Why You Should Always be Giving Employees Feedback

Look at things from your employees’ point of view. One of them has been working on a small project that your best customer needed quickly. The individual completed the job a day before the requested deadline, and the work passed final inspection with flying colors.

Now you send the worker back to their regular duties without a single comment about the project. What is your worker supposed to think? Were you displeased with some aspect of the work? Or are you just taking for granted the work would be done correctly and efficiently?

As you can see, giving feedback is crucial on different levels. It can provide your workers with an opportunity to improve, or it motivates them to continue doing excellent work in the future. The old saying “no news is good news” does not apply to your workplace. Employees have a need and a right to know how you view their performance.

Here’s a few tips for giving feedback that’s timely and effective:

Make it specific

Feedback works best if it connects to one particular goal. Establish your expectations and goals upfront, and you will be able to provide concrete and objective feedback. If you can tell your workers they surpassed their goal by 10 percent, it’s much more effective than just informing them they’re doing a good job.

The sooner, the better

You should give timely information to your workers. If there is a problem, they can make adjustments to their performance quickly. If they are doing good work, getting that feedback will be rewarding and could motivate them to perform even better.

Present it correctly

Always remember that you’re providing feedback to facilitate a positive change or to reinforce excellent performance. With that in mind, you should present either type of feedback positively. While it must be accurate and comprehensive, feedback should first confirm what the employee did right, and then identify what changes the worker should make in the future. There is little to be gained from criticism, and it can actually be counterproductive.

Use both types of feedback

There are typically two kinds of feedback:

Naturally occurring feedback, of which there are two categories — the kind of feedback that workers can see for themselves, and the feedback they get from someone who understands the entire scope of a large project.

Planned feedback, which is given to workers automatically through some measurement system, can come from different kinds of manufacturing software or other quality-control equipment. This feedback comes often and possibly in real time.

No matter how you present the feedback, you can expect improvements in quality and productivity if you do it correctly and consistently.

We can help you find the top talent from which to build successful teams

Contact Pro Talent Group, one of Indiana’s fastest-growing minority- and woman-owned businesses. We have provided opportunities for contingent employees through our offices in Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky. And we can make direct hire placements in engineering, manufacturing and administrative positions nationwide.

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