Employee Engagement through providing performance feedback: Sandwich and Boost mechanism

Synthia, an executive of Supply Chain Department often stops her good initiatives because of the uncertainty of acceptances. She feels inferior as some of her performances feedback from her line manager was totally negative and no praise has been attributed, although she has been considered as one of the greatest potential of her company. Consequences are now a day she is becoming less engaged with work and lack of motivation has been observed.

Can this story be written in more productive way for Synthia? Is this story relatable to some of us also?

Let’s start with a survey result to understand current scenario.

A contemporary survey by Mark Marphy company on performance management asked employees to share how often they get constructive performance feedbacks by their leaders? Result is not optimistic though!

Result shows only 32% employees getting regular feedback. Which supports Gallup engagement survey results of only 13% active engaged employee.

Now the dilemma is often the feedback becomes personal, one sided and whimsical.

So how to give constructive performance feedback to team member which creates 2 ways of value (Employee and employer)? Let’s begin with what is performance feedback and its purposes.

What is performance feedback and why?

?       Performance feedback is the on-going process between employee and manager where information is exchanged concerning the performance expected and the performance exhibited.

?       Constructive feedback can praise good performance or correct poor performance and should always be tied to the performance standards.

What are the feedback types?

?       Positive – emphasizes the behavior the assessed person should preserve in the future;

?       Negative – emphasizes the behavior that should not be preserved in the future;

?       Descriptive – gives details on how the behavior of the assessed person was perceived and interpreted (past-oriented);

?       Prescriptive – gives details on what behavior should have been adopted or should be adopted in the future (future-oriented).

The Feedback Mechanism

Feedback on performance (action/behavior) should be regular, it should not be accidental which creates development for individual and expected performance for team/organization. There are certain mechanisms to provide employee feedback by Team leaders or line managers to create a positive impact and enhance engagement.

Precisely we will discuss 2 mechanisms today.

A.    Sandwich Feedback Technique:

The sandwich feedback method consists of praise followed by corrective feedback followed by more praise. In other words, the sandwich feedback method involves discussing corrective feedback that is “sandwiched” between two layers of praise.

Let’s rewrite the story of Synthia. Assume Synthia led a brainstorming meeting for an important project. Habitually, Synthia does not circulate the agendas prior to the meetings she leads. After one such meeting, Synthia’s line manager uses the sandwich feedback technique to persuade her to be more organized:

?       Praise: “Synthia, we had a very fruitful meeting. We had the right participants and collected all the necessary information from other departments. Thanks for your synchronization.”

?       Feedback/Criticism: “Did you notice that the discussions were disorganized? When you do not distribute an agenda prior to the meeting, the participants do not come prepared. During the meeting, they have to go back to their desks to collect information. Additionally, we tend to spend a lot of time digressing from the meeting objectives. How can you avoid this?” A discussion ensues.

?       Praise: “You are doing so well with gathering all the inputs. I am delighted about your meticulousness in circulating minutes of your meetings and following-up on action items. “

A.    BOOST feedback model

BOOST feedback model is one such popular informal method. It is used to give constructive & continuous feedback about positive behavior as well as rectifying shortcomings. It has been proven to identify and tackle specific performance issues before they escalate into major problems. BOOST works with below guidelines-

a.     B- Balanced: Balance between negative and positive feedback as human nature does not perceive positively which is criticism only. Moreover, this is very important point of engagement for millennial.

b.     O- Objective: Feedback should be on specific individual behavior or actions. It should be more objective and not based on the evaluators perception or personal opinion.

c.     O- Observed: Feedback should be based on firsthand observations.

d.     S- Specific:  Feedback should be specific and to the point. Do not give vague feedback about how the performance is “not up to the mark”. Specially it should be with facts/figures or incidents.

e.     T- Timely: It should be immediate after the event/incident.    

 As an informal feedback model, BOOST goes a long way in creating a culture of continuous feedback and increasing employee engagement. It helps managers and employees determine their shortcomings along with its reasons before being documented formally. Once it is noted formally, it can affect employee’s performance ratings and/or compensation in certain cases.

Finally, as a line manager of Synthia, we may focus on following points to make a constructive feedback as same time we need to motivate, engage and develop our employees-

1.     Plan the discussion, keep positives and negatives separate.

2.     Focus on the issue regarding employee behavior with examples.

3.     Connect the behavioral issue with how the issue impacts the business.

4.     State consequences if behavior does not improve.

5.     Identify the proper and required behavioral change that the organization expects.

6.     Ask how the manager can help the team member.

7. Express confidence in the employee’s ability to improve.

Remember

Providing Performance Feedback is not one-time activity! It’s a continuous process!

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Good read- Articles-

1. https://getlighthouse.com/blog/give-feedback-team-sh-t-sandwich/

2. The sandwich feedback method: Not very tasty, By- C. W. Von Bergen Southeastern Oklahoma State University , Martin S. Bressler Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Kitty Campbell Southeastern Oklahoma State University.