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“We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.” Bill Gates
Feedback is an essential element for everyone in an organisation’s workforce. Providing feedback is a task people perform in order to let other people know where they are, and what they can enhance on, or where to go in terms of goals and expectations.
Be honest with yourself about why you want to give feedback. Is it for your own needs and preferences or is it the best for the team and organisation? Words can be taken or interpreted as offensive if it was conveyed in an incorrect manner or purposes. Hence, it is important to provide feedback adequately and also to receive it deceptively.
Providing feedback is likewise a functional tool for enhancing personal development and professional growth. The purpose of giving feedback is to provide guidance by ensuring practical information in a proper manner, either to support effective behaviour or to guide someone back on track towards successful performance.
But unfortunately, feedback is frequently disregarded or overlooked completely to avoid discomfort. Check out the article below to explore how to provide constructive feedback whilst conserving a good connection.
6 Ways To Build A Feedback-Driven Culture That Inspires Healthy Communication
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| Employees at every level of an organization need to feel that their voice and opinions matter. |
A healthy culture derives from healthy
and honest feedback between employees at all layers of an organization. Without
feedback, organisations remain stagnant and hold themselves back. Feedback
helps to shape individuals by correcting their mistakes, recognising their
strengths and setting objectives to help them grow. However, feedback has
become something employees and managers dread. This is the result of poor
communication when delivering feedback causing the receiver to shut down or
become defensive.
Here are six ways companies can build a
feedback driven culture that inspires healthy communication.
Make It Apart Of The Process From Day
One
It’s important for companies to
illustrate that feedback is important on all levels of the organisation. This
can be done by having a manager and/or an onboarding buddy that delivers and
seeks feedback, distributing a survey, making feedback an integral part of a
town hall or meeting.
Tatyana Tyagun, HR generalist
at Chanty, shared, “we have a small training program where we teach our
employees how to leave feedback in a meaningful way, when to leave it and how
to react to feedback once they receive it.” She added, “by incorporating this
training in your onboarding process, you’re making sure that everyone is on the
same page when it comes to leaving feedback. We have it recorded in video form
and every team member can access it at a later point as well.
When something such as feedback becomes
a habit, it naturally becomes a part of the company culture. Change takes time
and it requires buy-in from everyone in the organisation. A culture that never
asked for employee feedback, opinions or ideas will take longer to adjust than
one who already has established solid communication with their team.
Explain The Why
Oftentimes, companies put practices or
policies into place without explaining the why behind them. They point out what
an employee is doing wrong without explaining why it’s wrong and how it can be
fixed.
Sonya Schwartz, founder of Her
Norm, explained, “the ability to receive and giving feedback must be developed
like a skill that is why you as a brand need to give your employees the
training and resources they need to be good at giving and receiving feedback.
Feedback shouldn’t just occur between an
employee and their manager but also between their peers. The goal of seeking
and delivering feedback is to improve performance and workplace relationships.
Michelle Devania, founder
of lovedevani, shared “if people know the reason behind asking for feedback,
they would know which kind of feedback they will give.”
Educate On The How
Delivering feedback isn’t always easy.
It’s why most don’t do it. Contrarily, when feedback is given, it’s given
incorrectly ultimately harming the employee experience instead of improving it.
Taking the time to educate everyone, regardless of title or rank, on how to
deliver feedback is fundamental in creating a feedback-driven culture.
Taking the time to bring awareness on
embracing criticism instead of rejecting it will help receivers from going on
the defensive and shutting down instead of using feedback as a learning
opportunity. When training, make it interactive by pairing individuals and
having them practice as well as providing real-life workplace examples. This
helps them to connect what they learn into real-life workplace scenarios.
Create A Safe Environment
Employees will only feel comfortable
giving feedback, especially to their superiors, if they feel safe and are
certain they won’t face negative repercussions for doing so. Managers and HR
must nurture relationships where employees feel comfortable coming forward with
negative feedback without the fear of losing their job or being retaliated
against. Carole Burman, managing director at MAD-HR, an HR consultancy, said,
“it’s important to be respectful and not force feedback.”
If one isn’t already implemented,
companies should implement and consistently communicate their anti-retaliation
policy in addition to encouraging employees to be honest about things they see
that could be damaging or improved upon within the company. Employees are the
ones who are on the frontline with customers and clients and aware of the
problems and see where things can be improved. It’s imperative that their
voices are heard if businesses truly want to improve.
Typically, employees go to HR with any
concerns they have. However, HR can sometimes fail to communicate those
concerns to management and leadership. It’s HR’s responsibility to gain
leaderships buy-in and make them aware of what’s going on internally. It does
everyone a disservice when information is withheld or filtered to the point
where the original concern is altered.
Be An Example
Employees look up to leadership to see
what they’re doing and how they’re behaving and responding. Sonya Schwartz,
founder of Her Norm, shared, “when a leader sets a good example eventually
the team will follow their lead.” Employees shouldn’t be the only one’s
receiving and asking for feedback. Leaders should be doing the same.
Burman explained, “leaders must hone
their ability to give and receive feedback and set the example. They must
consistently ask for feedback, at all levels, and visibly show that they
receive feedback well.”
It goes without saying, diversity
inspires greatness within companies. If the entire leadership team is comprised
of white males, women and underrepresented employees are less likely to speak
up. To set an example, companies need to create environments that represent all
members of their workplace. This starts by creating a more diverse leadership
team.
Choose The Right Tool
While leaders often don’t find it hard
to provide feedback to their employees, employees are fearful to provide
feedback to their superiors. For this reason, it’s important to explore various
styles of feedback such as anonymous, one-on-one, and 360 feedback, to name a
few.
Finding the right tool helps to create a
structured process for feedback. For some companies, that might be an anonymous
reporting channel, for others, it could be hosting a discussion format during a
company town hall. This might require a bit of trial and error until the right
tool or tools are discovered.
Gabrielle Loverde, operations manager
at BluShark Digital, shared, “our employees sit down with management on a
biweekly basis to discuss their pain points and how we can improve.” She added,
“each week, our management team gathers to evaluate that feedback and change
policies accordingly in real-time so in addition to feeling heard our team
members know that we actively value and implement their ideas.”
Conducting frequent one-on-one’s are
invaluable to the success, growth and betterment of any company culture
regardless of industry. It’s up to the manager to lead the one-on-one in a way
that is informal yet structured. Having a corporate feel to a conversation
makes employees reluctant to open up truthfully about anything negative for
fear of retaliation. Furthermore, employees often feel their feedback will be
lost in a void and won’t be taken seriously.
Having the right tool in place will help
track feedback as well as keep a record of progress and changes. HR can partner
with a tool such as 15Five to send out frequent pulse surveys. These
pulse surveys would take no longer than five minutes for employees to complete.
The benefit is they would probe on challenges, changes, feedback and where
employees are at in terms of satisfaction and motivation.
Article link:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/heidilynnekurter/2020/10/31/6-ways-to-build-a-feedback-driven-culture-that-inspires-healthy-communication/?sh=539a5f0f5ec5
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