Elevate Your Feedback Culture: A Comprehensive Guide to 360-Degree Feedback

Measuring the quality of work and overall productivity is as important to the employees as it is to the company. 69% of employees say they would work harder if they were recognized and provided feedback regularly. Among the most engaged employees, it is witnessed that 43% receive proper guidance at least once a week. 

One-on-one sessions get tricky to conduct at large organizations with thousands of employees. Feedback to the manager is crucial to ensure consistent quality of work. In such a situation, CHROs must streamline the feedback process. They must refine it to deliver optimal results.

Read on to learn all about the different ways of providing feedback for team leaders that can ensure overall team productivity.

Understanding the different types of manager feedback

There are a variety of approaches to manager feedback. The key is to analyze the situation and devise the right strategy. Feedback can be formal, informal, negative, positive, constructive, and more. It essentially comes down to the tone and source.

Constructive feedback for managers

Constructive feedback to managers focuses primarily on the manager’s work, its scope for improvement, and finding better solutions rather than the person. The essence of such a session is to evaluate the task and come up with possible actionable solutions in terms of the work. It will comprise valuable insights that help the individual improve their performance.

Constructive feedback for managers has several benefits:

• It pinpoints to the employees the prospective scope for improvement.
• It does not focus on individual shortcomings and hence can motivate the employees.

For example, explaining the employee-specific areas of improvement with suggestions regarding the task is a constructive approach. Conducting periodic discussions to understand progress can also help. With Amber’s Tenure module, managers can easily track the progress by conducting periodic surveys on employee performance at specific checkpoints such as days 7, 15, 30, and so on.

Positive feedback for managers

Simply put, it is the type of feedback that praises your work. Positive feedback for managers motivates the employees. It also induces enthusiasm among the managers to bring the best out of their teams. Positive feedback has several benefits:

• The managers and their teams will remain motivated to scale their performance.
• It ensures there is a positive work environment.
• They are likely to be more engaged in the office.

A great example of positive feedback to managers would be an appreciation mail specifying their latest achievement that benefited the company. 

MediaCom’s story is perhaps a perfect example of how positive feedback can turn around a business. They realized 33x ROI by using feedback to drive employee engagement with Amber's conversational AI. It helped their business leaders to focus better on feedback from disengaged employees and take corrective actions accordingly.

The company came up with a special project called Guardian Angels that let employees connect 1:1 with leaders from diverse cultures and business verticals who mentored and guided them. The program was initiated by the CHRO based on employee feedback through the Amber survey that let them take a positive, actionable measure.

Giving negative feedback to employees of managers

Negative feedback need not always be demotivating. When delivered constructively, it can help with conflict resolution, improve communication, build a positive work culture, and drive professional growth. Here are some ways of giving negative feedback to employees without demotivating them:

• Choose your words with care. Focus more on the solutions than the problems.
• Avoid comparing employee performances and acknowledge unique limitations.
• Share tips and suggestions that can help them improve and are constructive.

For example, if there is a scope for improvement compared to an employee's current performance, be specific about the shortcomings. Along with that, provide feasible solutions they can implement. It will motivate them to turn around their overall performance for the better.

Strategies for effective feedback delivery

Feedback for team leaders will only be effective when delivered correctly. There are several approaches to providing effective feedback to managers that will help with improving employee engagement in the long run.

Pay close attention to the manager's perspective.

One must understand the manager's perspective on certain tasks and workloads before concluding about the team's performance. Make the most of Amber's conversational AI that can analyze the employee's true sentiment through customized feedback surveys.

Listen to understand and not argue.

It is crucial to understand the perspectives to provide constructive feedback for managers. Effective feedback delivery is facilitated by a constructive attitude toward understanding the issues faced by the employees. This is where CHROs can take the help of inFeedo’s AI-driven analytics that provides a detailed report on true employee feedback and sentiment.

Take a sandwich approach for negative feedback.

One must be tactful while sharing negative feedback. The "sandwich" approach is the best way to deliver negative feedback without demotivating the employees. In such a scenario, the negative feedback is cushioned with positive feedback, making it a learning experience for the employees.

Feedback sharing must be a two-way road.

There should be a culture of open communication where employees have the freedom to share their feedback with managers. Amber's pulse surveys can help collect such feedback anonymously and confidentially and analyze the employees' true sentiments.

Leverage technology.

Make the most of software that is AI-driven to gather enough information on employees. When they have a reliable channel to share their opinions, they are more likely to divulge their true opinions on organizational changes and issues they face. Amber’s pulse survey, conversational AI, is a useful tool for CHROs to analyze manager effectiveness based on the honest feedback shared by the team members.

Fostering a feedback culture in the workplace

Feedback can help with the overall improvement of the team. Here are a few things that managers can do to foster a culture of honest feedback within the company:

• Avoid criticism, disdain, and similar tone when sharing feedback.
• Encourage a positive approach to negative feedback from employees. It will help them open up better.
• Take the help of conversational AI like Amber's tenure module to collect feedback from the employees periodically.
• An actionable approach, especially for disengaged employees, will help to improve the overall workplace culture and promote productivity in the long run.

Conclusion

CHROs and HRBPs can elevate the feedback culture of the organization when they foster an open culture. Freedom of communication without fearing consequences will make employees speak their minds.

With inFeedo’s employee feedback solutions, easily instigate real-time and honest feedback to managers