Armed with the right tools and processes, your employees will be happy to give you exactly what you need from them: their honest and accurate feedback. Let’s see how you can easily get employee feedback.
Getting employee feedback is the lifeblood of any organization. It’s how we know what’s working, what isn’t working, and how we can improve as an organization. Yet, in most organizations, giving feedback is something people avoid. Employees are afraid to give negative feedback because they fear being labeled a “troublemaker” or that their ideas won’t be heard. Managers, on the other hand, crave that feedback. They want to know what their team thinks so they can make changes and keep things moving in the right direction.
Luckily, there are many ways you can easily get employee feedback to unlock the potential of your team and your organization as a whole.
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Make it a priority to set up regular employee feedback sessions
First and foremost, If you want to get employee feedback, you have to make regular feedback central to your company culture. Make it a priority to set up regular employee feedback sessions, whether it’s once a quarter or once a year, depending on your company’s size and growth rate. Regular feedback sessions can help you see what your team members value in the company, where there are areas of improvement, and what they think could be done better. You can also use these sessions to set goals together, so everyone is working towards the same vision and knows how they fit into the company’s future. Regular feedback sessions can also help you spot issues or concerns that might be a sign of a larger problem. If you notice a few people bringing up the same issue, you can use this as an opportunity to dig deeper, ask questions, and figure out how you can help solve the problem.
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Keep the process as simple and comfortable as possible
Employees might be receptive to providing feedback, but that doesn’t mean they want to feel like they’re in the hot seat. You don’t want them to feel nervous about your questions or feel like they need to give you the "right" answers—especially since you’re looking for honest feedback
To get employee feedback, try to make the process as simple and comfortable as possible. The best way to do this is to remind yourself that you’re not interrogating anyone. You’re simply trying to get a better sense of what your team members need and value so that you can help make the company better. Be transparent about why you want feedback and what you’ll do with it. If you want feedback in an open-ended way, your team members might not know exactly what you’re looking for. You might ask team members to rate different aspects of the company on a scale from 1-10 or collect open-ended feedback like "What would make your job better?"
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Anonymous Employee Feedback
As a manager, you want to know what your employees think about the work environment, their job performance, and how they can improve. The best way for you to find out is by giving them an anonymous survey. It’s an easy, convenient and quick way for employees to give you honest feedback in a non-threatening manner.
It’s also something most managers have trouble getting from their staff. Most employees are afraid that offering criticism will lead to reprisals or hurt their career advancement opportunities within the company. Unfortunately, this fear of reprisal leads many employees to withhold the kind of feedback you need as a manager.
Once you have an anonymous employee feedback program in place, you will be able to gather insights that will improve your company and boost your employees’ job performance, engagement, and loyalty.
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Ask for specific feedback
Depending on the type of feedback you’re giving, you may want to ask for specific kinds of feedback. For example, if you’re giving 360-degree feedback (where you give feedback about a co-worker and receive feedback about yourself), you may want to focus on strengths and weaknesses. If you’re collecting general feedback from your team, you may want to ask them to rank things from most important to least important. Or if you want to dig deeper and get more specific feedback, you can ask questions like, "What could we do better as a company?" or "What advice would you give to your manager?"
Conclusion
Employee feedback is important to help see what your team members value in the company, where there are areas of improvement, and what they think could be done better. You can also use these sessions to set goals together, so everyone is working towards the same vision and knows how they fit into the company’s future.
