Meaningful Feedback Reduces Employee Quitting
Everyone wants to feel valued and respected. Feeling successful at something in their lives increases their self-esteem, self-confidence, and happiness. When they feel successful at work, they are more likely to be productive and less likely to be looking for work elsewhere.
Their manager's leadership practices are the number one factor in an employee's workplace experience. Regular feedback has a huge impact on an employee's feeling of workplace success, yet, leaders often give their employees too little helpful feedback. When we rarely catch our team members doing things right and acknowledge their positive contributions, they aren’t sure if they are meeting expectations. And, when we don’t let them know what we wish them to do differently, how are they to realize improvement is required?
Even when leaders provide feedback, they may not be encouraging them to repeat positive behaviors and to work towards improving their performance in weaker areas. Managers may tell employees they did a good job assisting customer Jones but if the feedback isn’t specific the employee doesn’t know which aspects of their customer interaction should be repeated and may not realize the positive impact of quality customer service. On the other hand, when employees don’t meet expectations, if they don’t realize there is a need for improvement and don’t ‘hear’ and internalize ways to improve, they likely won’t become reliable high performers. They may quit their job, continue to underperform because they don't know any better, or come to work but do as little as possible. When managers fail to affirm good work or to address need for improvement they are setting the company up for a poor bottom line.
When providing feedback, keep in mind that people are seven times as likely to remember something they say than something they just heard. Also, we have to hear, see, or say information several times before we will act on it. Therefore, when leaders and their employees have two-way conversations about the team member’s performance, good performance gets repeated and areas that need improvement get addressed.
Let’s explore what meaninful feedback looks like. Positive feedback has the most impact when it is shared in a live conversation. In-person is ideal with a video call or phone call being next best. The leader’s tone and body language tell the employee if their manager is simply going through the motions of showing appreciation or if the thank you is authentic. Only heart-felt thanks spurs an employee to make a habit of doing quality work. The most effective positive feedback is expressed promptly after the good work is noticed, names the specific behavior that is appreciated, and shares the impact of the employee’s action on the company or other people.
Highly effective corrective action involves two-way collaborative conversation. The manager briefly and calmly states the action or behavior that failed to meet expectations. Then he asks the employee questions to encourage self-realization about what caused the unfavorable situation and the impact this has on the people involved and on the organization. The employee is asked to suggest ways to correct the situation and is provided the support needed to improve performance. When the manager and the employee develop corrective action plans together the employee has a better understanding of what is expected and is usually more motivated to address the challenge at hand.
When employees feel that their good performance is valued and receive support to overcome their challenges, they become more engaged, increasing their satisfaction and the company’s success. Conversational feedback is the foundation of win/win/win workplace experiences, increasing employee retention, customer satisfaction, and company results.
What can you do this month to develop your meaningful feedback skills? Register for - and attend - our free 45-minute webinar “3 Tips to Reduce Employee Quitting”.
