We live in a world where instant feedback is ubiquitous. Social media is a great illustration of this. A whopping 82% of people in the U.S. use some form of social media, according to Statista. Following a post, you receive feedback in the form of likes and comments. This immediate feedback is part of the allure of social media. What if we could implement faster feedback in the workplace to increase performance? Should we really be relying on once-a-year performance reviews in a world of increasingly speedy feedback?
The answer is no. Creating a culture where in-time feedback is a natural way of work can do wonders for retention, engagement, and performance.
People Crave Feedback
The explosion of social media demonstrates that people crave feedback. Sure, they’d rather hear positive things but that doesn’t mean there’s not a home for constructive feedback. In general, people want to know how they are doing and how they can be better at their jobs.
An annual review isn’t enough. All too often, it feels to an employee like a time to be arbitrarily judged by someone who doesn’t pay attention to their work the rest of the year. And unfortunately, with little to no manager-employee relationship going into the annual review, an employee is more likely to hear the constructive feedback as a personal attack on them. However, with more frequent check-ins between manager and employee, you can build trust and an understanding of one another that creates a safe space for feedback to flow naturally.
Fostering a Feedback Culture through Relationships
Let’s be honest: annual reviews allow leadership to hide and evaluate their employees behind the curtain rather than providing real time feedback. It’s much easier to give employees the all too familiar “meets expectations” performance rating than to get to know them, observe their performance, and provide feedback in a way that demonstrates both care and challenge.
Relationships are at the heart of a feedback culture. The quality of your feedback will reflect the quality of your relationships at work. That’s why it’s important to make “regular deposits” to invest in your employees personally. When it comes time to deliver constructive feedback, it won’t be nearly as threatening if you’ve taken the time to build a relationship with your employee.
Feedback is both a result and a cause of healthy relationships. In other words, delivering honest, timely feedback with care will strengthen your relationship with an employee. Strengthening relationships with employees will result in the ability to deliver feedback more naturally and freely. Relationships enhance feedback and feedback enhances relationships.
4 Keys to a Feedback Culture
Healthy organizations implement regular feedback. Here are four things to focus on when initiating a feedback culture that promotes healthy relationships and keeps up with the demand for instant feedback:
- Immediacy: Focus on consistent employee development by giving feedback in the moment so that employees can adjust on the spot.
- Informality: Use informal, relational conversations to deliver the feedback rather than authoritative lectures. This will enhance the quality of your relationships and engage employees rather than distancing them.
- Improvement: While you’ll mention past behavior, your focus should be on improving performance moving forward. Embrace the mindset that all employees can grow and demonstrate confidence in their ability to improve.
- Integration of technology: Technology plays a huge role in creating and sustaining a feedback culture. Using a platform, such as Manage 4 Performance™, gives employees access to regular feedback. With similar immediacy and transparency as social media feedback, M4P provides employees with a dashboard of performance metrics that equips them with knowledge and tools for continual growth.
In sum, organizations who fail to adjust to the increasing demand for feedback will fall behind those who adopt a strong feedback culture. Building positive, trusting relationships at work promotes the healthy flow of feedback across the company. Delivering feedback informally and immediately, with a focus on improvement, allows employees to quickly improve their performance while also gaining their trust. Finally, using technology platforms such as M4P can take your feedback culture to the next level. Providing employees with constant access to clear performance metrics is a sure way to increase engagement and performance.
We live in a world where instant feedback is ubiquitous. Social media is a great illustration of this. A whopping 82% of people in the U.S. use some form of social media, according to Statista. Following a post, you receive feedback in the form of likes and comments. This immediate feedback is part of the allure of social media. What if we could implement faster feedback in the workplace to increase performance? Should we really be relying on once-a-year performance reviews in a world of increasingly speedy feedback?
The answer is no. Creating a culture where in-time feedback is a natural way of work can do wonders for retention, engagement, and performance.
People Crave Feedback
The explosion of social media demonstrates that people crave feedback. Sure, they’d rather hear positive things but that doesn’t mean there’s not a home for constructive feedback. In general, people want to know how they are doing and how they can be better at their jobs.
An annual review isn’t enough. All too often, it feels to an employee like a time to be arbitrarily judged by someone who doesn’t pay attention to their work the rest of the year. And unfortunately, with little to no manager-employee relationship going into the annual review, an employee is more likely to hear the constructive feedback as a personal attack on them. However, with more frequent check-ins between manager and employee, you can build trust and an understanding of one another that creates a safe space for feedback to flow naturally.
Fostering a Feedback Culture through Relationships
Let’s be honest: annual reviews allow leadership to hide and evaluate their employees behind the curtain rather than providing real time feedback. It’s much easier to give employees the all too familiar “meets expectations” performance rating than to get to know them, observe their performance, and provide feedback in a way that demonstrates both care and challenge.
Relationships are at the heart of a feedback culture. The quality of your feedback will reflect the quality of your relationships at work. That’s why it’s important to make “regular deposits” to invest in your employees personally. When it comes time to deliver constructive feedback, it won’t be nearly as threatening if you’ve taken the time to build a relationship with your employee.
Feedback is both a result and a cause of healthy relationships. In other words, delivering honest, timely feedback with care will strengthen your relationship with an employee. Strengthening relationships with employees will result in the ability to deliver feedback more naturally and freely. Relationships enhance feedback and feedback enhances relationships.
4 Keys to a Feedback Culture
Healthy organizations implement regular feedback. Here are four things to focus on when initiating a feedback culture that promotes healthy relationships and keeps up with the demand for instant feedback:
- Immediacy: Focus on consistent employee development by giving feedback in the moment so that employees can adjust on the spot.
- Informality: Use informal, relational conversations to deliver the feedback rather than authoritative lectures. This will enhance the quality of your relationships and engage employees rather than distancing them.
- Improvement: While you’ll mention past behavior, your focus should be on improving performance moving forward. Embrace the mindset that all employees can grow and demonstrate confidence in their ability to improve.
- Integration of technology: Technology plays a huge role in creating and sustaining a feedback culture. Using a platform, such as Manage 4 Performance™, gives employees access to regular feedback. With similar immediacy and transparency as social media feedback, M4P provides employees with a dashboard of performance metrics that equips them with knowledge and tools for continual growth.
In sum, organizations who fail to adjust to the increasing demand for feedback will fall behind those who adopt a strong feedback culture. Building positive, trusting relationships at work promotes the healthy flow of feedback across the company. Delivering feedback informally and immediately, with a focus on improvement, allows employees to quickly improve their performance while also gaining their trust. Finally, using technology platforms such as M4P can take your feedback culture to the next level. Providing employees with constant access to clear performance metrics is a sure way to increase engagement and performance.