Everyone Benefits From Employee Feedback
Employee feedback can help you become an effective manager. This article focuses on the many ways you can benefit from the feedback you get from your employees.
Whenever you’re receiving feedback, keep in mind you’ll want to look for opportunities and insights as to what people are experiencing in their job.
Uncovering Issues
When you ask for feedback, you may uncover issues that you were not aware of.
For example, one of your employees may be doing something that’s taking a long time. Now that you’re aware of the issue, you have the opportunity to consider the process and make changes to get better results.
Why Managers May Not Want to Get Feedback
A: Fear
Some managers may not want to hear feedback from their employees because they’re afraid of what they’re going to hear. They may also think, “If I’m aware of complaints, I have to do something about it.”
B: Show Who Is in Charge
A manager may think, “I need to show employees who is in charge,” and take the approach where no feedback is taken from employees, and the business is run by the manager alone.
C: Unaware of the Benefits
A manager may simply not be aware of all the benefits that come with getting employee feedback.
The Benefits of Getting Feedback from Your Employees
1. Learning from a Lower Level
As a boss, you may not be aware of all the fine details of each job. Through feedback, you may uncover techniques that you were unaware of. You may also find a better way of doing things.
2. Strengthen Work Relationships
When you involve your employees in your process, you are showing that you value their opinion. A team that works well together creates a stronger working relationship. By asking for feedback, you are involving your team, which most employees appreciate.
3. A Feel for Job Satisfaction
By allowing your employees to give feedback, you have the opportunity to identify how satisfied your employees are with their job.
If the majority of feedback is negative across the board, then you have some issues to examine. It could be your process, the actual job, the treatment of your employees, the compensation they are receiving, etc.
If the majority of feedback is positive, then focus on what you are doing right. Plus, you could mirror those processes to other departments if applicable.
4. Stronger Ideas Due to Brain Storming
Think of receiving feedback as a brainstorming session. Ask for more information. Ask for ideas on improving the processes that are currently in place. Getting ideas from your team is a great way to practice continuous improvement.
5. Being a Good Boss
A good boss always listens to their team with genuine concern. You may not always have the time to listen, which is why it’s a good idea to set a certain amount of time to speak with your team members on a regular basis.
This practice can improve morale and build motivation in the workplace.
6. Improve Your Management Skills
The more you know how your employees are dealing with their job, the better it is for you as a manager.
It’s up to you to determine what needs to be done.
It doesn’t mean you have to do anything, but you have the opportunity to make things better and create a win-win situation — so you may want to listen to what your employees have to say.
7. Identifying Weak Points in Your Operation
Getting feedback from your team makes the job of identifying weak points in your process a lot easier.
When a number of employees have the same concerns, it gives you the opportunity to dig deeper and figure out if you need to make changes and improvements.
8. Identifying Talent
When you are surveying your whole team, you’ll notice the employees that may have great ideas, show leadership skills, and are more knowledgeable than the others.
When you can identify the talented members of your team, it will be easy to fill a position if an opportunity shows up, or you can use the talented people for tasks that will better the team.
I’m a firm believer in putting the right person in the right position.
9. Defusing Issues Before They Happen
Feedback allows you to identify a growing problem and creates an opportunity to tackle it before it becomes worse. Dealing with the problem before it escalates is a great way to manage your team and stay on top of the issues in your workplace.
10. Embrace Change
Often when you get feedback, you will need to make changes. Acting on change improves your management skills.
Change is always occurring in today’s workplace. Managers that can adapt to change effectively have an advantage over those managers who can’t deal very well with change.
How To Get Feedback From Your Employees
1. Create A Survey
Creating a survey can be a good way to get feedback from a large team of employees. It also acts as an ice breaker to allow employees to gather their thoughts if you conduct a follow-up meeting.
Survey Ideas:
- Have the option to take the survey anonymously. This allows your team to say what they want without fear of ramifications.
- Encourage comments and ensure you have enough room in the comment section.
- Ensure your questions are clear and avoid open-ended ones.
- Make sure you review the surveys. Not acting on the information wastes employees’ time and gives them the sense that management doesn’t care about their input.
2. Have a Meeting
You can schedule meetings, a town hall, or something similar to discuss the issues and ask for feedback. It’s a good idea to open the floor for discussion.
You may want to have refreshments, coffee, and donuts, a pizza party, or something similar to make it a social event. If you have a small workforce, you can also have one-on-one meetings.
3. Casual Individual Visits
You can casually visit each of your employees at their work center and chat with them to get the feedback you’re looking for.
Best Practices When Getting Employee Feedback
1. Show Interest
When you are speaking with your team members, make sure you are focused on them, and show interest in what they are saying.
Getting reliable feedback relies on focusing on what the employee is experiencing at work.
2. Pay Attention to an Employee’s Reaction
Make sure your mind isn’t wandering when you are listening to your employees. You want your full attention on what your employee is saying.
When you are speaking, you want to pay attention to how the person is reacting to what you are saying. Often you can pick up what the person is thinking by observing facial expressions and body language.
3. Own Up to Mistakes
When you are confronted with an issue and it’s your mistake, own up to it and let your employees know that you are taking responsibility.
It shows you are human and that you are taking responsibility for your mistake. It also sets a good example for your team.
4. Don’t Become Defensive
When your employee brings up issues you don’t like, don’t become defensive. This may lead to your employee shutting down rather than being open, which makes the feedback process a waste of time.
5. Ask Yourself Questions
Often when you’re getting feedback from employees, they will treat it as a time where they can voice their complaints.
On one hand, when they are complaining, they may be dragging on about the issue and it may be hard to keep the process moving.
On the other hand, when you let them complain, you are allowing them to voice everything that may be bothering them.
Here is the tip when they are complaining and not holding back. You can set your focus on opportunities to improve your operation. While they are complaining, you can ask yourself questions like:
- Is this a valid complaint?
- Should I make changes?
- How can I take care of this?
- How can I prevent this from becoming worse or happening in the future?
6. Take Notes
When you take notes, you are showing your employees that you are serious about what they have to say, listening to their concerns, and acting.
When you take notes, you’ll also be able to review them later if you need to put a new plan in place.
Conclusion:
As you can see, there are many benefits and opportunities for getting feedback from your employees. If you haven’t already, give it a try and see the ideas that you can benefit from.
That’s The Way I See It
Acey Gaspard
Resources
Books
Books are another excellent resource for getting feedback from your employees.
One thing to keep in mind when it comes to non-fiction books is you don’t need to read the book from cover to cover; instead, browse the table of contents and jump to the chapter that interests you.
Google Book Search Related To Getting Employee Feedback
News
The news is another resource you can use to stay up-to-date with any topic. To get the most out of stories covered in the media, use Google news to get the latest and archive new stories.
Latest News Related To Getting Employee Feedback
YouTube
YouTube always has a fresh stream of new content. Type in your keyword, and you’ll get a list of the newest videos related to your topic and suggestions for videos related to your keyword that you may not have considered before.
Videos Related To Getting Employee Feedback