How to give feedback to employees correctly

Any business is based on communication. You need to be able to express yourself correctly, set a task, explain and express your opinion without hitting the interlocutor and without losing face. One of these communication skills is giving feedback.

What is feedback and why is it needed?

Feedback in a work context is a reaction to the completion of a task. This is a comment given to an employee by a boss, colleague, or customer about how the work was done.

The need for feedback has been present in us since childhood: we expect praise from parents for good grades, respect from friends for achievements and, of course, we are pleased when we are encouraged at work.

But very rarely does a job deserve only praise. Each completed task and project teaches us, builds communication and develops business. Therefore, here feedback becomes an important tool in personnel management, which affects:

• motivation and productivity;
• relationships and atmosphere within the team;
  
• correction of previous errors in future projects;
  
• the success of the whole business.
  

Whether it is positive or negative depends on the quality of the feedback. And by the way, you also need to be able to praise.

Basic politeness first of all!

What should be the feedback

Before writing someone a personal review of their work, it is worth considering a few rules of good wording. They apply to any feedback: big projects, small ones, one-time deals or long-term cooperation.

1. Keep your emotions to yourself

Any problem can be solved – and it is best to solve it through constructive dialogue.

Sometimes indignation cannot be hidden, but do not express it in harsh words. Aggression causes only retaliatory aggression, exposes the addressee not in the best light and often cuts off all motivation at the root. And to preserve it for further progress is our main task.

So, instead of scolding and swearing, explain the problem to the employee and help solve it. Suggest discussing deadlines, changing the format of tasks, or building steps to achieve the desired result. Some skills, habits and information take time to learn, and if you agree and contribute to this, everyone will be better off.

Don't let emotions influence the situation.

2. Be specific

Your feedback, like the tasks, should be clear so that the employee understands exactly what needs to be fixed. Avoid general statements like "you should try better" and focus on specific actions and results.

It is useful to use numbers – a very visual way to show the result. If you have any statistics that you can back up your words with, use them.

3. Be constructive

The purpose of feedback is to point out strengths and weaknesses and help the employee become a better person. Therefore, it should be based on constructive comments and suggestions for improvement.

It is not necessary to analyze in detail all the actions of a colleague and point out every mistake. Mark the most important thing and write down what you would like to see in further collaboration.

4. Let's give feedback right away

The sooner an employee hears your opinion, the more effectively he will be able to analyze his work and think about what should be fixed while the workflow is still fresh in his head.

5. Listen to what they say to you

Feedback is a two–way process, so it's important to listen and consider the opinion of the person you're giving it to. Perhaps he sees the situation from the other side, will explain his point of view and give valuable recommendations to you.

6. Praise

Try to celebrate the positive aspects in someone else's work – this motivates you to further achievements. In addition, a spoonful of honey in a barrel of tar helps smooth out the corners.

Now let's try to put these tips into practice.

Examples of bad feedback:

❝ You've done a great job this month, keep it up!

and

❝ How many times do you submit reports with omissions! How many times can I send them for rechecking? It slows down the whole department!

Let's run them through the filter of our points on how to formulate feedback, and get good feedback:

❝ This month, you submitted all projects on time and with minimal edits, and closed all tasks in the plan, and financial indicators increased by 22%! This is more than we expected in such a short period of time. We hope that we will be able to maintain this pace in the future.

and

❝ You're good at submitting reports in advance, so I can put the information together and prepare for the meeting. But they are often not finalized, and unnecessary rechecks take time. Let's work on this together. Maybe we should change your schedule or give you more time to report? I see that you are well versed in the topic and can work better.

Offer your opponent several solutions to the problem. This will start a constructive dialogue, and perhaps he will offer some of his own, and you will find out the reason for the flaws.

Ready-made feedback models

Feedback can be compiled according to ready-made schemes. Yes, yes, everything has been thought up for you for a long time. The most popular of them are SOR, BOFF and sandwich, and they are used in different situations.

SOR

Stands for "Standart, Observation, Result", from English "Standard, Observation, Result". This model is used when an employee has a clear work plan and requirements. Here we are:

S – We describe the rules according to which an employee should work, and why they are needed;

O – Tell us about the problem;

R – We show what this leads to.

Example:

❝ Your obligation under the contract is to write three posts a day so that our statistics grow steadily. This week you wrote one or four posts at a time, which is why they came out irregularly. This has reduced our reach and customer influx. Please distribute your resources and time more evenly.

BOFF

It is used to correct discipline and work on large projects. Let's spell out the abbreviation:

• Behavior. Here we tell you how and what actions of the employee led to the problem.
• Outcome. We describe what came of it.
  
• Feelings. We explain how the result affected production and what emotions it caused.
  
• Future. We express our hopes for the future behavior of the employee or offer our solutions.
  

Example:

❝ You entered a shorter delivery time into the delivery plan than usual. The products did not arrive on time, and because of this, several orders were delayed. This upset our customers very much, and one of them said that he would no longer contact us. Next time, take your time, check the plan more carefully or ask a colleague to double-check it so that this does not happen again.

Sandwich

A universal scheme for correcting results. It consists of three layers: praise – scold (and discuss further actions) – praise.

Example:

❝ We haven't seen such interesting cases for a long time. As always, your creativity is on top and even better than we thought. But several indicators in your plan far exceed our capabilities. Let's adjust the others or find an alternative. We are sure that with your experience and skills, we will quickly come to an even better result.

Attention! Do not always work according to the same scheme! For example, a sandwich quickly gets stale and loses its effect. Form your feedback in different ways, but do not forget about clear explanations and a joint solution to the problem.

How to receive feedback

We have already said that feedback is a two–way process. The ability to accept it is no less important than the ability to formulate it. Here are a couple of tips on how to:

• Don't take it personally. Feedback is an opportunity to find out your weaknesses and improve your work. Think of it as a constructive criticism of your work, not of you personally.
  
  
• Ask clarifying questions. If you are given a "bad" feedback, specify what exactly the addressee did not like and what you can do to fix it.
  
  
• Be ready to change. Even if the feedback seems unpleasant, there is certainly some truth in it, and it can help you become better at your job.
  
  
• Think about the tips and apply them. Use feedback as a tool for your development: develop an action plan and avoid past mistakes.
  

Positive feedback helps an employee in any field to develop and improve results. Express and use it correctly – and the work will be much more pleasant and effective.

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