Do you brace yourself when you get that question? Do you instantly expect bad news? Yet, what I hear from mid-level managers is
they hunger for more, and more consistent feedback.While you may think no news is good news, that is not what either statistics show or what people tell me in 1-2-1’s all the time.
So, let’s look at best practices in this area.
Best: Regular consistent feedback on what is going well and what could be improved.
Good: Formal performance reviews every 6 months.
Needs improvement: No reviews or feedback for years at a time.
So where are you on this spectrum?
Many small businesses are informal. They struggle with consistency, and not just in Human Resources Management. They get by with good will and honest intent until something blows up. If people are your most important asset, you can’t continue to manage this way.
Start with regular reviews. Feedback should be 2 ways. What does the employee wish would be better so that they will perform more effectively? What do you want more or less of from the employee.
Some companies have really simple checklists. That makes it much easier to have regular feedback.
Vistage has a great set of questions:
What should I start doing?
What should I stop doing?
What should I continue doing?
You don’t have to get fancy or complicated. But you do need to be consistent. Some big companies review everyone in the same month. Some smaller companies use their anniversary date. If you don’t want the review to be “raise time”, you might want to de-couple reviews from raises.
When high performing new hires are asked why they left their last job, one common reason was they didn’t get enough feedback about their performance. Don’t lose your good people because you didn’t tell them how they are doing. Ask your peer group what they do and steal their best ideas. Your employees will thank you.
Illustration courtesy of adeptemy.com