How to harness the power of feedback

The vast majority of workers aren’t getting enough feedback, new research has found.

Feedback is essential for growing and learning. They say you learn from your mistakes, but without discussing those mistakes, how are you to grow?

Similarly, if you’re doing something right, you want to be told so in order to continue what you’re doing.

According to a study by Gallup, 70 per cent of workers aren’t getting the necessary attention from their employers. This comes despite a recent Indeed article noting how employee feedback shows you care for your staff, promoting loyalty.

According to Indeed, loyal workers are happy workers, and happy workers are more likely to stick with the company. This is especially important when considering current talent shortages.

How to offer better feedback

Studies show that employees want more feedback. In fact, 78 per cent of employees want to learn new skills, and 76 per cent are more likely to stay with an organisation that offers learning and development opportunities.

Instant feedback has been deemed most effective as it gives immediate flow-on of learning and remains top of mind for the receiver.

Frequency and consistency in feedback are also important if you want employee skills to develop and see tangible progress.

There are a variety of ways to organise learning and development sessions, but according to Go1, over three-quarters of workers would prefer to develop their skills during work hours, throughout the day.

The same Go1 report outlined how younger workers are actually leaving roles altogether due to a lack of training. Three in five 16-to-24-year-olds admitted to leaving a job due to inadequate development opportunities.

A way to ensure you’re providing feedback and development of staff may be to organise some one-on-one time. This ensures a personalised approach where an employer can provide specialised feedback.

Similarly, leaders may benefit by going through their own training on how to be better teachers, which can improve their feedback ability.

Allocating budget towards bolstering a company’s learning and development area could be a crucial step towards bettering your workforce and improving productivity.

Furthermore, designing training around what employees want and creating a set time to learn can help to keep a rhythm and organised approach to learning and development.

Jack Campbell

Jack is the editor at HR Leader.