The One Thing You Can Do to Motivate Your Employees Now
BY JESSICA ZARTLER
Ninety-eight percent of employees are disengaged when managers give little or no feedback and 65 percent of employees said they wanted more feedback. Just think about that for a moment. Almost all employees need and want feedback to be engaged at work and that once a year, or once every six months performance review won’t cut it, according to a worldwide Gallup survey.
Research shows that frequent, constructive feedback and recognition is the quickest way to increase employee productivity, performance and engagement. However, despite the benefits, many people flinch at the phrase “Performance Review” or have feedback-phobia from past experiences.
Giving feedback doesn’t have to be so overwhelming or difficult, just follow these Do’s and Don’ts and keep your eye on the positives that result from feedback and recognition.
The Do’s of Giving Feedback
DO Personalize feedback
Avoid “one-size-fits-all” feedback. If one person made a mistake there is no need to waste the time of the entire team so you don’t have to face the person who did make the mistake one on one. It may also be obvious who made the mistake and discussing it in front of the whole team may embarrass that person and make them feel demoralized. Individualizing feedback, making it very specific and talking to the colleague one on one will have much better results for the individual and the team.
DO ask for permission
You wouldn’t walk into someone’s house without knocking or ringing the doorbell, so make sure you give the same courtesy when you are about to enter into a colleague’s delicate space of job performance. Asking, “Hey, do you have some time after lunch for some quick feedback?” This allows your employee to mentally prepare for your words, be they positive or negative. You may be surprised what a huge difference this makes.
DO state what you observed
Use specific examples and avoid personal judgements. “You don’t seem energetic in sales presentations” is not as helpful as “I noticed your body language during sales presentations is passive.” Stating the facts instead of assuming to label or judge the behavior is not constructive and leaves little room for improvement. When the feedback is general is may do more harm than good. Keep it simple and observational-based.
DO explain the impact
Discuss with the employee what consequences this observation had or could have on the customer, team or company. Using the same example from #3 you could say, “When your body language is passive in sales presentations, the client may see it as a reflection of the product or service.” Using language that highlights another perspective or sheds light on a potential negative result in a respectful manner that is easily understood, keeps the feedback session from devolving into a debate and instead, explore the motivations for the behavior itself and how it can be improved.
DO pause and allow the person to respond
The employee or colleague may not have realized his or her mistake or behavior in question. Give him or her time to let what you’ve said sink in and give some space to allow that person to react.
DO suggest how they can take action
Give one or two ideas for ways the person can address their mistake or behavior and invite them to give ideas on how they can improve the situation. They will appreciate that you are helping them to be proactive and giving them options. Reiterate your support and that you will do anything you can to help. Let your colleague know they can always come to you if they have a need or question.
DO follow up!
Too often a manager gives feedback and then never brings up the subject again. How would a colleague know if their performance has improved or declined if you don’t let them know? Schedule a follow up brief to talk about how the employee feels since the feedback and make sure you are doing your part to support the process.
The DON’Ts of Giving Feedback
DON’T bring up more than one issue or behavior.
It is confusing and overwhelming.
DON’T be too critical or negative.
Feedback should inspire the person so consider adding one piece of good feedback with the bad as it may be easier to digest for the person.
DON’T avoid real problems.
If there is an issue you should state it and discuss.
DON’T be vague.
Point out a specific instance and connect it to impact.
DON’T cut the employee off.
Allow them some time and space to respond so they feel they have a voice and can help brainstorm on ways to improve.
Remember…
Workers are 30 times more likely to be engaged at work when managers focus on their strengths. Feedback doesn’t always have to be negative. It is important to address mistakes, but make sure you are equally recognizing wins and behavior you want to encourage.
To make sure you keep track of your feedback and recognition, start a private project in Taskworld that only you can see, and create tasklists to document when and what kind of feedback you gave to members of your team. This will help make sure you are giving feedback and recognition often to engage team members and increase performance and productivity.
It also doesn’t always have to be so formal, you can use Taskworld not only to manage projects and tasks, but you can give informal feedback and recognition through Task Comments and Chat.
The Payoff
Companies that implement regular employee feedback have a 14.9 percent lower turnover rate and 69 percent of employees said they would work harder if they felt their efforts were better recognized.
Increase performance and productivity, decrease emails by up to 40 percent and start giving regular feedback with Taskworld — sign up for your free trial now.
About the author
Jessica Zartler is a Multimedia Marketing Consultant & Content Strategist for Taskworld. Before working in Public Relations and Marketing, she was an award-winning television reporter and multimedia journalist for eight years. When she is not hunting for the best content on the web to share with TW users, blogging or producing videos, she is teaching yoga, cooking, playing drums and travelling.
