DRG Memo

Seven Tips for Delivering Performance Feedback

by Paula Peters

Giving employees honest feedback on their performance can be one of the toughest jobs a manager can do. Leaders often shy away from delivering the honest feedback their employees need because it is uncomfortable and can seem overwhelming to deal with. Yet without good feedback, your operation cannot improve productivity, and your employees cannot grow and learn.

Before you walk into your next performance review, here are seven tips to help take the "sting" out of giving feedback.

1. Create The Right Setting.

All performance feedback should be conducted in a private, one-on-one setting, behind a closed door, without interruptions. Never give feedback to an employee in a setting where other employees may overhear you, such as in the break room or the hallway. Feedback on the employee's performance should be private between you and the employee whom it concerns. This is a simple rule, but many leaders underestimate the value of privacy in dealing with their employees, and risk damaging the trust of the employee-manager relationship.

Interruptions can be as threatening as a lack of privacy to an employee in a one-on-one feedback session. If you do not give your employee your complete and undivided attention, you are sending a clear signal to him or her the conversation is not all that important to you. Turn off your phone, and put up a sign outside the door instructing people not to interrupt.

2. Utilize Self-Feedback.

One of the most effective and oft-neglected tools of feedback is self-feedback. This is when the employee is given a chance to comment on his or her own behavior and productivity. This technique is highly effective for a number of reasons: employees are likely to be tougher on themselves than you are on them, and they will also work harder to improve in areas they disclose personally.

The best way for supervisors to incorporate self-feedback is to create a two-way conversation centered on each of the performance topics. In this situation, a supervisor will ask the employee for her opinion, then the supervisor will give his own opinion.

Supervisors should always give their opinions last, to avoid influencing the comments of the employee. For example, if the topic of conversation is production units, and the required metric is 300 units/day, the supervisor might ask the employee, "How well do you feel you are meeting your daily performance metrics?" The employee then has the opportunity to evaluate herself, as well as to identify any problem areas up front. The supervisor may then agree with the employee's interpretation of her success, or point out times where the employee is not meeting the daily expectation of 300 units/day.

3. Address Performance Problems Honestly And Directly.

Performance issues, unlike wines, do not improve with age. In fact, if left unaddressed, they tend to grow worse and multiply. Any serious issue should be addressed with the employee as soon as it is noticed, preferably the same day. Supervisors should take the employee aside, describe the observed problem behavior, and then ask the employee why it happened. The supervisor will then want to restate the performance expectations for the job.

For example, if a supervisor observes an employee arriving late three days in a row, she should take the employee aside immediately and describe the observation, then give the employee a chance to explain why, by saying "I have noticed that you have arrived at 8:30 three days this week. What is going on?" She may then need to reiterate that all employees are expected to be at their places, working, by eight o'clock.

It is important supervisors should only try to correct behavior they have personally observed, not behavior they have heard about word-of-mouth from other employees. This situation can create tension and suspicion among a work team. If a supervisor has not observed a performance problem directly, it should not be addressed in performance feedback.

4. Communicate Expectations Clearly.

Many leaders feel comfortable saying "Be on time in the morning," or "Be sure to finish your work before you leave today," but rarely are these statements interpreted the same way by everyone. One employee may interpret this as "walk in the door by 8:00," while another employee may be thinking --"be at my position at 8:00." Performance expectations need to be delivered in a concise, clear manner, without questionable interpretations, especially when there is a problem. Numbers, dates, productivity units, metrics and standards are helpful to include when communicating performance expectations to an employee. A supervisor should clearly specify "I need you to be at your desk working by 8:00 a.m. each morning" rather than "Be on time." Stating "The expectations are that call reps will take 50 calls per day" is much more concise than saying, "You need to take more calls." The more specific you are, the less misinterpretation that is likely to occur.

5. Include The Positive.

Many supervisors are so concerned about correcting their employees' mistakes they tend to overlook their positive achievements altogether. Be sure to point out what the employee is doing right. It is important to recognize employees for their accomplishments to keep them motivated.

Another common mistake is to overwhelm employees with a long laundry list of areas to improve. A better approach is to identify two or three of the most critical areas to improve, and allow the employee to focus on improving these. As the employee improves in these areas, you can work together on identifying and fixing the other, less critical issues.

6. Make Feedback Frequent And Informal.

Most companies do official performance reviews at least once per year, but employees cannot go a whole year before they hear how they are performing in their jobs, especially new employees. A new employee needs to hear feedback weekly, perhaps even daily, until she feels comfortable with her daily tasks and responsibilities. An employee who has been around for awhile still needs to hear performance feedback more frequently than once a year, whether there are problems or not. Good feedback motivates employees, and problems will get fixed sooner rather than later. Even if it is not a formal performance review, employees should receive casual but specific oneon-one feedback on their performance once a quarter at a minimum, monthly if possible.

7. Keep Documentation.

At a minimum, supervisors should keep notes on any performance problems discussed, including the date, the problems discussed and the performance expectations communicated to the employee. This documentation should be kept in the employee's file or in the human resources documentation, depending on the policy of your company. This is both to refresh your memory in the future and to be used as documentation in the event of legal action taken on a disciplinary action. Check with your human resources department for more details on your company's policy on employee documentation.

Giving employees effective feedback on their performance may seem like a tough job, but it does not have to be. By focusing on the delivery of the right information in the right setting, you can make the process more relaxed and effective for both you and your employees.

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Paula Peters is an Advanced Training Specialist working as a mid-level manager and as a specialist training leaders and executives in all aspects of employee management. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Williams College in Williamstown, MA.