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Giving Feedback
Jun 27th, 2019
Giving
and Receiving Feedback – From Onboarding Through Offboarding
By:
Caitlin McCuaig
Providing
consistent feedback to employees is crucial for cultivating the employment
relationship. Giving your employees
feedback throughout the employment lifecycle is key since without it, employees
can be left feeling confused and may eventually disengage with their jobs. This can be challenging for some managers and
HR professionals who find these conversations awkward or uncomfortable. Feedback
is a two-way street; it involves both giving it to employees as well as
requesting it back during events that take place such as interviews and
meetings. Getting into the habit of regularly requesting and providing feedback
from the very beginning is a great way to eliminate any awkwardness and to create
an open environment. Some tips for giving
and receiving providing feedback during all stages of employment can include:
·
During Recruitment -
This is one of the key times for Human Resource professionals to request
feedback. To maximize efficiency during
recruitment, it is a great idea to ask for feedback from both candidates and
hiring managers. Comments from hiring managers will help ensure the current
recruitment process is meeting the needs of the organization. Feedback from candidates will highlight the
strengths and weaknesses of your overall recruitment process.
·
During Onboarding – Requesting
feedback during a new employee’s first few weeks or months will set them up for
success and develop a culture of trust between you and your employee’s. New employees
are taking in a lot of information during this period and this is a great
opportunity to let them know they are doing a great job or give them a few
pointers that will help them improve. This is also a chance to ask your new
employee if there is anything you can do to assist them during this period.
·
The Working Relationship – As
you develop your working relationship with your employees over the years,
giving feedback may become a less frequent occurrence. The yearly performance review should not be
the only time to discuss your employees’ great work or to chat about any
challenges they have had with projects.
Opportunities should be taken to give feedback regularly through
coaching, training and conversations.
·
Retaining Your Employees – Once
employee’s have integrated into your company, it is important to keep them
engaged and happy in their job. Seeking
feedback from employees about their thoughts on the company benefit plan,
compensation and highlighting those who deserve recognition is an excellent way
to keep employees engaged and gratified with their positions.
·
Offboarding –
Employees leave companies for a variety of reasons including: seeking other
employment opportunities, retirement, layoff, or termination. Exit interviews are a great way to gather
feedback at this stage. Through the exit
interview process, insight can be gained about what employees liked and
disliked about their job, challenges they faced, what motivated them to leave
if they quit and what supports were helpful and where they were lacking.
Giving
and receiving feedback may be challenging for some, but it is integral to
developing a good relationship with employees.
The annual performance review can feel much like a general rating to
employees, not really offering much in terms of details. In contrast, continuous feedback, both coming
from employees and going to them, provides a constant stream of focused points
to build on for employees and managers.
References