Provide constructive feedback

Encourage provision of constructive feedback in workplace

Constructive feedback is positive feedback given to individuals to assist them in identifying remedies to areas of weakness. As a result, it is intended to be constructive and a helpful communication tool to address specific difficulties or concerns.

Purpose of constructive feedback:

Constructive feedback is intended to provide feedback to an individual to lead to improvements or corrections. This is significant because it promotes personal and professional development in individuals.

Constructive feedback, for example,

• Can: boost employee morale
• Reduce uncertainty about expectations and existing performance.
• Give the person receiving comments a fresh perspective and important insight.
• Positively influence a person's conduct.

Ways to make feedback constructive:

Focus on observation and not inference:

Constructive feedback should be based on what you observe or hear about that person's actions, rather than assumptions and interpretations.

Focus on behaviour and not the individual:

Constructive critique should focus on what the person did rather than who the person is.

Focus on things that can be changed:

Constructive feedback should focus on things that a person can modify and improve on rather than problems over which he or she has no control.

Provide recommendations and solutions:

A concrete solution or idea should be included in constructive feedback.

Ways to encourage the provision of constructive feedback in the workplace:

Skip-level meetings:

A skip-level meeting occurs when a leader or senior executive meets with personnel two levels below them in the hierarchy one-on-one. This can be an excellent approach for CEOs to stay in touch with the day-to-day realities of the business while also increasing the flow of information.

Survey Your Employees:

Surveys are a simple and low-cost approach to gather a large amount of information. A survey can assist you in the following ways:

• Determine the areas where you wish to make changes, such as enhancing internal communications.
• Know what is bothering your employees, such as a lack of training or making decisions that differently affect employees of different demographics.
• Send a message to all employees that you are paying attention and care about what they think.

If you have the time and knowledge to analyse the data and figure out what to do with it, you can use SurveyMonkey.com's basic employee engagement surveys. However, if there is a specific area of staff experience that you want to focus on, or if you want to measure the organisation's achievements in a specific area – such as integration following a merger, or whether your recent investment in managers' skills has a noticeable impact – consider contacting Work logic for assistance.

Conduct exit interviews:

Exit interviews with departing employees can reveal a wealth of information. Sure, the departing employee may not provide you with a report on the "average" experience of the remaining workforce, given that they are either leaving for good (moving on to a better role) or negative reasons (resigning) (their employment has been terminated or made redundant). However, they are likely to feel able to tell you things they would not have told you if they were still employed, even if they frame it carefully to prevent burning bridges.

Undertake some research to see if you can find out the real reasons individuals leave; this will allow you to do some corrective work and reduce turnover.

Confidential complaints line:

Many employees refrain from speaking up because they are frightened of repercussions if they file a complaint. Allowing employees to raise issues anonymously is a smart strategy to encourage hesitant employees to speak out.

Some of our clients allow their employees to file a complaint with an external complaints manager, including anonymously. For example, Work logic provides a free service to our clients via www.integrityline.com.au, an impartial, secure route for reporting workplace wrongdoing and unethical behaviour. Employees can report inappropriate behaviour by phone or using our online reporting system. Reports filed with Integrity Line are delivered to the specified person at the subscriber organisation, who then decides how to handle the report.

Workplace review:

Performs impartial workplace assessments of difficult, dysfunctional, or unethical workplaces and teams, as well as significant situations. After investigating the scenario, provide practical and strategic guidance for resolving workplace issues. Uncover challenges, dangers, and opportunities to improve the team's morale, efficiency, functionality, and ethics.

Ask for ideas:

Encourage others to contribute new ideas and to speak up when things aren't going smoothly. Make time on the meeting agenda for participants to bring forward new ideas and possibilities for improvement. Pay attention to what they say and recognise those who speak up — even if their ideas are not eventually implemented. You might also have a central gathering point where employees can contribute their ideas and feedback (such as web-enabled chat or a discussion forum).

Next steps:

If your survey results or a departing employee have ‘dropped a bombshell' and disclosed aspects about the workplace that have surprised the leaders, do not discount or minimise the new information. You now have fresh information about how the organisation operates, so utilise it to the organisation's benefit.

Think:

• Is a high-profile response required, or something more nuanced? Is a response required right away?
• Where to obtain assistance for the risks and opportunities and developing a response strategy?
• Will the company suffer if you do nothing to address this situation? Will we be less capable of achieving our objectives?
• To whom can this new knowledge be shared?

Clarify with board members and management whose role it is to provide feedback to staff members about their performance

Top managers: set the tone for the entire process by defining trends and serving as role models for the staff. Their role is to develop policies that promote effective performance management and identify and implement performance-related core values.

Board members: serve as fiduciaries, steering the organisation toward a sustainable future by implementing solid, ethical, and legal governance and financial management rules, as well as ensuring the organisation has the resources to carry out its objective.

Ways that board members and management can use to provide feedback to staff members about their performance:

Avoid giving unsolicited advice:

Only one-third of people believe that the feedback they receive is beneficial. This is because it is frequently unsolicited, which can cause a great deal of stress for the individual receiving it.

If your direct report does not request feedback directly, either in person or via the request feedback function, make sure to ask them if, when, and how they would like to receive it.

By doing so, you can give your employees control and enhance the likelihood that they will act on the feedback you provide. Give your employees the ability to direct the feedback plan by making them feel secure and comfortable enough to request it.

Be specific:

• Employee feedback should be solution-focused, concise, and to the point.
• Be precise about what you want your employee to accomplish and provide assistance on using the feedback.

Come with a deep level of empathy:

Delivering feedback that reveals a significant gap in self-awareness necessitates an extra level of sensitivity. Be prepared to allow your colleague the space they will need to feel stunned after getting your critique before approaching them

Don’t wait for a quarterly review:

Employee feedback received immediately after an event has the greatest influence on performance. As a result, by the time the quarterly performance evaluation arrives, you'll be confronted with a slew of concerns that may have been prevented if brought up sooner.

Daily or weekly feedback will help you avoid the recency bias—which primarily reflects recent work and happens infrequently enough to coincide with the employee's workflow—and will make tracking and analysing a colleague's work much easier for all parties involved.

Keep it private:

Consider providing employee feedback in the form of a written response. This can give you time to think and provide a more intelligent response.

Make the conversation a two-way street:

Allow the receiver to respond to your feedback and ask follow-up questions. Once the problem is identified, you and your partner can collaborate to develop a solution or plan of action.

Keep the conversation going by following up:

Instead of seeing feedback conversations as a one-and-done, follow up with your direct report and express gratitude when you notice progress. This will demonstrate your concern for their success and may inspire them to keep up the good job.

Provide feedback to people about their performance where appropriate

Feedback means actively listening, analysing, and then devising the greatest feasible solution to improve performance. It offers constructive criticism and enables everyone to recognise what they can do to enhance their attention and results. It promotes personal and professional growth.

It is an excellent self-development tool because it offers fast solutions for improving the performance of people.

Importance of providing feedback:

• Inspires progress and stimulates growth: Feedback helps people to take a fresh look at them. It allows them to see how people see them and the effect of their attitudes. It is useful for leaders, as it allows them to see how they can best foster confidence and promote better results from their team.
• It instils a feeling of purpose in people: In the workplace, feedback comprises being respected for our work and the value we provide to the organisation and being aware that we are part of a larger team working toward the same goals.
• It improves employee engagement: It motivates people to come to work every day and give their best. It reaffirms to the workers that what they are doing is worthwhile.
• It enhances working relationships: Feedback opens up lines of communication between employees. It is useful when there is a disagreement or tension between co-workers. It allows solving problems and finding new ways of working together in the workplace.

Ways to provide feedback to people about their performance where appropriate

360-degree feedback: allows for participation in the feedback process from all team members and leaders. All co-workers and managers can provide feedback about the performance of employees. The approach is based on a rating system and covers pre-designed questions. Individuals are then allowed to make written statements. The individual being assessed will also score themselves on the same form.

Advantages of 360-degree feedback:

• Provides insight into unique abilities that members of the team will focus on improving.
• It gives team members a greater understanding of what the rest of the team is saying.
• Allows members of the team to build on their existing strengths.
• Encourages team members to better understand their role and team expectations.

Constructive criticism: Positive and negative comments are used in constructive criticism. You can inspire and empower people simultaneously by providing feedback that emphasises both the positive and negative aspects. Some of the advantages of constructive feedback are as follows:

• Team members gain a fresh outlook on their accomplishments as well as areas for change.
• By identifying precise areas for growth, you may build a favourable relationship with the team member.

Coaching: In this model, you allow the team members to provide feedback to themselves first. Following that, you and the team member take the self-rated reviews when offering your input as a coach. The following are some of the benefits of coaching feedback:

• Encourages team members to improve their ability to give and receive feedback.
• Assists you in comprehending the concerns of each team member.

Evaluation: A scoring tool for you and your team members to score success is needed for evaluation feedback. After that, the results are compared and addressed. This method of feedback is beneficial in a workplace where output can be measured numerically. The following are the benefits of evaluation feedback:

• Encourages team members to evaluate success based on a concrete number by creating an atmosphere to freely discuss performance.
• Provides a method for improvement that can be measured.

Team meetings: Team meetings can also be scheduled to provide feedback about the performance of staff members. Team meetings are useful because it is often easier to communicate and provide feedback in a group setting.

Email & chat: Allow managers to provide feedback about the performance of staff members by email and arrange it with labels or folders.