7 Best Practices on Performance Feedback

Ahoy !!! Its once again that time of the year... Yes, Appraisal Fever is high and so this post. Here are some practices for giving and receiving feedback that reflects the ground reality in organizations.

Performance management is a process of setting goals, assessing progress, providing feedback, and coaching to improve employee performance. Giving feedback is a critical part of this process, and it must be done effectively to ensure that employees understand their strengths, areas for improvement, and what they need to do to reach their goals.

Remember feedback is a two-way street and so it's not just the giver but the receiver who is as much a reason for the process going well or getting stuck or derailed. In this post, we will discuss seven best practices in performance management with respect to the process and setting of giving feedback.

Set clear expectations

Employees should be clear about what is expected of them before feedback is given. This involves setting clear performance expectations, goals, and objectives at the beginning of the performance cycle. When expectations are clear, feedback is more meaningful and productive.

Provide feedback on a regular basis

Feedback should be provided on a regular basis, not just during the annual performance review. Regular feedback is essential to help employees understand how they are doing and make adjustments to their performance. This can include feedback on a specific project or task, or it can be part of a routine check-in. However, the knowing-doing gap is high here. A tip to get over the gap is to ensure that each employee is empowered to demand feedback.

Make feedback specific and actionable

In order to be effective feedback should be actionable. Focus on specific behaviors, actions, or outcomes. This helps employees understand what they need to do to improve and helps managers set expectations for future performance. Tip: Often feedback ends up about the person. The feedback is on the action or task at hand and how well it was done. There could be constraints that came in the way. These are often overlooked but they are the speed breakers to be scraped out in future years or performance cycles.

Use a constructive approach

Feedback should be delivered in a constructive and supportive way. This involves using a positive tone, highlighting strengths, and providing suggestions for improvement. A constructive approach encourages employees to improve their performance and helps them feel supported. Take one point at a time and cover three aspects: What it was, How it Went, and Why it went so ? Let the employee do the talking first and hear out his or her view before jumping to the manager's input. That way it puts the ownership on both. Tip: A good manager is ready with data that reinforces or supports the feedback given. A best practice is to have a set of few feedback items written on a paper before the discussion. Also, discuss only one or two focus areas at a time. That is why continuous feedback makes sense. At the end use some time to discuss how the task or goal can be done better next time irrespective of the standard of fulfillment.

Dont' forget to focus on the future

While past is used as a means to discuss feedback should focus on the future too rather than just the past. It should be used to help employees set goals and develop plans to improve their performance. That is why the previous point I would emphasize the point on how the goal can be delivered better or differently even if it was a superlative performance. Tip: When feedback is focused on the future, it helps employees see how they can grow and develop. This also helps to develop creativity among the employees.

Encourage self-assessment

When they reflect it lowers the tendency to deflect. That is an observation I have made over the years in discussion with managers and employees. Encouraging self-assessment is an effective way to help employees take ownership of their performance. Managers can ask employees to evaluate their own performance and provide feedback on areas where they think they need to improve. This encourages employees to be self-aware and take responsibility for their performance. Tip: Ensure that what you will discuss is known well in advance before the feedback discussion. It's easy and you just need to plan a bit as if it matters and not as if it's casual conversation.

Provide a pathway training and support

The overall end objective is to ensure that at the end of the actionable element kicks in. One should be able to distil out the training and capability enhancements that may be needed. . Managers should identify areas where employees need to improve and provide training or support to help them develop the skills they need. This can include coaching, mentoring, or training programs.

There is no magic wand for appraisals. At the same time appraisals can be fun and constructive. I remember once giving feedback to two of my team over lunch at a nice hotel and we had discussions on important points. But I made sure that sensitive issues for any one specific employee did not come up and those were addressed later in one on one sessions. By following these good practices you as a manager can set clear goals and expectations, provide periodic feedback, make feedback specific and actionable, use a constructive approach, focus on the future, encourage self-assessment, and help to identify relevant training and capability enhancement.

So Don't fret but do place your bet, as feedback matters and works.