Feedback seems to be an integral part of every work. We often hear that getting and giving feedback is essential to business success and without it people stand idle in one place.
So what exactly is feedback and how can it improve employees’ morale?
Why Is Feedback Important?
A good company and a good leader know the importance of feedback. They also know that a successful company cannot thrive without providing it to its employees. Snap Surveys, a company that creates surveys, also for giving and receiving feedback, defines feedback as
“the helpful information or criticism about prior action or behavior from an individual, communicated to another individual (or a group) who can use that information to adjust and improve current and future actions and behaviors.”
Feedback can be given to a team or an individual. It can be given at the end of the year to summarize the company’s work and present the employees with a general overview of the business strategy, where it is at that particular moment, etc.
Yet it is often avoided because people who are in charge – managers, leaders – don’t know how to approach the subject. As a result, many organizations lack feedback. In consequence, very often employees feel that they don’t know what is happening in the company.
A good leader, either it is a boss or a manager, should always give feedback to his team and employees. In that way, they can understand the main objectives of the project, vision of the company (which sometimes may change) but also become better at what they do.
How Can Feedback Improve Performance of Your Employees?
First of all, feedback is crucial in improving employees’ performance. It is a kind of litmus paper that shows a person’s efficiency. Secondly, employees should receive information about their work and how it is perceived by the management because without it they can’t know what mistakes they make.
The sooner they learn about the problems concerning their performance, the better it is for the company. But most of all, providing assessment helps to establish employee performance expectations and goals (so-called performance plan) before a project begins so that it can be carried out efficiently.
When you provide an evaluation to everyone in your team, people become more focused, motivated, happy, and productive. They know their place in your team and are willing to work better.
How else can feedback improve the performance of your team?
- They feel that they belong to the right place and work with the right people – they feel appreciated.
- Both positive and negative feedback work in favor of your employees – they know what they are doing well and keep doing that even better as well as constantly endeavor to the better results.
- It’s all around us. You can’t avoid being judged or assessed and it’s written into our lives, including work.
- People excel at formulating better decisions.
Are You a Feedback Person Yet?
Of course, you don’t have to inform your employees about how they’re doing all the time. Or even rate everyone for their work. Let’s not exaggerate and keep it reasonable.
But if you’re not giving feedback, you should start doing it right now! How do you imagine monitoring the team’s efforts if they don’t know how they’re doing?
If you haven’t been thinking about assessing your team, it’s time to finally do it. Moreover, it works best in both ways – let your employees give feedback on your work. It is a great way to strengthen the bonds in a team, improve communication, and work with 101% efficacy.