If you aren’t giving your employees feedback, you’re doing something wrong.

Let’s take this scenario out of the office and put yourself in your employee’s shoes. You walk into work, sit down and start your day. You do everything you like you usually would, but for some reason, you get the sense that your boss isn’t happy with your work. The next day the cycle repeats itself. Then come performance reviews. Yours is lacklustre, and you’re left puzzled and frustrated as to why you didn’t get told to do something different sooner.

Retaining employees is often more difficult than hiring them. A crucial part of retaining employees is keeping them engaged and happy within the company. Feedback is one of the best ways to do this.

Giving positive whilst still constrictive feedback is a balancing act. It’s a skill that’s hard to master, but once you do, it’s likely to have an instant improvement in your employees’ attitude and output. We’ve broken down our top tips to help you give feedback that will benefit your company in the long run.

Tone is everything

Have you ever heard the saying, “it’s not what you say, but how you say it”? This is the perfect scenario where those ten words will speak volumes. Your tone when delivering feedback will either set you up for a positive result or one that will result in an employee leaving frustrated and disgruntled.

This is particularly true with constructive criticism. No one likes to be told that they’re doing something wrong. If it’s a sensitive subject matter, make sure you’re sensitive with your tone of voice – be relaxed but still show signs of genuine concern.

Make it a conversation, not a lecture

For employees, knowing they are going to receive feedback is daunting and nerve-wracking. Sometimes the process leading up to it can be worse than receiving feedback.

Whilst still remaining professional, make it a conversation. Hear out what your employees have to say and how they feel about specific scenarios. Allow them to explain why negative scenarios panned out the way they did, and let them know that this is an opportunity for them to speak about it openly.

Give credit where credit is due

Constructive feedback is almost as effective as positive feedback. Everyone likes hearing that they’ve done something right. It gives your employees the chance to motivate themselves further and, often, increases their productivity. Receiving that validation that what they’re working hard at is paying off is a rewarding feeling and one that will benefit the company tenfold.

Listen

When giving feedback, it’s easy to fall into the trap of ticking off everything on your list that you need to say, and, as a result, you can forget to take a breath. Remember to stop and take a break in between sentences to avoid leaving your employee unheard.

Feedback should be a conversation, not a lecture. Listening to your employee is half of making sure that you’re feedback is going to be effective. If you listen, you also might discover bigger problems that have caused the issues.

Timing is of the essence

Be aware of how much time of their time you’re taking up. Your employees are busy, balancing sales appointments, meetings and important analyses, so be conscious of their hesitation. Time is a precious asset. 

Be concise and constructive with what you say. Employees should be able to leave the conversation with some ideas of how they can better their work and fix the problem. Whilst you don’t need to hold their hand showing them exactly what to do, giving them an idea of how best to do it will provide them with a starting point. Naturally, they look up to you, so adding a personal touch on how you’d approach the situation can be an excellent motivator for some.

Set the scene

Where possible, take feedback outside of the office. It instantly gives a more relaxed feeling and puts you and your employee at ease. You’ll feel the heaviness lift, and your employee will have the chance to be more open with their concerns. Try a local cafe nearby or a public place that is neutral to everyone.

You also need to make an effort to avoid any disruptions or distractions for the entirety of your feedback session. Give your undivided attention. If you were in their shoes, you would want the same.

It needs to be actionable and specific

If it’s a problem, give your employees a way to find a solution. Telling someone they’re not doing something right and walking away is much less effective than explaining to them that they are not doing something right, showing them how they can fix it and giving them extra help.

Not every piece of feedback you provide needs to be actionable, but for the most part, employees should be able to take what you say and know what to do with it. Your feedback should be specific to the scenario and not the employee; providing feedback shouldn’t be the opportunity to create a personal attack. Discuss the situation as a whole, as opposed to your personal frustrations.

If you don’t know you’re making mistakes, how do you know how you are meant to fix them? There’s no point in getting frustrated with your employees for not achieving certain goals if you haven’t explained how they can effectively do so. Employee feedback is crucial to keeping your employees happy in the long run and producing the results you want to see within your company. Connect with Salexo to discover how we can help to implement employee retention strategies and improve your business in ways you haven’t even thought of yet.