Implementing a Solid Feedback Culture in the Workplace

A research survey published in the Harvard Business Review said that more than 7 in 10 employees surveyed believed that their productivity suffers due to the lack of feedback. Surprisingly enough, employees are more than willing to get what may be construed as negative feedback than false praise.

These days, the term feedback has lost its luster because it’s been used to describe a remark, comment, or opinion. However, as a mechanism, feedback is very crucial to determine the strengths and weaknesses of an organization, employee satisfaction, as well as the gaps in the processes.

Institutionalizing Feedback in the Workplace

Successful organizations have long known the importance of employee feedback to make sure that everybody’s still on-board with the vision.

Nobody should be spared from criticism, even the CEO and top managers. This is the only way they can gain a new perspective about themselves as leaders and the type of leadership they deliver.

Quick Tips for implementing a feedback system

Here’s a list of tips that can help you integrate the feedback system at your workplace.

1. Harness technology. One useful tool is the 360 Feedback. The tool is designed to get the most out of the answers from a series of controlled questions. The best part is that the results are anonymous, so employees can really speak their minds.
2. Framing the right questions. The answers, of course, will depend on how you frame your questions. This is crucial because you might have false results because the questions are vague. Focus group discussions will help give you an idea about the core issues hounding the organization. Going back to 360 Feedback, the company behind it has extensive experience running surveys, so each question is assessed and reassessed on whether it achieves the desired purpose.
3. Train employees on giving feedback. One thing that holds an employee back is the fear about how they are going to be perceived for being honest. This tendency to be compliant is ingrained in employees right from the moment they start working at different organizations. It’s hard to break that habit. In this case, the company should guide the workers on how to give feedback within the system employed by the organization.
4. Guarantee no reprisals. Some supervisors can be petty, and any negative comments can be taken in a bad light. Everybody should understand that any sort of feedback should be welcomed so people working in the organization can improve themselves as employees, colleagues, and contributors to the company. With that said, anonymous systems like 360 Feedback will really open the floodgates of honest opinions devoid of a filter.
5. Set clear parameters. Feedback without action is useless. Once the employees see that their feedback generated a positive change in the company, they would be more willing to give their opinions in the future. Management should guarantee that each feedback will be evaluated and vetted, and suggestions will be adopted as long as they’re good for the company in the long run.

Implementing a feedback mechanism is not easy. There are many ways on how to go about it, and you can expect some hiccups at the outset. Nevertheless, it’s one good way to help the organization assess itself through the eyes of its employees. But the benefits generated depend completely on whether the company would want to bring about changes with the help of the feedback.