Importance of employee feedback

Have you ever wondered why some employees have great ideas and why some never contribute. The simple reason is they're not being trained properly. Employee feedback isn't something that's talked about much, mostly because it's not a part of training process. However, employee feedback will improve your business more than you think

Why is employee feedback important?

Employee feedback is the process of gathering information about how an employee is performing on the job. This information can come from a variety of sources, including self-evaluation, peer evaluation, and supervisor evaluation. Employee feedback has become an important part of performance management in many organizations.

In some organizations, employees are asked to evaluate themselves as well as their peers. This helps to give managers a more complete picture of an employee's strengths and weaknesses. In addition, the process allows employees to be more proactive in the management of their careers and may encourage productive work relationships between coworkers.

Employee feedback is also a key component of an organization's performance management system. Many organizations have developed systems that allow managers to review each employee's performance on an annual basis. Employees are evaluated on skills required for their particular jobs, and a rating is assigned based on how well they perform in each area. The rating determines whether or not the employee will receive a raise or other rewards for meeting company expectations.

Increases employee retention

Your employees will appreciate it when you give them healthy positive and negative feedback. They are more likely to invest their time and abilities to grow your business and even decline job offers from other companies!

And with the battle for talent these days, all leaders can understand how losing employees and hiring a replacement is expensive, often costing companies thousands per hire. 

Turnover and unfulfilled positions contribute to lower employee engagement. When overworked, people feel tired, dissatisfied, and risk burnout—all predicators to leaving a job. You can see how it can quickly turn into a dangerous cycle. 

Enhances employee morale

Your employees want to feel that their contribution to your business is valued. Hearing their thoughts and ideas on how to improve your business will show them that their opinion is not only valued but respected.

Improves communication between employees and management

By asking for employee feedback, you show your employees that you care about what they have to say. This leads to an improved line of communication, which ultimately increases productivity.

Helps evaluate where your business stands

Employee feedback can give you insights into whether your business is headed in the right direction or not. If you’re not getting good reviews, then it’s time to work on improving certain aspects of your company’s culture, operations, and services.

Build a positive company culture

A positive workplace culture raises teamwork, performance levels, and efficiency. In turn, your employees are undoubtedly more satisfied with their jobs.

Creating a positive workplace entails a lot of trust and honesty. Implementing an effective employee feedback process can help you create a work culture where your employees thrive.

With the help of your team, ask your direct reports what would help them live out the company’s core values. Ask their feedback on what could help the organization improve overall work processes and policies.

Build a positive company culture

A positive workplace culture raises teamwork, performance levels, and efficiency. In turn, your employees are undoubtedly more satisfied with their jobs.

Creating a positive workplace entails a lot of trust and honesty. Implementing an effective employee feedback process can help you create a work culture where your employees thrive.

With the help of your team, ask your direct reports what would help them live out the company’s core values. Ask their feedback on what could help the organization improve overall work processes and policies.

Create a highly-skilled workforce

Continuous learning supports your people’s career development (aka a significant factor in engaging and retaining them).

Training programs also improve your company’s bottom line. Upskilling accelerates your employee’s abilities, creativity, and innovation. As a result, you can deliver more services, develop more products, and eventually earn more profits.

What are the benefits of employee feedback?

Providing employee feedback is vital because it helps clarify expectations and helps people learn from their mistakes. But giving and receiving feedback can be challenging.

Above all, it’s important to stay objective and respect the other person to benefit from the conversation. 

Giving feedback to employees

Feedback helps make your employees feel more confident in their performance and more committed to showing positive behavior. By making them aware of their skills and strengths, you give them a sense of value in the workplace – the key to employee success.

Providing employee feedback also helps your workforce develop their careers.

According to the article from Netsuite’s Barnyard, much of Gen Z has been conditioned to expect immediacy. Managers can avoid giving vague feedback by sharing it immediately after a project instead of waiting until the following performance review.

Types of employee feedback

There are three main types of employee feedback:

Positive feedback

Positive feedback emphasizes your employee’s strengths and accomplishments.

When you provide positive feedback, the goal is to reinforce positive behavior at work. It can also enhance employee confidence. 

Negative feedback

Negative feedback highlights behaviors that need to stop to prevent poor work performance or discourage negative impact on the team. 

Constructive feedback

Constructive feedback is given to an individual to pinpoint areas of weakness, followed by strategies to address shortcomings.

It is helpful to provide specific examples that your employees can follow with constructive criticism.

How to ask for employee feedback

The best way to ask for feedback is to ask specific questions that make it easy for employees to respond. Develop a list of questions and send them out via email or through a targeted survey system.

The questions you ask will differ depending on the feedback you're trying to gather. You can be as broad or specific as you want, but either way, you'll get more useful responses if you give employees some context. For example, "Would you recommend our company to a friend?" is an excellent question for your employee engagement survey, but it might not generate much useful feedback if there's nothing behind it. Try sending out some information about your referral program and asking that question again — the responses may be different.

You also want to provide employees with an easy way to provide additional information if they choose. A simple line at the bottom of your survey or email will do: "Is there anything else you would like us to know?" You can also include a section titled "Open-ended comments" where employees can add their own ideas.

Why employee feedback matters?

Employee feedback serves as a backbone for organizations, making the key difference between success and failure. This feedback can come in the form of surveys, annual performance reviews with superiors or through more informal ways; however, all these methods have one thing in common – they are a great way for employees to communicate their ideas and suggestions which could potentially help a company boost its performance and stay competitive in the market.