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Research by Gallup reveals 22% of employees haven’t received meaningful feedback in the last week. A similar percentage (21%) haven’t had a meaningful discussion with their manager about their strengths in the last three months. Improving the way managers give feedback to their teams is a mechanism to improve performance. Making feedback meaningful, timely and constructive can help SMEs across Manchester, Altrincham and Cheshire boost employee performance, productivity and engagement.
If you are a North West SME owner and considering outsourced HR Services. Take a look how P3 can support you through our retained HR service and pay as you go advice.
A real-life lesson on feedback conversations
At P3 People Management, one of our specialisms as expert HR Consultants is advising clients on disciplinary and grievance issues. One of our SME clients in the financial services sector had been experiencing continual performance issues with an employee and sought advice on how to take formal action.
To understand the scope of the situation, we asked about their previous conversations with the employee and how feedback had been given and documented. They explained they had provided feedback that the employee was not performing to the required standard and, after seeing no improvement, they were keen to move to formal disciplinary stage.
We asked for copies of the client’s meeting plans, notes and follow-up emails documenting their feedback, but the client couldn’t provide them. Due process had not been followed. The conversations had not been recorded, so there was insufficient evidence of the employer’s concerns, feedback, or that they had given the employee sufficient time and opportunity to improve.
But this story isn’t just about failure to follow process. It’s a lesson in quality of feedback conversations. If the client had shared their concerns and explained to the employee ‘You could achieve … and make things even better if …’, the feedback may have been sufficiently meaningful and constructive to give the employee the opportunity to do things differently. We call this winning hearts and minds.
Here’s what we’ll cover in this article:
The value of manager feedback
The consequences of getting it wrong
The shift to continuous feedback
360-degree feedback best practice
How to make feedback meaningful, constructive and timely
Tips on documenting conversations not to overlook
Flexible working: making sure 121s happen
When to consider disciplinary and/or dismissal
The value of manager feedback
Providing feedback to your team gives them the impetus and certainty they need to perform to the best of their ability. It enables them to learn and to continually improve their performance while reinforcing good behaviours. Feedback ultimately guides and motivates employees and empowers them to reach their full potential.
Think of feedback as a free tool to future-proof business success and help create a happy and healthy workforce. The business benefits include:
Inspires and energises the individual
Increased morale and motivation
Improved team performance and productivity
Employees feel encouraged, engaged and rewarded
Promotes continuous learning
Strengthens collaboration and working relationships
Improves self-awareness
Positively impacts profitability.
The consequences of getting feedback wrong
Continual improvement doesn’t stand a chance if feedback is ineffective, or worse still, non-existent. The negative impact will be felt in every area of your business.
Research shows less than a quarter of employees strongly agree they have a clear definition of what exceptional performance looks like in their role.
When they don’t receive quality feedback, employees flounder and lack direction. They don’t feel heard or understand their strengths and areas to improve. This leads to:
A lack trust in their line manager and leadership team
Falling employee engagement
Declining retention as employees actively look for new roles
Lack of connection to company values and culture
Declining productivity
Lack of enthusiasm and motivation for the future.
To avoid this happening in your business, your managers must be competent and confident to give and receive feedback. They must be equipped with the tools and skills needed to bring out the very best behaviours of those they work with. Feedback skills feature in several of our accessible and affordable e-learning modules for leaders and managers. Take a look at our e-learning catalogue for full details.
The shift to continuous and fast feedback
Since the turn of the decade, we’ve seen a shift towards more frequent feedback models being used in the workplace. Teams are communicating differently, and managers have several tools at their disposal to provide instant feedback. That said, these still have to be carefully managed and chosen with care.
There’s evidence it’s the younger generations (under-30s) that prefer to receive weekly, even daily, feedback from their manager. For Gen Z-ers, having to wait six months for an appraisal is the equivalent of being ghosted. This desire for rapid, immediate feedback has seen a rise in shorter, less formal feedback meetings - 15-minute quick check-ins are the way forward.
From a manager perspective, shorter sessions require less preparation and make change more manageable and achievable. From an employee perspective, receiving frequent, fast feedback enables them to respond with instant results through change and improvement. This makes a lot of sense, but can take traditional managers time to adapt.
In the past, managers may have waited months for a formal opportunity to provide feedback on a particular task or assignment. When feedback opportunities happen just once or twice a year, there is a real risk that its value is lost - praise loses context and bad behaviours set in. It’s a case of too little, too late as the feedback is no longer effective or beneficial. Both the employee and the employer miss out.
While daily feedback might not be realistic for all, managers should be meeting with their team members regularly. This provides a great opportunity to provide timely feedback that the employee can act on immediately. Meeting up and providing feedback often promotes effective learning, strengthens working relationships, and builds trust. When trust exists, criticism will be better received.
Using 360-degree feedback
Employees shouldn’t just look to their managers for feedback. This approach makes complete sense when you think about it; managers aren’t observing members of their team all the time. At least, they shouldn’t be!
360-degree feedback enables employees to seek diverse perspectives from all levels of the organisation: colleagues, line reports, managers and leaders. It provides them with objective insights into their behaviours, skills and achievements, and paints a well-rounded picture of their performance.
Managers should lead by example in welcoming feedback from a variety of people from different areas of the business. These could be peers, teammates or colleagues working on the same project. The more feedback an employee can obtain, the better. Having clarity is key to their success. Knowing what they’re good at, what they could be doing better, and even what they should stop doing gives them a clear vision of what is expected of them and how their role fits in with the overall strategy of the company.
360 feedback best practice
As a manager you should empower your team to ask for their own feedback. To help them obtain this feedback from their peers and colleagues, advise them to:
Select around three colleagues from a wide range of people they have worked with or currently work with. It’s a good idea to select colleagues whose opinion they trust and value.
Explain why you are asking for the feedback. This will help the person giving the feedback to provide information that is relevant and valuable.
Consider asking questions such as:
How can I better support others?
Are there any gaps in my skill set or behaviour?
What do I do well?
What should I improve on?
Do I communicate well?
Your team members will benefit from receiving well-considered, effective feedback, so it’s important that they ask for it at the right time. Asking for feedback from someone who you know is busy will only result in a rushed response.
Be considerate: don’t leave your request until the last minute. They will want to put time aside to give you the best feedback that they can.
Make a timely request: ask after you have learned a new skill, completed a project, reached a milestone, or taken on a new role.
Prioritise 121 meetings: if practical, request a personal meeting to receive and discuss your feedback to enhance your understanding.
How to make feedback meaningful, constructive and timely
Every people manager needs to understand how to focus their feedback to provide the most value to their team. This requires a high level of emotional intelligence. When planning feedback meetings, always be mindful that the most effective personal feedback is shared in a private setting.
Timely feedback
We know that fast, frequent feedback conversations can energise and inspire, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you must act in the heat of the moment. Feedback given at the wrong time can result in the individual becoming upset or defensive and have the opposite effect to that intended.
Never speak to an employee about an emotive issue without first spending time collecting your thoughts and planning what you are going to say.
Consider what the ideal outcome looks like and how you will explain it with clarity.
Avoid giving criticism, no matter how constructive, if the employee is not in the right frame of mind to receive it.
Ideally, manager feedback should occur in real time to ensure it’s relevant. Good examples include celebrating success at the end of a 121 or team meeting, or sending a message of appreciation at the end of the day to leave everyone feeling energised. Equally, it should not be left too late after the event and weaken its impact.
Meaningful feedback
Giving feedback is not a tick-box exercise. To be helpful, conversations should be clear, relevant and specific to the individual, without coming across as personal or judgemental. To add meaning to your words, when collating feedback use reliable data and documented evidence to back up your opinions. Always be sensitive to the individual’s feelings, circumstances and state of mind at the time of meeting.
Constructive feedback
Focus on giving both positive and constructive feedback:
Positive feedback acknowledges great work and provides clarity on what good behaviours are.
Constructive feedback focuses on areas of improvement and suggests solutions to enable the individual to improve.
We recommend starting with positive feedback. Before your conversation, consider the best way to frame your constructive feedback to make sure it is received in the way it is intended.
When requesting improvement, suggest helpful ways in which you expect the individual to improve. If you are unclear about your expectations, they will not understand how to develop and make progress. It’s worth bearing in mind it’s unlikely that constructive feedback will come as a surprise to the employee. In most cases they will already be aware of the issue and open to a discussion on how they can improve.
Tips on recording feedback conversations
As we learned from the client story at the beginning of this article, documenting feedback conversations is vital. Recording conversations securely to protect private information is even more critical. Here are our top three tips for managers:
As you plan your feedback conversation, write down your notes and save a copy of the key messages you intend share with the employee.
Write up your notes and any agreed actions from the meeting and save them too.
Track the employee’s progress and performance.
Of course, there are some very helpful cloud-based HR systems to help managers document and track feedback conversations. If your SME hasn’t yet taken advantage, explore the three online HR systems we offer and the benefits they bring.
Key areas not to overlook
While we strongly recommend continual feedback, there are specific scenarios where manager feedback requires special attention:
Recruitment: As applicant numbers soar, it’s all too common for unsuccessful candidates not to receive any feedback following interview. Applicants, especially for entry-level roles, value any kind of feedback to help them secure a role. Offering feedback will also boost your reputation and credibility as an employer. Time-saving AI tools can help with collating and distributing feedback to applicants.
What to include in interview feedback
What went well in the interview.
The strengths they communicated and examples you understood.
Keep feedback relevant to the job requirements.
Be tactful and sensitive in your response. For example, if their answers were too short, suggest they consider researching example responses before their next interview to back up their answers and give a better insight into who they are, their knowledge and experiences.
Avoid generic, unhelpful feedback, such as explaining the role was offered to someone with more experience, or more qualifications.
Probation stage: Providing feedback to an employee during their probationary period is key to embedding the behaviours expected of them and to secure their understanding of their role and your company culture. Frequent feedback and guidance will give them a greater chance of success.
Consider reversing feedback at this stage. Ask what they think is going well and what areas they think they need to improve on going forward. This promotes self-development and self-awareness.
Employee Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs): This formal approach is aimed at improving behaviours and performance. The plan itself is a document that details attainable goals and specific timelines. It is the role of the manager to continuously monitor the employee and to provide them with regular detailed feedback to keep them on the right track.
Flexible working: making those 121s happen
Flexible and remote working present a new challenge for managers. Feedback conversations are now a mix of in-person and online, which could be seen as a barrier to providing regular feedback. Managers need to feel confident working in both setups and not use remote working as an excuse for letting meetings slip. Leaving 121s for when manager and employee are both in the office can lead to them being overlooked.
Your managers must put 121s into calendars and stick to them no matter where or how they take place.
In certain circumstances, feedback may be better given and received in person. If this is the case, find a way to make the conversation happen without delay to ensure it is valuable, timely and effective. Sensitive and serious feedback could potentially be lost in translation online, and it’s much harder to evaluate body language remotely.
When to consider disciplinary and/or dismissal
Some companies start formal processes, suspend, or dismiss employees without thinking. Very often, poor behaviour occurs due to a lack of feedback. Knee-jerk reactions to misconduct or poor performance rarely end well and could end up being a very costly move.
The decision to move to a formal disciplinary conversation depends on the severity of the behaviour – serious breaches may warrant swift action. In this situation, we suggest you seek advice from an HR Consultant.
A more formal process should only be started when detailed and specific feedback has been frequently given and ignored despite every effort, and no improvements have been seen even after a PIP.
Our Guide to Improving Communication and Conversations in the Workplace and Complete Guide to Performance Management for SMEs are great sources of information to support these conversations.
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