Encouraging Feedback from Your Employees: A How-To Guide
As a business, it is imperative that you do everything you can to ensure that you are running as efficiently as possible. Oftentimes, the processes and the day-to-day operations are put in place by the business owners or managers who actually do not have to experience working with them first-hand. This is precisely why employee feedback is instrumental to streamlining business practices to ensure that they are as effective as possible in order to maximise productivity. However, getting feedback from employees can be difficult. This is why we have put together the following guide: let’s take a look.
Establishing the Right Company Culture
To start with, you need to work on establishing a culture within your business whereby feedback is welcomed and valued. This might mean that you need to work on overhauling your current company culture and doing your bit to encourage communication in the workplace. Think about how you can encourage a dialogue to form. It might be worth looking into a software platform for live polls like Vevox to help to gather your employee’s opinions and suggestions quickly and easily.
Demonstrate a Willingness to Act on Feedback
If you want to encourage your employees to provide you with feedback, you need to show them that the feedback matters to you by acting on it where necessary and possible. If you don’t place any importance on the feedback provided to you and rectifying the issues that are bothering your employees, then, of course, they are going to be reluctant to come to you. Even if you cannot act on their feedback for whatever reason, you need to make sure that they feel heard and valued.
Communicate Appropriately & Effectively
Giving feedback to your employees is obviously a necessary business practice. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to do this. As a general rule, you should always provide negative feedback or criticism in private; to do so in public would potentially be humiliating for the employee. On the other hand, giving praise in public is always appreciated. It is about finding the most appropriate avenues that you can use to provide your staff with feedback. In order to ensure that feedback remains fair and impartial, try to focus on the job as opposed to the individual person.
Establish the Right Lines of Communication
Communication needs to be a two-way street; you need to be willing to make an effort to put yourself in their shoes. It can be incredibly tempting to find yourself getting defensive when on the receiving end of feedback. However, making an effort to understand their perspective can help you to understand the feedback that they have given you. As a manager or business owner, it is imperative that you try your best to be understanding.
Final Thoughts
There are several benefits to encouraging feedback from your employees. It can help to improve communication in the workplace overall as well as allow you to get a better understanding of your employees and address any issues in their infancy. Working on creating an environment where two-way communication and continual feedback are a priority can do wonders for your business. Be sure to consider the tips above when trying to work out whether your business is working as efficiently as possible.