How to Build Robust Employee Feedback Systems in Your Company

Structured employee feedback systems allow organizations and their leaders to collect valuable insights about their employees’ experience working for them. It’s not about giving teams an avenue to moan—it’s about seeing every piece of feedback data as a chance to grow as a company.

By collecting and acting on feedback, you’ll position yourself as an employer of choice, offering a work environment with exceptional communication, high performance, and satisfied employees.

This guide defines how to create employee feedback systems and the top benefits of committing to this process.

Employee feedback systems defined

Employee feedback systems are the different methods and strategies organizations use to collect thoughts and ideas from their workers. These include data about employee engagement, opinions about the latest company initiatives, or any other valuable insights you want to extract from your people. Companies can analyze this intel and use it to improve their operations and communication.

Effective feedback systems are multidirectional—they deliver insights to and extract them from employees in all ranks and roles.

Types of feedback mechanisms in the workplace

Companies often use a variety of formal or informal feedback mechanisms in the workplace, each with a different purpose. These include:

• 360-degree feedback using manager evaluations, peer reviews, and self-assessments to provide a fair overview of an individual’s work performance
• Probationary reviews and performance appraisals to evaluate progress, identify areas for improvement, and set goals for employees
• Employee feedback surveys, including pulse surveys, engagement surveys, job satisfaction surveys, onboarding surveys, and training needs surveys
• Exit and stay interviews to understand how their employee experience impacts tenure and departure decisions
• 1 on 1 meetings, including development conversations, monthly 1:1s, performance check-ins, skip-level meetings, and team meetings
• Continuous feedback through informal and real-time feedback channels, such as instant messaging platforms, email, or face-to-face conversations
• Employee listening sessions to gather feedback on specific topics or initiatives, such as changes in company policies or procedures
• Suggestion boxes where employees can submit anonymous feedback ideas

How to implement an employee feedback system in your organization

Apply the following steps to design brand-new or adjust your existing feedback systems to maximize their value:

Step 1: Decide on feedback methods and channels

The proper feedback mechanisms for your company will likely focus on the following points:

• Budget and resources: While certain feedback methods may promise numerous benefits for your organization, your budget may prevent you from using them—always conduct a cost analysis before you commit to a particular employee feedback system and obtain any necessary buy-in from decision-makers
• Company fit: Choose methods that align with your company’s feedback culture and are scalable according to its size—for example, a small start-up might benefit from informal, conversational methods such as 1:1 meetings and focus groups, where employees can give detailed insights in front of their peers. This may be more challenging to scale in an enterprise setting, which could benefit from the structure of regular employee surveys using a digital feedback tool with built-in analytics capabilities
• Accessibility: Your chosen feedback methods must be easy to find, access, and submit, encouraging participation and inclusivity—this means selecting reasonable feedback deadlines and ensuring any forms or digital employee feedback tools work correctly

With this in mind, select the best-fit feedback methods and channels based on your formal and informal strategies:

Formal feedback strategies

Examples of formal feedback strategies include 360-degree feedback, performance appraisals, and employee surveys.

Formal feedback provides structured insights into topics like employee performance and development. These comprehensive methods allow a standardized way to assess employees, track progress, and set goals.

Informal feedback strategies

Examples of informal meeting strategies include:

• Casual one-on-one conversations
• Suggestion boxes
• Informal internal communication channels like Slack or direct messaging

Informal feedback systems offer flexibility and can encourage open dialog. These methods can foster a more relaxed environment for feedback, making it easier for employees to share their thoughts.

Step 2: Design the feedback process

Based on your chosen feedback methods, break down the steps involved in capturing these thoughts and opinions. Make decisions about:

Feedback questions and scales

Decide how to structure your feedback questions. Will you use a Likert scale or multiple-choice questions to gather quantitative data or open-text questions for more detailed qualitative insights?

Feedback frequency

Do you plan to collect feedback monthly, quarterly, bi-annually, or less often?

Tip: Balance the need to monitor employee sentiment with the resources required to do so.

Feedback combinations

If you use multiple feedback systems, determine how to schedule them throughout the year.

For example, you might host quarterly employee engagement surveys and annual performance reviews.

Feedback prioritization

If using multiple feedback mechanisms, determine which takes precedence and why.

For example, you may prioritize employee pulse surveys over stay interviews because they’re a quick way to capture employee sentiment without the time investment of conducting 1:1s.

Feedback anonymity

How will you communicate whether data is confidential or will be distributed? If it’s anonymous, will it include anything identifiable, such as the employee’s department, employment status, or age?

Feedback templates

Will you standardize the process of collecting feedback for performance reviews, pulse surveys, stay and exit interviews, etc.?

Feedback guidelines

How will you distribute examples of how feedback-givers can provide meaningful messages to feedback recipients? What does positive and constructive feedback look like?

Share our guide on how to give effective feedback to employees.

Step 3: Create a follow-up process

Collecting feedback without acting on it is a waste of time and resources. It can also lead to disengagement, cynicism, and skepticism from employees who gave their time and effort to provide honest feedback. Avoid these by creating an action plan to follow up on the data you collect.

Step 4: Launch the feedback system

Depending on the size and complexity of your organization, it’s often a good idea to pilot your feedback system within a specific business area before rolling it out company-wide. You might trial your feedback survey based on:

• Specific teams: Send surveys or host face-to-face conversations within customer-facing teams, such as sales or support, before expanding to other functions
• Start date: You might send surveys following onboarding to check in with new hires on their experience joining the organization
• Job level: You might conduct annual performance reviews for senior staff as a standalone project before expanding to all levels of employees.

After trialing your feedback system, decide how to communicate your framework effectively to your employees. The aim is for every feedback-giver and recipient to understand the goal of exchanging honest, constructive ideas with each other without fear of retribution.

Your communication efforts could include:

• Internal communication channels you’ll use to explain your employee feedback system, such as email, intranet, webinars, or FAQ documentation
• Training modules to ensure all participants fully understand what’s expected of them in the feedback process and how to give and receive feedback effectively
• Templates for giving and receiving feedback so employees feel more confident about initiating or responding to conversations—these might outline the structure of a conversation, common phrases to use, or examples of positive and constructive feedback messages
• Documentation, such as an employee manual that outlines the company’s approach to feedback, including the methods used, frequency, anonymity policy, timelines, expectations, etc.

Step 5: Measure the impact of your employee feedback system

Even the best-designed employee feedback system will need regular adjustments to ensure it meets your organization’s goals and remains relevant.

For example, if your goal for collecting feedback from exit interview data is to improve employee retention, measure its effectiveness over a set period.

Here are some metrics you can use based on your specific goals:

• Survey participation rates: Measure the number of employees who participate in surveys and those who complete them. This will give you an idea of how engaged and invested employees are in providing feedback.
• Feedback turnaround time: How long does collecting, analyzing, and acting upon feedback take? Tracking this metric can identify bottlenecks or areas for improvement in your feedback process
• Employee satisfaction and engagement scores: Use these to measure the impact of your employee feedback system on overall morale and motivation levels within the organization—compare scores before and after implementing your system to determine its effectiveness
• Improvement metrics: Track any improvements or changes that have been implemented as a result of employee feedback—this could include changes in processes, policies, or employee experiences.
• Employee feedback about feedback: Ask your team members how they find your feedback process—Are they overwhelmed by the volume of surveys or questions? Do they feel you’re actively listening to their ideas?

Benefits of an effective feedback system

A well-oiled feedback system will benefit your organization and your people. Here’s how:

Feedback enhances employee engagement

When feedback flows freely from one person to the next, your employees will likely feel more engaged. In a work environment where employees have received meaningful feedback in the past week, Gallup reports that 80% feel engaged.

Feedback supports employee development

When managers collaborate with their employees during performance appraisals and regular one-on-one conversations, they can co-create development opportunities that enrich individual skillsets for the benefit of the employee and the company as a whole.

Deborah Grayson Riegel, an Instructor from the Women in Leadership at Columbia Business School, explains that these developmental discussions should incorporate both positive and constructive feedback in the name of progress:

Feedback gives your employees a voice

Leading a company isn’t about being a dictator; it’s about giving everyone in your care a chance to speak up and offer their thoughts and ideas. Companies often miss the mark here; for example, the tech sector has recently experienced a spate of walkouts. Employees at Netflix were enraged by a transgender row, Amazon employees because of climate policies, and Facebook workers over the lack of action regarding Donald Trump’s controversial posts. Walkouts are a way for high volumes of employees to grab the company’s attention after standard feedback systems have failed.

Chris White, former Director of the Center for Positive Organizations at the University of Michigan, reminds us:

Feedback builds a culture of recognition

Positive feedback includes praise and appreciation for your workers’ contributions toward your business. When you provide meaningful feedback that recognizes their hard work, you’ll receive a slew of positive benefits: Nectar HR reports that 83.6% of employees feel recognition boosts their motivation to succeed, and 77.9% would be more productive if receiving recognition more frequently.

Feedback informs HR’s crucial work

Collecting strategic feedback about critical topics like employee benefits, promotions, and performance review processes can help Human Resources understand what their workers care about so they can make adjustments.

Implement and automate your feedback system with Deel Engage

An effective feedback system is essential for a thriving workplace, promoting growth at both individual and organizational levels.

Deel Engage is the only software you need to implement and automate your system, tracking insights from onboarding surveys to exit interviews and everything in between. Here’s how the different features encourage constructive or positive feedback to flow freely throughout your organization:

• Performance management: Run fair and meaningful performance reviews, collecting rich, multi-source feedback customized to your feedback system—choose feedback frequencies, anonymity settings, questions, and calibration steps from a single location
• Training management: Based on performance feedback, develop your team using internal and external training courses—Deel AI also enables you to generate training content that is most relevant to your workforce’s requirements
• Career management: Advance your development conversations and keep your people moving forward using our career progression software
• Deel HR, our truly global HRIS solution, is always included for free

Ready to set up feedback systems in your organization? Book a free Deel Engage demo today.