Employee engagement at Campbell’s: It's mm, mm good

Turning poor engagement around is a challenge for any organization, large or small. Finding a recipe for success came with its own set of challenges for one of the most recognized brands in the U.S., but the company now stands at the head of the employee engagement table.

In an interview with Forbes, Douglas Conant, CEO of Campbell Soup, shared how he took a “bad” company to a high-performing “extraordinary” company. We’ve put together some of the highlights in this post, you can read the full article here.

How did he do it? With a mix of “cost-cutting, smart innovations, increased marketing and, especially, a concerted effort to reinvigorate the workforce.”

"To win in the marketplace," he has said, "we believe you must first win in the workplace. I'm obsessed with keeping employee engagement front and center and keeping up energy around it." (Forbes)

The year after Conant became a part of Campbell’s he hired the help of Gallup, polling and research firm, to better understand his company’s engagement levels. Gallup found that 62% of Campbell’s managers were not actively engaged in their jobs and 12% were actively disengaged.

Today the engagement numbers look much different. According to the most recent poll, 68% of all Campbell employees say they are actively engaged, and only 3% say they are actively disengaged. The company’s engagement levels are “world-class” in Gallup’s eyes.

After Conant realized how it tied directly into shareholder returns, he used employee engagement as a tool to measure progress, build a high-performance company culture, and set high standards for Campbell’s leaders.

The company now surveys all 580 work groups at the same time once a year. Managers review the results with their direct reports and everyone is updated on their progress related to specific goals. The top quality leaders are measured on is their ability to inspire trust in those around them.

“The other thing we do is celebrate at a high level when people do things well. Learning to celebrate success is a key component of learning how to win in the market. On a personal level, I send out about 20 thank-you notes a day to staffers, on all levels. And every six weeks I have lunch with a group of a dozen or so employees, to get their perspective on the business, to address problems and to get feedback.”

How do you inspire trust in your teams? What is the most important factor any company can focus on to turn employee engagement around?

Negative feedback can be a gift

At least that’s how Sam Chapman, CEO and author of The No Gossip Zone, chooses to look at it. In Chapman’s opinion, positive and negative feedback both play important roles in our careers. Instead of looking at negative feedback and constructive criticism as an insult, we should be thinking of it as a gift.

“Without negative feedback, we would never improve ourselves and our lives,” said Sam Chapman. “And after enough practice at accepting negative feedback, you might even find yourself letting out an involuntary “hmm” noise as you realize the truth in a bit of negative feedback.”

Here are four of Chapman’s steps to dealing with negative feedback in a positive way (via Talent Management):

• Don’t blame the messenger. By accepting that everyone has something valuable they can teach us about who we are, we open up to a realm of creativity, growth and success that we never thought possible.
• Curb your defenses. Take a step back, a deep breath and remove yourself from the situation for a moment.
• Feel the emotions, but don’t get stuck. Be careful not to get so caught up in being angry that you don’t have the energy to realize what you need to do to improve.
• Turn your feedback into a request. Make sure your feedback isn’t in the form of a complaint. The gift of feedback is much easier to receive when it’s in the form of a request rather than a complaint.

And here’s some more great advice on how to handle negative feedback from Alissa Livingston, a merchandise planner for men's clothing and furnishings at Polo Ralph Lauren, from All Business:

The one thing employees want at work

You may have to throw out any previous notions you may have on the differences between workforce generations, because a new study is showing that employees of all age groups are more alike than we may have thought.

Employees in every workforce generation all agree that what they want at work is a little respect, according to the AchieveGlobal Study on Multigenerational Workforces.

The study revealed that respect is the top rated job attribute across all ages in the workplace and that there are “considerably more” similarities among workforce generations than we know. The new research challenges findings released last year that suggested generations differ greatly in their workplace values and what they want at work.

The study analyzed responses from more than 500 international participants from Generation Y (29 years old and younger) to Traditionalists (64 years old and older). It provided insight to common workplace questions, including:

• Do employees want to be treated differently regardless of their age?
• Do regional differences affect how employees want to be treated in the workplace?
• Do project assignments involving people of different ages hinder job performance?
• Is an employee's workplace behavior and attitude influenced by age?

From Training Magazine:

The findings, which buck conventional wisdom, reveal that there is little sensitivity to age differences and multigenerational teams. Additionally, there is an overall ambivalence to suggestions that age influences the way people behave in the workplace.

The similarities among generations are further demonstrated by questions that asked employees to rate the most valued attributes of a job: In all but one generation, respect was singled out as the most valued attribute.

"As workforces become leaner in our current economy, managers would do well to focus on developing employees' personal skills and fostering an environment of collaboration," says [AchieveGlobal CEO Sharon] Daniels. "Inherent in multigenerational workforces is a diversity of experiences and expertise. Now is the time to encourage employees to value each others distinct talents and uses similarities and difference to build opportunities in the future."

If you’ve been searching for new employee incentive ideas to get your employees motivated, maybe what you really need to do is listen to Aretha Franklin. Hand out a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T around the office and watch what happens.

Read the full report at www.achieveglobal.com/report/generational.

Boost employee morale with one simple question

Could the secret to employee morale lie in the answer to one simple question?

It may, according to Janet Smith at The Power of Goodwill. She recently wrote a couple posts on the most important question bosses should ask their employees, especially those employees you depend on the most.

The question - What can I do to make your job more rewarding, interesting, and satisfying?

The point is that you should never take any employee for granted—particularly the ones you need the most. And to let these folks know that you appreciate them, value them, care about them, and want to keep them happy at work, there’s one question you absolutely must ask them. It may seem simple. It may seem obvious. But how often have you asked this question (or had it asked of you)?

Before asking the question, there are a few rules you need to follow:

1. Regardless of the employee’s answer, take it seriously and show interest in what they say.
2. Discuss the answer with the employee and tell them honestly what you can and can’t do.
3. Let them know what you would like to do and when you think it could happen.

After asking the question and taking a sincere interest in their answer, do it all over again three months from now.

Why?

Employees who know that their feelings and opinions are valued by the company will show it in their work. When bosses listen, it improves employee morale and makes employees want to work harder because they know they are valued.

So, ask the question, ask it often and let employees know you care.

Productivity: Rules for effective meetings

While we’re on the subject of getting things done, let’s tackle the business activity many consider to be the least productive - the meeting.

In a survey of 1,900 business leaders, 72% expressed that they spend more time in meetings today than they did five years ago. Almost half (49%) said they expect their time spent in meetings to increase, according to the results of a survey by Dr. Steven G. Rogelberg, Professor and Director of Organizational Science at the University of North Carolina Charlotte.

The same meeting research revealed that managers felt that almost one-third of the meetings they attend are unproductive.

Whether you hate meetings or enjoy them, think they’re unproductive or not, it’s hard to escape them. When managed correctly, meetings can be a useful business tool. But if they fail, meetings can be a complete waste of time and a huge disruption to everyone’s day.

Meetings are a fact of life. So, if we’re going to have to live with them, we better learn how to make them as productive and efficient as possible.

Andrew Rondeau of Great Management, recently compiled the most simple and usually ignored rules for holding a productive meeting. To organize and improve the quality of meetings, Andrew offers this advice:

• Limit the guest list. By limiting the number of people at a meeting, you immediately improve the effectiveness of the group.
• Have an agenda. Setting an agenda before the meeting will save time and keep it focused. Include a list of topics, how much time should be spent discussing each topic, and remember to distribute the agenda to every attendee before you meet.
• Define a goal. Before meeting, get an agreement up front from attendees on what the meeting should accomplish.
• Start on time. Even if someone is missing, start the meeting on time. Don’t waste everyone’s time for the sake of one.
• Feedback. Ensure that your agenda includes time for feedback and a flow of two-way communication.
• Minimize distractions. This is one of ours, but a great addition to Andrew’s list. Before the meeting, remind people to kindly leave their cell phones, PDAs and laptops at their desks. If they choose to bring them along, ask everyone to turn their devices off at the beginning of the meeting.

The rules, though simple and basic, are often missed. Try working some into your meetings to improve their effectiveness and the overall productivity of your day.

Why the happiest companies are so happy

It’s that time of the year again, about that time when most of us have started counting down the days until our upcoming holiday break. Whether it’s for a few weeks or just a few days, it will pass quickly and that first day back to the office will be a somber one.

But, what if you worked at a company where you looked forward to coming back after vacation? A place where you thought twice about taking a vacation because you enjoyed being in the office so much?

Business coach Gill Corkindale brought up those questions and others regarding happiness at work in an article I recently came across on the Harvard Business blogs. She explains how more companies in the U.S. and U.K. are taking happiness at work very seriously, despite the economic recession.

“As a business coach, I've noticed that more and more managers and leaders are expecting to derive more happiness and satisfaction from their work. They are often young, talented and successful people who view their jobs as routes to self-actualisation. Yet this shift in the purpose of work raises many questions: how much satisfaction are we entitled to derive from work? And should employers be expected to provide meaning and happiness as well as a job and salary?”

Companies are taking happiness into their own hands, and doing so with clear business motives in mind. In the article, Gill points out a research paper from a Wharton finance professor who found that U.S. companies with the happiest employees performed “notably better” financially than lower-ranked companies.

Moreover, happiness has been scientifically proven to extend our life expectancies, keep us healthier and improve productivity at work.

“Employee satisfaction is a very effective motivational tool and a powerful method of retaining key employees.”

One IT training company in the UK, aptly named Happy, has won a number of awards for being one of the most inspired places to work and for its strong focus on employee and customer relations.

Along with the power of play, happiness can help companies become a better and more enjoyable place for leaders, employees and customers to prosper. Here are just some ways Happy gets to be so happy:

• Create a positive work environment. In most companies, managers spend more time correcting employees on what they’ve done wrong than telling them what they’ve done right. Remember to tell employees ‘thank you’ for doing a great job from time to time.



• Freedom. It’s much easier to be creative without a manager standing over your shoulder watching your every move. Give employees your trust and the freedom to be creative in their everyday work.



• Outline clear expectations. Ensure that every employee under your roof knows what is expected of them and how to reach those expectations. Whether you use employee performance reviews or not, make sure employees are working toward clear goals.



• Feedback. “Feedback is crucial to job ownership,” says Gill. Make sure employees are hearing feedback from internal as well as external sources so they can take ownership in their work. Try using the 5 cent feedback experiment if you’re having trouble.



• Develop skills with training. Recruit talented people who show a positive attitude and then give them the training to develop their skills within the organization. Training is just one way to improve employee engagement and boost morale.



• Celebrate mistakes. “Saying 'I got it wrong' is a sign of responsibility and an indication of an honest and open corporate culture,” says Gill. “If people haven't made any mistakes, they probably haven't tried anything new.”

We want to know - What do you do to make your company a more enjoyable place to work? Would you use ‘happy’ to describe your office environment?

Workplace communication: Using the right words

When you tell someone, “remember the meeting time” or “don’t forget the meeting time,” you’re saying the same thing, right?

Not at all, according to Steve Roesler at All Things Workplace. The statements are different, because our brains fail to register negatives.

When you use a negative sentence like, “Don’t forget the meeting time,” your brain ignores the “don’t” and only hears “forget the meeting time.”

If you get rid of the negativity and start using the positive alternative, saying “Remember the meeting time,” your coworkers will be more likely to show up on time.

The mind wants direction, not a sense of "lack." That's why it's important to pay attention to how you say things. If I tell you that something is "not very expensive" you'll focus on "expensive."

This is how improvement efforts often get bogged down: "I want us to make fewer mistakes" translates differently than "I want to increase the accuracy of our customer service solutions by 30% before November 30."

So, instead of telling you “Don’t forget to have a Happy Thanksgiving.” I’ll simply say, “have a Happy Thanksgiving!”

Employee feedback: 5 cent experiment

How much should you spend delivering quality feedback to your team each week?

According to the Slacker Manager, “5 cents can be the best investment you’ll ever make in your team.”

Last week, he outlined a great experiment in employee feedback that every manager should try. Anyone with pockets and some loose change can participate.

Instructions:

Every day this week, put 5 cents in one pocket, in the form of 5 pennies. Each time you give someone specific positive feedback, move a penny to the other pocket. Each time you use all 5 of your pennies, start over and move them to the other pocket.

Try to give at least 5 cents worth of specific positive feedback to your team each day.

Repeat this exercise for the next 30 days. If you like to keep score, add up how many cents you’ve shared with your team, and donate the change you’ve made to a worthy cause, or to an office fund that your employees can benefit from.

Not only is it an awesome idea, but it’s a great way to recognize employees on the cheap and takes just a few minutes out of your day. Invest 5 cents in your team this week and let us know how it goes.

Employee performance reviews, just say no?

One-sided, negative and intimidating are just a few words that come to mind when thinking about employee performance reviews. The corporate world should just get rid of it says UCLA professor Samuel Culbert in a recent Wall Street Journal article.

“To my way of thinking, a one-side-accountable, boss-administered review is little more than a dysfunctional pretense. It's a negative to corporate performance, an obstacle to straight-talk relationships, and a prime cause of low morale at work. Even the mere knowledge that such an event will take place damages daily communications and teamwork.”

Here are just a few of Culbert’s reasons why he finds performance reviews “ill-advised and bogus” (read all seven in the full WSJ article):

• Mind-sets are out of sync. Going into a performance review, bosses are generally concerned with improving performance while the subordinate is focused on small issues including compensation, job progression and career advancement. The disconnect puts the review participants at odds, “talking past each other.”
• Objectivity is “preposterous.” Despite popular belief, performance reviews are not objective. “Where you stand determines what you see,” according to Culbert. It is almost impossible for any assessment to be independent of the evaluator’s motives.
• “One size fits all” doesn’t fit. No two employees are the same, but performance reviews measure all employees on a predetermined checklist. Pleasing the boss becomes more important than doing a good job.
• Reviews undermine teamwork. Bosses have all the power during performance reviews. Instead of taking a team approach during the evaluation by asking the subordinate “How are we going to work together as a team?” It’s more like “How are you performing for me?”

The solution - performance previews.

Performance previews are a way to conduct performance reviews that are two-sided with shared accountability. According to Culbert:

“Previews are problem-solving, not problem-creating, discussions about how we, as teammates, are going to work together even more effectively and efficiently than we've done in the past. They feature descriptive conversations about how each person is inclined to operate, using past events for illustrative purposes, and how we worked well or did not work well individually and together.”

As opposed to an annual meeting, previews should be held each time the boss or team member feels the group is not working well together. Previews promote “straight-talk relationships” for those who are ready to step up to the challenge. Instead of using a method that focuses on flaws, previews can identify solutions on how teams can accomplish business goals together.

Culbert believes feedback and trust are essential to the success of performance previews:

“The best you can do for others is to develop a trusting relationship where they can ask for feedback and help when they see the need and feel sufficiently valued to take it.”

Convincing the corporate world to overhaul such a long-standing employee performance review system would take many years and many strong opinions to accomplish. With powerful ideas from scholars like Culbert, a new system focused on teamwork may not be that far off in the distance.

If you’re looking for ways to improve your employee performance reviews, read Culbert’s full WSJ article on how performance previews can improve the way your team works.

Incentives and rewards: Now is the time to act

When is the best time to launch an employee incentive and reward program?

Now.

At least that’s what they think over at Incentive Intelligence and we agree. Here's a clip from a recent post on incentive and reward programs:

The one thing every company needs right now is an initiative that clearly spells out what you want your employees and your channel partners to do to ensure success in the future.

You need to establish an influence initiative that clearly delineates the things that you want your business to accomplish and outlines the behaviors that will get you there.

Creating a program that clearly outlines your organization’s goals and the actions that will get you there creates certainty and eliminates poor decision making. Sitting back and doing nothing is not an option, you can only “act your way out” of a business issue, according to those at Incentive Intelligence.

Implementing an employee reward and incentive program will help you show everyone, from top executives to sales callers, what you think needs to be done to ensure success in your business’ future.

With that said, here are some tips and employee incentive ideas to get your program off the ground:

• Identify goals. What business goals do you wish to accomplish and how will and employee incentive program help you get there? Set goals that are realistic and measurable.


• Determine appropriate incentives. Incentives that work for one business may not be right for another. It all depends on the nature of your business and the size of your budget. Incentives and rewards don’t have to be expensive to be effective, explore our list of employee incentive ideas on a budget and also take a look at how key motivators differ across generations at work.


• Communicate objectives clearly. If employees don’t know what is expected of them, how will they know what to do? Clearly outline objectives for your employee rewards program, the correct actions employees should take and how they will be rewarded for quality work. Effective communication is essential to the success of your program. Remember to give employees feedback on their progress at every step of the program.


• Measure results. How is your business performing after implementing the rewards program compared to before? Identify what worked and what failed to help tweak your program in the future.

An effective employee incentive program will help your organization reach business goals by engaging and motivating employees. Only with clear goals, effective communication and constant feedback can your program be a success.

How does your organization use employee incentive programs to create results?

IDidWork: Employee performance in 160 characters or less

So, performance review time is just around the corner and you’re scratching your head, digging through lists of emails, scouring through piles of notepads, trying to remember exactly what each of your team members completed in the past year.

In big companies it can be difficult to track employee productivity on a daily or weekly basis, leading supervisors to make judgments based on work that seems productive, like employees coming in early everyday or working through lunch.

Make it a little easier next year and base employee progress decisions on hard evidence with IDidWork, a new performance tracking website that feels a lot like Twitter, but for work.

With IDidWork, employees log daily tasks in short, 160 character entries. Come review time, employees can submit a progress report to their manager in the form of a chart, graph or simple summary. Managers can easily deliver feedback through the system and even “grade” employee progress.

From a training perspective, IDidWork can be used to track employee progress during a training program or monitor how an employee is implementing what they learned into their daily routine. Supervisors can clearly see how employees are progressing, even if employees aren’t in the office everyday.


With more employees telecommuting, the service may offer a better solution for remotely tracking employee performance. If the boss isn’t a fan of IDidWork, remote employees can still use it as a time management tool, tracking personal progress and analyzing where they’re spending most of their time.

Employees collaborating on a project can use IDidWork to share individual progress, almost eliminating the need for status meetings. Employees can see where each team member is within the project and track the team’s overall progress.

Right now the service is free, but the founders do plan on charging a fee after the service gains a following. They also have expansion plans including integrated desktop widgets and customized performance breakdowns.

The possibilities for the IDidWork are endless: employees tracking their time while working from home, students managing their study time or fitness junkies following their workout progress.

Depending on your line of work, it could be a big help from managing projects to writing performance reviews. Get your team on board and give it a try while it’s free, you’ve got nothing to lose.

When communication training is not the answer

The Evil HR Lady wrote a great post today, commenting on how one emergency room is requiring that all nurses, doctors, techs and secretaries attend “communication training” lectures. The emergency room staff didn’t think there was a communication problem, their concerns were mainly about “good Emergency medicine and logistical issues related to patient flow and delivery of care.”

Here’s a clip of what she had to say:

“And I can hear a communal HR clucking of tongues saying, "well, if you could communicate with each other more clearly, you would be more safe and efficient." Maybe so, but they aren't going to listen to anything the trainer says. Why? Because the trainer has no credibility, the trainees don't think there is a problem, and the course hasn't been designed based on the perceived needs of the department.”

Like the lady said, if the trainer lacks credibility and trainees don’t believe there’s a problem, the training will be a waste of everyone’s time. When creating an employee training program, you should first identify the problem the training will address and how employees perceive the problem. You may find that there’s really no problem at all.

What do you think? Have you ever had to participate, or develop a training program for employees who didn’t think it was necessary and how did you handle it?

The one thing young employees want at work

No, it’s not a Xbox or Wii in the office - they just want their opinion heard and valued.

During a webinar on the recently released report, Ready to Lead? Next Generation Leaders Speak Out, one older caller asked “What is one thing Millennials want, to feel better at work?” The first thing that popped into my head was “Ask for my opinion, and when you do at least consider it.”

The above quote is from Social Citizen, a blog by Tera Wozniak, a self-defined Millenial and nonprofit professional who offers great insight into the mind of the young professional.

Recently the editor of the Harvard Business Review asked the same question - “Are You Underutilizing Younger Employees?”

At a post-conference cocktail party, the HBR editor realized he may be too quick to overlook or dismiss smart young professionals. After listening to the opinions of young professionals from a variety of fields, they all shared the same desire - to be heard.

Allowing younger employees to enter conversations and have their comments validated can do wonders for their career confidence. With more confidence in their ideas, a Generation Y employee will feel more inclined to share their opinion in other areas of their work. It also allows the employee to learn valuable problem solving techniques of experienced employees.

So, adding to the list of what Gen Y wants from their employers, add “being heard” to the list. Along with ongoing recognition and flexibility, being a part of workplace conversations is a top priority.

Five effective safety training tips for teen employees

The new Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) passed on May 21, 2008, included provisions that increase penalties for child labor violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The increased fines apply to death or serious injury to children and went into effect the same day GINA was signed. Employers now face a maximum penalty of $50,000 for each violation with the possibility of up to $100,000 in penalties for cases involving repeated or willful employer violations.

Properly training employees is the number one defense to warding off workplace injuries. Especially during the summer months when more teenagers are employed, it is crucial to have all employees fully trained in safety procedures.

The increased FLSA fines come just as the Department of Labor (DOL) kicks off National Safety Month, an annual campaign to save lives through awareness of injury prevention and the leading causes of unintentional injury and death.

Even though June has already started, it’s not too late to kick off your own safety month to make sure all of your employees have the proper safety training, including those young summer hires. Here are five tips for effective safety training for teen employees:

1. Use a computer-based/online training program. Teens today do everything on the Internet from talking to their friends to buying a new T-shirt.
2. Define your expectations. Young employees want to know exactly what you want from them and how safety training will benefit their lives.
3. Report on employee progress. Let young employees know how they’re progressing through the training program. They want to be sure they’re on the right track to meeting your expectations.
4. Reward their achievements. However small or large the achievement may be, teen and Gen Y employees need constant feedback on their progress. Be honest, direct and fair in your communication.
5. Ask for feedback. Gen Y, sometimes called Gen “Why?” always think there is a better way to do something and want you to hear what they have to say. Be open to new ideas, they may benefit your training program in ways you never thought before.
   

Read the full article “Targeting Employees Under 30 – Effective Safety Training Methods for a New Generation of Worker” from our TrainingTime Learning Library.

Looking for new employee incentive ideas? Listen to Aretha Franklin

Employee incentives like gifts and awards have always been the practiced method for managers to show they care, but there may be a option out there that requires little effort and no money.

While not a employee motivation expert, Aretha Franklin delivered some of the most influential advice with a 1967 hit, singing one little word:

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Experts out there today continue singing Franklin’s words of wisdom by telling managers how respect is one of the best, and least expensive, ways to motivate employees.

One expert and communication coach, Carmine Gallo, explains in a recent BusinessWeek article how showing a little respect can help you encourage employees long after the Starbucks gift card has run out.

The first step to creating a respectful relationship is by showing true concern for employees’ lives outside of work. Instead of focusing completely on workplace goals, encourage managers to discuss life goals with their employees. Managers can explain to employees how achieving workplace goals can coincide with life goals.

Managers who are emotionally invested in their employees will have genuine ties to their employees’ success, inside and outside of the office. Messages will also be delivered more clearly, as people are more inclined to listen when they know the person on the other side of the conversation cares.

With clear communication and respect, company success is a shared goal. Employees who feel recognized and truly cared about will show a stronger desire to do what it takes to help their company succeed.

A small thing managers can do to help boost employee engagement is to simply communicate with employees face-to-face. Put down the Blackberry, step away from the computer and go have a real conversation with employees. We’ve become so dependent on technology that it’s easy to forget a person is only a few doors down.

Communication within a team helps build respect, which is the best incentive out there, according to Gallo. Look at every conversation with an employee as an opportunity to show you care.

“In your next conversation with one of your employees, try speaking as if he or she is the most important person in the room at the moment. Look him in the eye, avoid interruptions, ignore gadgets, and ask questions about his interests. It's the simplest, least expensive, and most effective incentive available.”

How to deliver, and keep delivering constant employee feedback

Like we said yesterday, employee feedback is crucial to a healthy work environment. Employees not only welcome constant feedback on their progress, but thrive on it. Especially with the younger generations now entering the workforce, knowing how and when to give employee feedback is essential to your business.

Here are some tips on how to make employee feedback a part of everyday life in the office.

Make employee feedback a top priority among supervisors.
Supervisors in your organization should come to work everyday thinking about how they can recognize their employees’ work. Encourage supervisors to constantly find new ways to encourage employees and communicate to their team regarding their progress on a regular basis. Stress that employee feedback is an ongoing process that needs constant work.

Give both positive and constructive feedback.
Not all feedback needs to be positive. There should always be room for employees to improve at their job. Along with telling an employee how they are doing a great job, also let them know how they could be doing better. Be specific in your criticism. Give employees specific action items to work on and improve in.

Catch employees in the act.
Try to give feedback in the moment when you see that an employee is excelling. Over due feedback may be seen as an after thought by employees. If an employee is doing something incorrectly, let them know about it right then and there. It will save the employee time and you some frustration.

Keep track of employee feedback.
Depending on how many employees you supervise, it may be difficult to keep track of whether you are spreading the feedback around equally or not. Devise a way to keep track of when you give each employee feedback, possibly in a spreadsheet on your desktop. Mark down when you gave feedback to each employee, what the situation was and refer to the sheet often to make sure you’re on track.

Give scheduled performance reviews on time.
Whether you provide employee performance reviews annually or semi-annually, stick to a schedule. If salary increases are tied to performance reviews, a late review means a late pay increase and you could have some disgruntled employees on your hands. With constant feedback, employee reviews should be easily conducted since there has been an ongoing conversation all year. The performance review is simply a summary of that conversation and how the employee can improve going forward.


As a boss, think of the last time you gave one of your employees feedback. If you can’t remember, or it was weeks ago, step out of your office and talk with your employees. Tell someone today that they are doing a good job and that you appreciate their work. And, keep it up. Make it a daily task to recognize one of your employees. After a while it won’t seem like a task and you’ll be doing it without even thinking about it.

If you’re an employee who feels like your boss isn’t giving enough feedback, simply ask for it. Though it may be tough, ask for feedback on your performance. It’s tough to see when you’re working in the dark.

Employee feedback critical to success

HR.com surveys over the years have found that only 46 percent of employees say they receive frequent and ongoing feedback on their performance. Additionally, half say their annual performance reviews are conducted on time, and fewer than half say the reviews are even useful.

Especially with Generation Y entering the workforce, employee feedback is crucial. All employees, but more in the younger generations, yearn for constant feedback and assurance that they are doing a good job.

With a new headline popping up on front pages across the country about the latest wave of employee layoffs, employees more than ever need the reassurance that they are not in danger of losing their job (or a ‘heads up’ if they are in a dangerous spot).

Positive feedback lets employees know they are on the road to success in the company and can feel good about their work and it gives a little boost to their self esteem.

In a recent article on HR.com, the author outlines what happens when employees don’t receive regular performance feedback. Employees will:

• Lose confidence in work activities
• Become anxious and insecure in their work
• Lose track of priorities
• Fail to complete work properly
• Lose enthusiasm in their position
• Lose a sense of commitment to the organization

Why do supervisors fail at giving proper feedback?

• They don’t think its that important to their employees
• Their employees are doing a good job, why interfere
• A lack of confidence because their boss doesn’t provide proper feedback
• A lack of people skills
• A fear of upsetting employees, possible conflict or difficult situations

What’s the solution? How do you make sure your employees are getting the proper feedback they need to be successful at work? Check back tomorrow for Part 2 on how to deliver, and keep delivering constant feedback to employees.