Employees want regular feedback and they perform better when they receive it. According to Gallup, employees who say they received “meaningful feedback” in the last week are nearly four times more likely to be engaged in their work. And yet, many organizations only give employees feedback every several weeks, months, or years.

The reason so many companies choose to delay employee feedback is simple: managers understand that meaningful feedback requires time and energy. They’re not entirely wrong. However, offering fast and frequent feedback is actually more effective than waiting for a lengthy performance review. Quick feedback can be just as meaningful, too, when delivered thoughtfully.

Fast and frequent feedback improves performance, retains top talent, and makes your organization more agile. 

  • Gallup reports that employees are nearly 4 times more likely to be motivated to do outstanding work when they receive feedback daily (instead of annually) from their manager.
  • Highly motivated employees are more likely to stick around, especially because regular feedback fosters personal and professional growth. Research shows that 65% of employees consider upskilling opportunities to be very important when evaluating a potential new job or deciding whether to stay in their current role.
  • Real-time feedback enables employees to make necessary adjustments on-the-fly, which saves time and gives your organization a competitive advantage.

In order to establish a company culture where fast and frequent feedback is the norm, managers should take on a coaching mindset. Managers should always be listening, asking questions, and creating a meaningful dialogue with employees. But an ongoing conversation does not need to be a time-consuming one.

Meaningful feedback is frequent, focused, and future-oriented—without wasting time.

  • Feedback is most helpful when it occurs immediately after an action because the subject is still fresh in the employee’s mind. This is what makes quick, frequent feedback so meaningful without being time consuming. Your employee will have a much easier time understanding and applying your feedback when it relates to a recent experience, not something that occurred weeks or months ago.
  • When managers wait to give feedback during a scheduled performance review, it is more likely to be vague and ineffective. And while it might seem equitable to use a standardized ranking system for all employees, this type of feedback usually lacks specificity and makes it difficult to address unique concerns.

Focused feedback, on the other hand, enables managers to take a much more individualized approach. This results in a better outcome for both manager and employee, ensuring that the feedback given is reflective of the employee’s unique contributions and performance.

  • Ultimately, the best feedback is future-oriented and encourages growth by looking ahead. Of course, managers and employees still need to reflect on past experience, but that reflection should be presented as an opportunity to learn and improve. Instead of dwelling on what went wrong, these conversations must identify what the employee can gather from the situation to do better next time.

Establishing a culture which encourages fast and frequent feedback will dramatically improve your company’s productivity and engagement—but feedback should never be entirely one-sided. The healthiest organizations create a feedback loop where both employees and managers feel empowered to offer constructive notes, allowing the company to grow better together. 

SOCIAL MEDIA:

Employees want regular feedback and they perform better when they receive it. But many organizations only give employees feedback every several weeks, months, or years during a scheduled performance review.

In this week’s blog, learn how to build fast and frequent feedback into your company culture to improve performance and engagement.