While few employers see feedback as a medium of measuring employee performance, in real, feedback is a two way process, which helps in improving the performance of the organization, in general.
Feedback is an essential element in the proper functioning of an organization, irrespective of its size.
A recent survey shows that managers are generally intolerant when it comes to underperformers.
While few employers see feedback as a medium of measuring employee performance, in real, feedback is a two way process, which helps in improving the performance of the organization, in general.
Here are a few things employers must include in their feedback to make it productive.
Civility
An organization in U.S. conducted a survey on the effect feedbacks had on different employees. It turned out that only thirty percent of the employees applied the suggested measures to their way of working. Of course most of the employees felt that the feedback was useless, as it talked only about improvement.
No being is perfect. You need to add an informal touch to the feedback. Maybe the employee has not been performing well for quite some time. But there definitely has to be something good that he/she has done in the past week/month. Your feedback will not be productive if it talks only about the demerits and cons of the employee.
Affirmative, irrespective of the flaws
Even if the employee has performed up to your expectation, ever since he’s been on board, try being affirmative, irrespective of the flaws. While negative feedback indicates various ways an employee needs to change and hence, activates the defensive part of the brain, positive feedback stimulates the reward centres in the brain, making the employee, think from a different perspective. So no matter, how bad has the employee been performing and for how long, you need to make sure that you include an affirmative tone in the feedback.
Categorization
Reacting to something you do not like, but are still made to do, is very much humane. If you talk about things that is nowhere related to the work profile, in the feedback, the employee’s reaction is obvious. People generally respond to things when you are specific about the weaknesses or improvement areas. Categorize your suggestion and mention about a task, which the employee accomplished successfully. Something like, “Your suggestion about the X thing worked really nice. However, I would want you to work on these areas specifically…”
Regularity
You cannot expect your employees to remember every minute detail about their work. So be sure to be regular with your feedbacks. Also, like they say, feedback is a two way system. Employees are as important for an organization, as the higher authorities are. So, be regular and immediate with the feedback process, rather than delaying it.
An underperformer may be deficient of certain skills sets, but there definitely are a few qualities, which is very useful for the company. As a senior level employee of the organization, it is your responsibility to help the employee perform better. Teamwork pays off, irrespective of the size of the organization.
