A few years ago, the trend in companies’ HR departments became scheduling dates and finding the perfect formula for giving employees feedback on a set schedule. There were debates about how often feedback should be given, the best way to open and close the conversation, and which topics could not be left out. HR teams were put in charge of booking time slots and communicating what people had done wrong or right. All very nice, very organized, very theatrical. We know how important it is to know how we are doing in our work, or to have someone point out our mistakes, but a carefully planned session every two months is not going to produce any kind of positive outcome. Feedback needs to be unsettling, lead to action, and be specific and immediate to produce good results. And no magic formula, like the well-known sandwich method, will be as effective as the one that best fits each employee in your company.
Feedback needs to be immediate Remember that document you wrote incorrectly that caused a huge mix-up in the client meeting three weeks ago? Well, that’s in the past. The mistake is long gone, it had no direct negative consequence for you, and it was probably repeated countless times in the meantime. One of the most effective ways to alert an employee to a mistake or to improve a piece of work is to address what happened quickly. If something isn’t working today, efforts need to be directed at it starting tomorrow. And it doesn’t need to be immediate only when the feedback is negative. Recognition also leads to higher productivity and better results. Feedback needs to be specific General comments like “Your work needs to improve” or “I wasn’t very impressed with the result” will leave your employees confused and in the dark about what to do to correct the situation. Feedback needs to be task-focused, clear, and straight to the point. Be specific, set an action to fix the mistake, and evaluate the work after it has been done. Feedback needs to be personalized I’m not saying you should take the conversation to a personal level; quite the opposite. Being responsible for giving feedback means knowing the team you work with and knowing the best way to get the message across to each employee. Of course, the whole team needs to know how to take criticism in a healthy way, but when the relationship is closer and the person’s track record is taken into account, everything becomes simpler and more effective. HR is not the only one responsible for feedback Here comes the most important part of the story: HR is not the only one responsible for talking to employees about their performance at the company and for promoting across departments the idea that feedback is necessary. Each manager is responsible for their own department. Feedback given by the project manager to a team member right after a task is finished is much more effective and productive than something that goes through two or three people before reaching its destination.
The main purpose of feedback is to help each person understand where they stand with regard to a behavior. That’s why it is so important for the conversation to be constructive, firm, and sincere. There is no need to play out a soap opera to deliver criticism, with a beginning -> middle -> end, following a script of do’s and don’ts for giving feedback, whether positive or negative. Less theater, more accountability, and more assertiveness at the moment things happen lead to more results. In addition to giving effective feedback, managers need to stay aligned with the HR team’s activities to understand each team member’s situation, how to handle specific situations, and how to delegate tasks properly. But how does the HR department work today, combined with countless technologies?
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