One of the most important jobs a people manager has is to give effective feedback to their employees to enhance productivity and motivation. In this article we will give you tips to help bring your employee feedback to the next level.

1) Focus on the behaviour – NOT the person:
Can you remember a parent, friend or colleague saying, ‘You are always late’ or ‘you are hopeless at that’? Your immediate reaction is to say – ‘I’m NOT always late – yes I may be late occasionally but that’s unfair!’

Similarly, when dealing with employees you need to be precise and exact – don’t generalise!
So – instead of saying ‘you are always late for meetings’ – say ‘I notice that you arrived late into our meeting today – and also our previous operations meeting last week – I’m concerned that you will miss key details and/or the team miss out on information from you – can you make sure that you get there on time going forward- it’s important, let me know if there is any reason why you cant get there on time’.

2) Feedback is your opinion and perception:
Don’t use the term ‘We think/we feel’ – this is YOUR feedback and should be only yours. For example: You might say ‘The senior management team feel that you are not pulling your weight and you need to up your performance’. This may not be true, and/or fair, the feedback should be from the employee’s direct manager only.

Only use ‘I’ and give your feedback – not someone else’s.

3) The Feedback Sandwich

You will know of the concept – Say something nice – then the bad news – and then something nice again – the sandwich approach!

This sounds like it makes sense but be careful that the important constructive feedback doesn’t get lost between the nice words – employees like to hear the good stuff and may selectively ignore the bad unless you are very clear – so don’t be a coward- you will be doing the employee a favour if they need feedback on something important even if it isn’t easy to give.

4) Be positive too!
Even though we are saying that the feedback sandwich is not a good method, don’t forget to give the positive feedback too. Recognition is very important – however do remember to recognise people immediately – don’t just wait for a performance review session.

Employees who only ever receive positive feedback may not grow and develop. Always aim for stretch targets and praise to keep them striving for better results.

5) Follow up
Giving effective feedback loses huge benefits if you don’t follow up. Has the employee taken onboard your feedbvack and made changes? Are they being successful, or do you need to help them more? Have check in dates/times planned to ensure you are following through.

Reference: Nora St-Aubin

We have a team of trained and skilled investigators and consultants who have extensive experience in this area and would be happy to discuss any issue of concern with you. Just email us on info@voltedge.ie or call Ingrid on 01 5252914.

Voltedge Management