5 WAYS TO PROVIDE FEEDBACK TO INCREASE EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY

Performance reviews are a regular part of employment life. However, their effectiveness is limited by their infrequency and the way in which they’re structured. After all, employees often dread them, and it’s difficult to approach anything you dread with much enthusiasm.

Outside of the annual performance review, though, employees need feedback in order to improve their job performance. While this can be a tricky endeavor, namely because of its degree of difficulty, it can pay big dividends if done correctly.

Despite the difficulty involved, every company should make the investment of time and energy needed to provide its employees with feedback.

Below are five ways to do just that in the interest of increasing productivity.
#1—Create and cultivate the correct atmosphere.
This is where you “lay the groundwork,” so to speak. If employees aren’t used to a company culture that includes the solicitation of regular feedback, it might take a period of time for them to adjust and be more proactive about the process. Perhaps the most important part of this step is convincing employees that the feedback you’re providing is more “improvement feedback” than “evaluation feedback.”
#2—Set expectations.
Once you have employees’ buy-in, let them know what to expect in this new culture of feedback.   That might mean literally spelling out the steps that are involved, as well as branding the process as an interactive one based on collaboration as opposed to an objective one based solely on the opinion of the supervisor. (Once again, you’re attempting to overcome the “employee evaluation syndrome.”)
#3—Make sure it’s constructive.
All feedback that you provide should be constructive in nature and tone, since its main purpose is to help employees improve their job duties, and by extension, their output.   Not only that, but employees respond in a more positive fashion to constructive feedback, which will also increase their productivity. Anything that smacks of negativity, on the other hand, will backfire.
#4—Be encouraging.
The feedback should be delivered in a constructive, positive way and in an encouraging fashion. You want the employee to succeed just as much as they want to succeed, and they should be able to tell that’s the case. Use positive language and phrases when providing the feedback, and show enthusiasm and confidence in their ability to implement your suggestions.
#5—Create a continuous system.
This can’t be an “every once in a while” thing. It must be regular and consistent to ultimately be effective. Once created, this system must contain a schedule for providing feedback, implementing that feedback, tracking results, and providing more feedback based on those results.