Employees that receive constant feedback are 4.6 times more willing to give their best in completing their tasks and helping their organization perform better.

Feedback is one of the cornerstones of a successful and growing workplace.

Organizations improve their employee performance and satisfaction along with creating a positive work environment by incorporating a feedback culture into their day-to-day operations.

It also helps employees recognize their strong suits and shortcomings to perform better in the future.

In this article, we take a look at how you can improve employee performance in your organization by fostering a feedback culture. Read on to know more.  

7 Tips To Improve Employee Performance By Fostering A Feedback Culture

As important as feedback is to nurture a growth mindset in a company, it’s the execution of it that is the most challenging aspect for many.

Companies shouldn’t look to simply do what another organization is doing, but adapt the process to their unique needs.

Fostering a feedback culture takes time and involves a meticulous placement of tools and practices that empower employees. The result is a work environment that’s transparent, motivating, and ready to innovate.

Employees might have inhibitions about engaging in such a culture or are simply not too aware of it.

Begin by educating them about the system, its needs, and its many benefits. Ease them into the system and ensure their comfort every step of the way.

With that in mind, let’s take a deeper look at how you can improve employee performance by fostering a feedback culture.

1.) Create A Sturdy System

Having a system in place that allows employees to give and receive feedback helps you create a culture out of it.

Simply urging the employees to do it will not be of much use when there are no tangible ways for them to put it into action.

Tools such as reward platforms will help you incentivize your employees into giving and receiving feedback. We mentioned above about employees feeling intimidated about opening themselves up to criticism. 

A reward platform will help employees shed their inhibitions and open themselves up to feedback. A reward platform will help you give recognition and reward to employees who are performing, motivating them even further.

Enthusiastic, engaged, and overall improved employee performance directly results in 21% increased profitability.

Having a mechanism to give and receive feedback lets them know what to do and how they make the most out of it.

2.) Make It A Routine

Once you have set up a system, the next step should be to put the system to use constantly and regularly.

The goal here is to make employee feedback easy and encourage it among your team. They should not be doing it because you asked, but because it’s part of the routine.

Having a software for employee management helps you create such a routine. When employees know they’re constantly being evaluated, they’d put more effort into their performance and simply be more proactive in everything they do at the workplace.

Similarly, they’d keep their eyes open to their surroundings and report any negative intent or practice from a co-worker.

It helps create a positive work environment where feedback is part of everyday operations rather than an occasional event.

Moreover, employees will be more accepting of feedback and not see it as negative.

One of the challenges in implementing feedback frameworks is employees not being open to it. Routine feedback practices will let them see it as a simple part of the job.

3.) Ensure A Feedback-safe Environment

It’s extremely important for employees to understand that giving and receiving feedback will not have negative consequences for them. Your workplace needs to be feedback-safe. Only then can people give honest feedback and be open to receiving it.

For this, you need to create transparent and healthy work relationships among your team. Indulge them in team-building exercises to build trust. Promote anonymous feedback if it makes the receiver or sender feel more encouraged.

Let your team know that there will be no negative consequences for giving feedback and if they receive criticism, it shall not be affecting their relationships around the office as it’s meant to help them improve. Your team needs to understand the goal of feedback.

It’s not to bring coworkers down but elevate them. When feedback comes from that mindset, everyone will be willing to take it in their stride. They will understand its role in their improvement and implement it correctly.

4.) Use Different Channels

As you establish a system to give and receive feedback, it’s important to make sure that you provide a variety of channels for employees to do it. You shall not rely on just one way of doing it, say, writing anonymous notes.

You need to pick a few channels to give feedback based on what works for whom.

Some people may be comfortable doing it anonymously, some might want an open discussion with the person providing feedback, and some might want to do it with everyone involved.

While there are different ways to create channels, you shall ideally base them on the number of people involved:

Anonymous

Technically involving only one person, employees can write their feedback for whoever they wish to address without revealing their own name and drop it in a feedback box.

The box can be emptied periodically and its contents can be distributed to the people they’re meant for.

One-on-one

Involving two people, one person can demand a meeting with the person they have the feedback for. This channel allows dialogue and discussion between two people and will help resolve any issues they may be facing.

Open Discussions

This channel is usually opted for teams as it involves people openly giving feedback to their teammates in front of everyone.

It encourages open, transparent, and honest discussions which involve the entire team and helps build trust.

Try different channels with different employees based on their personalities and needs.

You can also switch up channels from time to time to help them get new and different perspectives on their performance.

5.) Provide Feedback Training To Your Employees

You may have a feedback framework in place but it may still not be converted into a feedback culture unless your employees know how to give and receive feedback.

This is an important aspect of feedback culture that’s often missed by companies.

You need to train your employees about what feedback entails and how to give and receive it.

For example, a person not liking the kind of pen their coworker uses is not feedback as it’s irrelevant to their conduct and performance in the office.

You need to provide your team with learning materials such as how-to guides and tutorials about giving relevant and constructive feedback. Similarly, you can show them examples of positive interactions regarding feedback to help them learn.

As with everything, practice makes perfect. Keep training your employees to help make their feedback count.

Lead by example and give feedback in a way that is constructive and helpful. Similarly, accept feedback given to you gracefully and work on your shortcomings.

6.) Highlight Changes Made On Feedback

One of the most effective ways to demonstrate the power of feedback is to highlight the changes you make in your office based on it.

It helps employees see the impact of their feedback as clearly as possible and understand its value.

This way they’re more willing to give and receive feedback because they see its benefits and not because they’ve been asked to by their supervisor.

For example, you’ve received feedback that the office canteen has very limited options and people would like more.

And you go ahead and work on the issue to revamp the menu to include more variety in your canteen.

Now, when you introduce this new change, let your employees know that this change for the better is a direct result of their feedback.

It helps employees see that giving and receiving feedback is worth their time and foster the culture.

You can even encourage them to do the same i.e., highlight if they made a change in their way of work based on feedback they received as well.

7.) Invite Ideas From Employees

Lastly, always be open to ideas from your employees. Invite ideas from them about how you can improve your feedback framework and what you can do better. It directly relates to fostering a feedback culture.

If you simply implement what you believe is right without entertaining discussion from your team, the whole point becomes moot.

The goal is to create a transparent environment. It’s meant for the employees, they should get a say in how to improve it as well.

Make Feedback A Habit To Foster A Culture And Improve Employee Efficiency

Giving and receiving feedback is one of the most nurturing elements of a positive work environment.

Putting a mechanism in place and making feedback a routine greatly helps foster a culture of transparency and trust.

When employees are constantly receiving reviews of their performance, it helps them understand their strong and weak suits.

They can work on them to improve their overall performance. It also helps increase their productivity and efficiency. 

Let us know in the comments how you think a workplace can build a culture of feedback to enhance its efficiency.