Why continuous feedback mattters
Neville Postwalla
HR Leader | Aligning Business Strategy with Talent & Culture | Future of Work Advocate | Thought Leader | Speaker | HR Product Innovator
In the Times of India (Pune edition - Friday 8th Jul 2016) there was an interesting article that my CMD Vikas Joshi shared with some of us.
In many companies, formal feedback was only provided once or twice a year via the performance appraisal. Although leaders used to advocate continuous feedback, it happened adhoc and was not tracked – so during appraisal time many employees were given shocks (most of them not so good!).
That is why there are many apps being built to capture feedback and performance on a real time basis. I feel that this is not a "nice to have" feature but something that is an absolute must! All of us have at some point of time in our lives been given feedback (by our family, friends, or bosses) which we wish we were given a few weeks or months ago, that would have helped us to take corrective action at that time.
At Harbinger, we've been promoting continuous feedback for many years via our One on One (O3) app. This is a strong tool and is used in combination with the appraisal tool so as to remove the "recency" bias.
In O3’s, we can have short conversations with our managers where we can share highlights since the previous O3, receive feedback as well as get coaching and development inputs that can help us grow more as professionals.
Our O3 app also provides for giving positive and negative (we call it adjusting) feedback. It’s important that we get this feedback quickly so that we can continue on what we've been doing well as well as take course correction of what we need to change.
Also, there is a section where the direct can also add her comments. This is a feature to be used, in case the direct wants to add something that was forgotten to have been added or add or comment on something that the Manager has written. It’s also a good idea for the direct and manager to review their KRA's frequently.
So via the O3, the employee the performance trends becomes quite clear and feedback on areas to be worked happens all through the year – instead of being a yearly or bi-annual process. It also provides bonding between the Manager and her direct.
Asst. Manager Revenue Optimization Analytic
8 å¹´Great and interesting Post Neville. We too are moving towards continuous feedback as against the one time or half term feedback at the appraisal. As you rightly pointed out, many times we do it informally and it isn't documented.
HR & Business Consultant | Helping SMEs Build Scalable HR Systems
8 å¹´Continuous feedback is very important for improvement & growth. However this is a very critical process as a feedback may trigger many negative emotions as well. Engagement is the key as it enables a bonding among the direct and manager. In one of the organization i have seen an online system for fortnightly appraisal where a team member can submit the appraisal from wherever he/she is and the manager used to appraise by giving the ratings and comments. That system could not make much impact as there was hardly any engagement between the two and appraisal was more of a formality. Would love to learn how O3 works.
Author, Speaker and CEO at Empower Training Services Empowering people to enhance their Professional Effectiveness and Career Growth
8 å¹´"We all need people who will give us feedback.That's how we improve." Bill Gates