Do you remember the last time someone gave you feedback about your performance at work? If you had to think about it, it was probably too long ago.
A feedback-rich culture, where employees feel comfortable asking for and receiving feedback, is a strong indicator of a great place to work. But too often, feedback only happens once a year during performance reviews.
The thing is, feedback doesn’t have to be this daunting, anxiety-ridden thing. When it becomes embedded in everyday work, it has the potential to create and maintain high-performing teams. So, here’s why feedback is important and how to prioritize it in your workplace.
Why feedback is important
Provokes change and fuels growth
Your entire company should have a growth mindset, and consistent feedback is the way to get there. According to a Hubspot survey, 69% of employees feel their performance would improve if their efforts were better recognized – and Harvard Business Review found that 57% of people prefer corrective feedback to purely praise and recognition.
Boosts employee engagement
43% of highly engaged employees receive feedback at least once a week compared to only 18% of employees with low engagement, an Officevibe survey found. Even when it isn’t vocalized, employees crave feedback – and a workplace lacking this sort of communication can seriously impact the well-being of employees, as well as their ability to perform at a high level.
Builds and maintains strong leaders
On the receiving end, constructive feedback motivates employees to improve and grow in their role, ultimately leading them to provide better feedback themselves. Managers that provide feedback are in turn more confident with the outcomes of employee development and are more willing to coach and check in with their people.
How to create a feedback culture: Establishing a mentoring program
Especially for new hires and those early in their career, establishing a formal mentoring program has the possibility to be the most fruitful avenue for personal and professional employee growth. While senior staff can offer insights and professional guidance, they in turn can benefit from fresh perspectives of their mentee, and refine their leadership skills.
Our friends at Together have the power to help you do just that. Powering mentorship and peer learning programs at companies like Randstad, Discovery Channel, and Airbnb, Together’s mission is to help every employee find and learn from peers, mentors, or experts at their company.
The importance of real-time feedback
At no point should a performance review be a total shock. Real-time feedback drives high performance through flexibility, accuracy, and consistent engagement, and is a catalyst for building trust. Managers capture micro-moments of employee behaviour and coach them based on observations. Expectations or goals are then set to actualize feedback, in place of traditional performance reviews, to see how the employee has grown.
To better understand real-time feedback and how you can adopt it as a people leader, check out our ebook, 10X your team’s performance with real-time feedback.
Learn more with Humi
To learn more about how you can build a culture of high performance and adopt a feedback culture at your company with Humi, connect with our team.
