In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress? This is the 10th question on Gallup’s Q12 which are questions connected with staff retention and employee engagement.
In today’s fast paced workplace managers can become so focused on getting things done, keeping up and making sure their employees know what to do next that they hardly remember to let their employees know how they are actually doing. Sometimes it’s only at the annual performance appraisal does an employee get to hear what you think of their work. Heck, I’ve talked with managers who still haven’t told particular employees what they need to hear about their work performance.
If you know that employee feedback is important what steps can you take to make sure it happens regularly?
- If something is bugging you about your employee, say it – with tact of course, but don’t let it fester and become bigger. You are doing them a favor with respect to their development.
- If your employee is doing something particularly well, tell them! Not just, “hey, nice job” but be specific about what they are doing well.
- Even if you are really busy, make sure you schedule some sit down time with each staff person every few weeks and in addition to exchanging important information, let them know how they are doing.
- When giving feedback, focus more on the future rather than the past.
- Listen to their response from your feedback. Do they agree with you? Do they want to take action toward improvement? Can they see what they did well?
- Consider following up the feedback by providing the employee coaching.
I would love to hear your “feedback” and comments regarding this post.