.

Therefore, it is necessary to build the conversation in such a way that it is not perceived as directed aggression towards the person. The conversation should start with a neutral topic. This creates a trusting atmosphere in which the employee can calmly accept both praise and criticism.

5. The Inadmissibility of evaluative judgments

Effective feedback to an employee is a list of facts, not an assessment of the individual's personal qualities. The employee needs to be told how their actions are perceived by other employees and how they affect team performance and project quality. The individual makes their own decision about how to act on the information received.

6. Comments should be specific

A person should be told what actions helped them succeed or led to failure. If this is not explained, the employee will not be able to correct their mistakes in the future. There's no need to fear that the conversation will take a lot of time. It's better to spend that time once than to deal with accumulated problems later.

7. All mistakes can be fixed

An employee should understand that anyone can make mistakes, the main thing is that they are corrected in time. There is no need to constantly remind a person that their actions led to failure. The employee understands this themselves, so it is worth focusing more on future actions and how to find a way out of the situation.

8. Feedback is not a monologue

It is said not only by the one who gives feedback, but also by the one who receives it. An employee should have the opportunity to share their experiences and express their point of view on the current situation. Management may not be aware of certain aspects or may not have all the information. Therefore, to resolve all issues, a dialogue is necessary. The employee should understand that their opinion is important.

9. Finding a common solution

After the management and the employee together understood the essence of the problem, it is also important to develop a joint strategy for its resolution. The conversation can be structured in such a way that the person proposes solutions themselves and takes responsibility.

If the employee does not understand how to solve the problem, they need help: suggest a few options and give advice. The main thing is not to pressure the person but to show them how they can solve the problem or become more effective. Together with the employee, a plan of action for the future can be developed, and deadlines for solving specific problems can be established.

Examples of feedback

Companies regularly look for optimal options for organizing feedback. They choose various models depending on their specifics, number of employees, and the tasks they perform.

For example, the company Netflix cultivates radical honesty and uses the "Start. Stop. Continue." system for providing feedback. In team meetings, everyone can tell their colleague what they should start doing, what they should stop doing, and what they are doing well, and therefore should continue. There is also a feedback distribution system in the company, structured in the same way. Once a year, on the day of general feedback, an employee can send their comment to any colleague.

The large Canadian and American restaurant chain Earls Kitchen + Bar conducts employee satisfaction surveys in each of its restaurants. Moreover, employees can make suggestions for improving the restaurant's operation and know that their suggestions can be accepted. The company president, Mo Jessa, has repeatedly stated that they have managed to improve their metrics thanks to the ideas of the employees.

The company Pixar, which is one of the market leaders in animation production, uses the Plussing formula for feedback. This rule states that when criticizing an idea, a person must necessarily offer their own solution.

Feedback tools

Feedback during personnel evaluation is carried out using certain tools. Each of them performs a range of functions, and together they provide the necessary result.

1:1 meetings

1:1 meetings are a key tool for a manager, which can be used to facilitate the management of an employee's development, monitor their emotional state, understand their expectations, and enhance their effectiveness. Such meetings allow for the employee to provide maximum return in the long term.

The employee, in turn, can understand what his management wants or report any issues that have arisen.

Feedback management using OKR

OKR, or Objectives and Key Results, is a widely used methodology that allows for the establishment of desired goals and the achievement of necessary results in a company's work. In this case, the goals are measurable achievements that can be valuable both for the company and for its clients. Clear indicators of whether the goals have been achieved are the key results.

OKRs provide the opportunity to:

• create a hierarchy of goals from company goals to individual goals;
• direct all efforts in the right direction;
• emphasize the goals that need attention;
• improve the quality of communication between different departments;
• abandon the acceptance of centralized decisions;
• implement transparent delegation of powers.

Satisfaction survey (eNPS)

It is known that successful employees will support the company's culture. At the same time, dissatisfied employees can not only work worse but also create an unfavorable atmosphere overall. Feedback helps to determine how employees feel about the company.

Feedback as a management tool can also be conducted through a satisfaction survey or Net Promoter Score (eNPS). The HRM system allows you to create an anonymous survey and obtain a real picture of how satisfied the company's employees are with their conditions, goals, and attitudes.

Mood tracking

Employee productivity is one of the key conditions for a company to operate as effectively as possible. The main factor that affects motivation and productivity is the mood of the employees. Therefore, HR professionals must monitor it. And while in small companies it is possible to speak personally with each employee, in large firms everything is significantly more complex.

HRM system can generate a small survey that a person must fill out each time they log in. This makes it easy to track employee mood and calculate changes.

Daily feedback

Feedback every day or every few days allows for a quick response to any changes in the situation and answers to employees' questions. This way, they can better understand what to do in various situations.

A wonderful feedback tool is daily meetings. They can be organized by the PM, team lead, or the manager themselves if the company is small. During the meeting, employees can discuss current tasks, receive feedback from management, and ask any necessary questions. Holding such meetings is extremely important: they help to avoid accumulating questions and dissatisfaction, as well as establish constant communication with employees.

Properly organized feedback will help to form a culture of high efficiency. An employee can correct their mistakes, understand how to act next to bring maximum benefit to the company. And management receives information about employee satisfaction levels, concerning what interests or worries them. Feedback for employees is a great way to enhance the effectiveness of both individual employees and the company as a whole.