Providing constructive feedback to employees about their performance is much more than a routine staff management responsibility. Knowing how to best give feedback to an employee can help in ways that go far beyond just giving an assessment of how they are handling their job.
If you want your workers to take on more advanced roles in the organization and meet your succession planning objectives, constructive feedback is one of the most valuable things you can offer as a manager.
Helping staff members advance to the next level depends on your ability to identify specific areas for improvement and inspire your workers to take ownership of their development. That means knowing how to give feedback to employees in ways candidly assess their performance in the workplace while pointing them in the right direction so they can improve and succeed.
Plus, when you offer constructive feedback to your employees, it can have an indirect ripple effect and motivate them to elevate their performance as they seek to better understand what they need to do to succeed in their jobs and the organization.
Here are eight tips for giving feedback to employees that is meaningful and actionable:
When offering constructive criticism to employees, you want to show that you’ve given the matter careful thought. One strategy for preparation is to develop a clear and detailed outline of what you want to communicate. Ask yourself these two core questions: What are the issues I want to raise, and how would I like to see this employee improve?
Remember to keep the amount of feedback to a manageable level for the employee. Overwhelming someone with a lot of information they weren’t previously aware of can be disruptive to the way they approach their work. By developing a clear outline of important points to make ahead of the discussion, you have much more flexibility on where to go with the discussion once you’ve raised those main points.
Your feedback is likely to resonate more when you provide context. So, your planning should include organizing specific examples that help demonstrate how the employee’s performance impacts your department and your team’s ability to meet specific business objectives.
For example, if an employee has a habit of missing deadlines, you might say, “When you’re slow to complete your portion of a project, everyone is affected because we all have to stay late to meet our obligation to the client.”
Aim to be kind but candid when delivering constructive feedback to employees. You don’t want to be overly harsh, but you also can’t afford to sugarcoat your messages, especially when addressing serious issues.
Vague language (“You’ve been arriving a little bit late every day.”) may provoke a shrug and a “So what?” from the employee. By contrast, clear language (“I’m concerned your chronic tardiness is starting to hurt your performance and reputation.”) leaves no doubt in the employee’s mind about what the problem is and why they need to resolve it quickly.
Even when the situation calls for you to give negative feedback to employees, do so in a way that is tactful and emphasizes the potential for improvement rather than simply pointing out a problem. In the example above, you might ask if the employee if they’ll be able to start arriving on time going forward. If the answer is yes, great. But if the answer is no, then offer to discuss the problem and help them think of steps they can take to solve it.
With remote and hybrid working still common, in-person meetings with employees aren’t always possible. So, you may be tempted to fire off an email when an issue arises.
This approach can backfire in several ways. For one thing, a written critique can seem excessively cold and formal since you don’t have the chance to temper it with body language and nonverbal cues. You also risk kicking off a lengthy back-and-forth. When giving feedback to employees, it’s better to be face-to-face in the same space when it can be arranged.
Giving feedback to off-site employees is better accomplished by arranging a one-on-one video call rather than relying on e-mail exchanges or phone calls.
When feedback to employees, don’t just address the problem — offer solutions. Whether you have to provide the employee with additional training, give more frequent direction or streamline a flawed system, do what you can to help the employee rectify the problem quickly, as discussed in the tardiness example mentioned earlier.
Conversely, if an employee is doing well in a specific area, give them specifics about the good job they’re doing helps the team and organization. That type of anecdotal feedback can help employees remember they don’t do their jobs in a vacuum. If an employee came up with a new procedural idea, for example, try something like, “The steps you consolidated in the _________ process sped up our turnaround time by an average of __________ last quarter.”
Providing that level of detail is more useful to the employee than something along the lines of, “You did a great job with speeding up our turnaround time.”
Among the reasons giving constructive feedback to employees is so important is that it can help bring about changes where needed and reinforce what is working well.
Round off every piece of negative feedback by expressing confidence in the employee’s ability to improve. In a very real sense, the belief that someone can improve their job performance by acting on what you’ve observed and shared with them is the very essence of constructive feedback. (The exception to this rule is if the worker has made zero effort to act on previous criticism, in which case you may need to take more formal action.)
Your employee should leave the meeting with a clear idea of where they are falling short and what they can do to get back on a positive track. They should also be buoyed by the knowledge that you have faith in their ability to course-correct.
When providing feedback to employees, keep an open mind and allow your team members to explain their side of the story. You may learn of legitimate circumstances that have made it difficult for the employee to deliver their best performance.
In the previous example about chronic tardiness, you may learn that the employee’s partner started a new job that requires them to share one car. You may not have an immediate solution, but you’ll be able to reflect on the issue and perhaps find a practical solution in the not-too-distant future.
An example of this would be offering a flexible work schedule if feasible. A recent Robert Half survey of U.S. employees found that scheduling flexibility is the most important perk to 65% of the more than 2,500 respondents.
Or, you may even realize that the issue is a symptom of a more significant underlying problem affecting other team members, as well, in which case you may need to rethink the specifics around that particular issue.
Making the meeting a conversation will also help the employee feel more comfortable overall — and likely more receptive to your feedback. In some cases, workers will be more inclined to make a change for the better simply because they’ve had an opportunity to explain to you, person to person, why they’re struggling or what obstacles impede their success.
Consider scheduling a follow-up meeting — but be sure to give the employee a reasonable amount of time to make measurable changes. Depending on the type and level of constructive feedback you provided, your staff member may need a few weeks, or longer, to fully process your comments and incorporate your guidance into their daily routine.
Again, thorough preparation can make all the difference in whether your messages will be well-received. But know that some workers will be embarrassed, or even upset, to hear their professional performance is not up to standards. So be sure to underscore all along the way that you are taking the time to offer feedback precisely because you want to help them succeed. When that attitude is shared by both parties, the chances of finding a solution is much more likely.
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