Article
10 minutes
How to Give Feedback to Employees for Growth and Success
Global HR
Author
Lorelei Trisca
Published
August 06, 2024
Last Update
September 13, 2024
Table of Contents
Characteristics and principles of effective feedback
Techniques for giving effective feedback
The best ways to give performance feedback
Best practices for managing feedback conversations with employees
Leverage Deel Engage for effective feedback
Key takeaways
- Ensure feedback is clear and precise, highlighting observable actions rather than making personal judgments. This approach makes feedback more actionable and less likely to be perceived as a personal attack.
- Use feedback to set concrete goals and identify areas for development. Align feedback with daily tasks and long-term career objectives to ensure relevance and motivation for continuous improvement.
- Foster a two-way conversation, actively listening to the employee and encouraging them to share their thoughts and concerns. A supportive environment makes employees feel valued and more likely to engage positively with the feedback.
Effective feedback helps employees understand their strengths and areas for improvement, enhancing performance and job satisfaction. In this article, we’ll discuss how to give feedback to employees.
This article will explore key strategies for delivering timely, specific, and constructive feedback. Learn how to balance positive and negative comments, set development goals, and use feedback to inspire and motivate your team.
Whether you want to improve performance or foster a supportive work environment, these insights will help you master the art of feedback.
Characteristics and principles of effective feedback
Learning how to provide feedback and what makes feedback effective can make or break your performance and retention.
Timely and specific feedback
Feedback is most effective when provided promptly. Timely feedback ensures it is relevant and impactful, enabling quicker performance improvements. By offering feedback as soon as possible, you demonstrate your commitment to your employees’ development, which can enhance their motivation and drive to excel.
Another key is to provide specific, actionable feedback rather than vague comments. Supplement with clear, detailed examples to make the feedback actionable and understandable.
An example of vague feedback: “Your performance is OK. Just try to improve it during the coming period.”
Clear, specific feedback: “You are great at delivering your work assignments on time, but the last project lacked the innovative angle we requested. You could also back your presentations with data to support your conclusions and cover all the project’s main findings. For the next period, take some time to brainstorm ideas and research relevant sources. Feel free to ask your mentor for input before moving forward.”
Balanced and constructive approach
The success of constructive criticism hinges on its delivery. The same message can discourage workers, trigger them to browse job ads, or help boost their performance and loyalty.
As a result, when giving performance feedback, it’s essential to strike the right balance between positive and negative feedback. Doing this will help motivate your team members while addressing improvement areas (key for crafting development plans). Balancing the two will promote a growth mindset by showing workers their growth areas and how they can evolve.
Check out our guides with constructive feedback examples and constructive feedback examples for high performers.
Feedback that focuses on behavior, not personality
Constructive feedback should focus on specific behaviors or actions rather than personal traits. Personality traits are challenging to change and can be positive or negative. For example, a timid employee might not contribute much to group discussions but is less likely to cause workplace conflicts.
To encourage this employee to contribute more, focus on their behavior, and create an action plan. They can share their opinions during one-on-one meetings, submit them in written form, or take a course to build confidence in speaking in group settings.
Here are two examples to illustrate this point:
Ineffective feedback focusing on personality: “You’re too timid during team meetings. You need to be more outgoing and assertive to contribute effectively.”
Effective feedback focused on behavior: “I’ve noticed that you often hold back from sharing your ideas during team meetings. For instance, in our last discussion on the marketing strategy, you didn’t voice your thoughts even though you had valuable insights. I encourage you to participate and share your ideas actively. Perhaps you could prepare a few points before the meeting or try to contribute at least once per discussion. This will help you build confidence and ensure your valuable input is heard.”
Feedback that encourages growth
Feedback should motivate and inspire employees. Celebrating achievements when giving achievement is one way to approach this.
Growth-focused employees often overlook their milestones or goals, rushing on to the next challenge. Recognizing their accomplishments helps them see how their efforts contribute to the business’s success.
Make it a habit to celebrate workers outside of performance meetings, as well. Team meetings and company newsletters are excellent venues for highlighting outstanding achievements.
Constructive criticism fosters growth when it’s specific and clear. Providing concrete examples helps employees understand and remember what to do differently in similar future situations. Many companies are adopting a feedforward approach, emphasizing more frequent, flexible, and interactive conversations.
Feedback should also inform development goals. Set goals directly based on specific feedback points to ensure they are relevant and actionable.
Ineffective feedback: “You completed your latest project late again. You need to fix this.”
This feedback focuses only on the negative without recognizing any positive aspects or providing guidance on improving.
Effective feedback: ” Great job on the recent project, Sarah. Your innovative approach led to a 20% increase in customer satisfaction. One area to focus on for next time is time management. There were a few delays that we can work on reducing. For instance, you could use project management tools to track milestones more effectively. Let’s set a goal to complete the next project 10% faster.”
Deel Engage
Techniques for giving effective feedback
Delivering feedback effectively can greatly influence how the recipients react to it and ensure they embrace the feedback for future growth. Here are some key techniques:
The SBI (Situation-Behavior-Impact) model
The SBI model helps provide clear, objective, and actionable feedback. It anchors the sometimes lofty concept of feedback into something tangible, making it easier to understand. When the recipient finds themselves in a similar situation in the future, they’ll likely remember the feedback and choose a different behavior that has a more positive impact.
Steps of the SBI model:
- Situation: Describe the specific situation where the behavior occurred, including the time and place
- Behavior: Objectively describe what the employee did or did not do
- Impact: Explain the consequences of the action (or lack thereof) on the team or results
Example:
“During last week’s stakeholder presentation, you didn’t include relevant stats (Situation). This omission led the stakeholders to decide to work with our competitor instead (Impact). However, your unique creative angle impressed their creative director and could lead to future collaborations (Positive reinforcement).”
Here are some tips for using the SBI model:
- Know the full context of the situation to ensure the feedback is objective
- Be clear and specific in your descriptions
- Balance constructive criticism with positive feedback to keep motivation high
- Check in with the employee to ensure they understand and follow the feedback
The 360-degree feedback approach
360-degree feedback collects feedback from all levels of the organization, including upper management, peers, subordinates, and sometimes clients and stakeholders.
This approach provides a comprehensive view of an employee’s performance and competencies.
Set-up guides
- How to Implement a 360-Degree Performance Appraisal in 15 Steps
- 360 Feedback Questions to Measure and Improve Employee Performance
Benefits of 360-degree feedback include:
- Providing a well-rounded picture of the employee’s performance
- Highlighting strengths and areas for improvement from multiple perspectives
- Encouraging a culture of open communication and continuous improvement
Example: An employee receives feedback from their manager on leadership skills, from peers on teamwork, and from subordinates on communication effectiveness. This comprehensive feedback helps the employee understand their performance from different perspectives and identify areas for improvement.
Explore 60+ samples of 360 feedback examples for growth-oriented reviews.
However, this method can be logistically complex and time-consuming, especially if attempting to implement it manually.
Customer success story
Aquatic Management Group struggled greatly with running everything manually. With Deel Engage, they have been able to automate their bespoke feedback processes and save time.
Before Deel Engage, running peer reviews was incredibly painful, taking up to 20 hours per cycle. Now, I won’t spend more than a couple of minutes per cycle per year.
—Laney Scale,
Human Resources Business Partner, Aquatic
The “feedback sandwich” method
The feedback sandwich method involves starting the feedback with something positive, then delivering constructive feedback, and ending with something positive.
Use this method with caution since it can put people on edge: every time they receive praise, they’ll expect it will be followed by something negative.
Receivers might also perceive the feedback as dishonest, viewing the two positive comments as fabricated for the sake of adding positivity around negative feedback. If the recipient views the positive comments as disingenuous, they will lose their intended positive impact.
However, you can do a few things to ensure this method is effective and not perceived as insincere. For example, ensure that the positive comments are specific to make feedback feel genuine and not just a formality to cushion the criticism.
Effective feedback: “Your report was very detailed and well-researched. One area to improve is ensuring all data sources are cited. Overall, your analysis was thorough and insightful.”
The best ways to give performance feedback
Regular performance reviews
Scheduled performance reviews ensure regular feedback delivery, not just when conflicts arise. Additionally, they allow organizations to track performance improvement over time and identify areas where workers need additional support.
Before any type of review, your team members should know:
- When the reviews will happen
- What they can expect
- Why the reviews are important (their purpose)
Follow these basic steps for conducting productive performance reviews:
- Carefully prepare for the evaluation
- Conduct the reviews
- Interpret the results and discuss them with each worker
- Take necessary measures, e.g., creating development plans or performance improvement plans (PIPs)
Tip
Keep written records to avoid misunderstandings, and allow your workers to refer back to the notes when implementing the feedback. This will help foster a growth mindset and inspire self-reflection.
One-on-one meetings
When conducted well, regular one-on-one feedback sessions strengthen the manager-worker relationship and contribute to a better employee experience.
These meetings also help managers understand how they can best support each employee. They help provide timely and relevant feedback so that workers can improve faster. Additionally, they keep workers on track for their goals and can help course correct if needed.
Follow these basic steps for giving feedback in one-on-one meetings:
- Prepare by covering key topics and gathering relevant data (e.g., notes from previous meetings, goals, development action plans)
- Choose a setting where you can talk without interruptions
- Review previous goals, discuss performance, set new goals, and define clear action items
Example: “In our last meeting, you mentioned struggling with time management. Have you had a chance to use the project management tools we discussed?”
Tip
Be welcoming and encourage questions and concerns.
Regular performance check-ins
Regular performance check-ins are consistent feedback sessions that prevent last-minute pressure and build a culture of ongoing improvement.
These sessions are an alternative to or can complement traditional performance reviews. Some companies have switched to shorter performance check-ins instead of annual or two mid-year performance reviews because of the benefits of regular feedback, primarily that it’s timely and engages workers.
Follow these basic steps for conducting productive performance check-ins:
- Define a clear agenda that you share with your team members in advance
- Cover recent challenges and achievements and goal progress
- Provide specific, data-backed constructive criticism and clear action items for improvement
- Engage in active listening and encouraging employee input—prepare open-ended questions to inspire a motivating conversation
Effective check-in: “Let’s discuss how your recent project went. What were the main challenges, and how can we address them moving forward?
Informal and real-time feedback
Real-time feedback allows for immediate corrections, creating a culture of trust. Workers know that if something isn’t ideal, they’ll learn about it instantly.
This type of feedback can also help with learning and development since it’s easier to point out what skills they need to improve or what knowledge they need to acquire. It is clearer and easier to understand, lacking the risks of not remembering and misunderstanding that can come from referring to past situations.
Effective real-time feedback: “I noticed you handled that customer query very efficiently earlier. Great job!”
You can integrate informal feedback into daily interactions in several ways:
- Daily stand-up meetings
- Casual conversations at the coffee machine
- Email or work chats
- Team meetings
- During mentoring
- Workshops or trainings
Consult our performance feedback examples for varying performance levels for additional inspiration.
Best practices for managing feedback conversations with employees
Applying best practices will ensure you get the most value possible from your feedback.
Encourage two-way communication
- Ask for employee input during the conversation
- Avoid making employees feel like you are lecturing them
- Use active listening to create a collaborative feedback process
Reframe the conversation if needed
- If the employee becomes defensive, steer the discussion back to constructive points
- Emphasize the goal of mutual improvement
Create a draft action plan and offer support
- Outline specific steps for improvement
- Schedule a check-in meeting to finalize the action plan together
- Offer resources, training, or mentorship to help the employee succeed
- Ensure improvement is seen as a joint effort between the manager and the employee
Following these best practices ensures that feedback conversations are productive, supportive, and focused on mutual growth.
Career Management
Leverage Deel Engage for effective feedback
Deel Engage simplifies feedback processes, offering a modern, innovative platform that enables HR teams to merge performance, learning, and development:
- Customize your feedback process with multiple raters, qualitative and quantitative questions, anonymous feedback, and more
- Collect feedback and analyze data on competencies, goal progress, cultural values, etc.
- Showcase what performance means at different levels of career progression with our effective career management module
- Automate feedback cycles based on specific groups (department, teams, etc.), hire dates, and more Development and training integration
- Assign training courses to address skills gaps for all employees in your organization
- Generate training courses at lightning speed with AI Deel HR, our truly global HRIS solution, is always included for free
Request a demo to learn more about how you can build high-performance teams that continuously learn and grow.
Feedback, for us, is a key value. It’s what makes us able to grow as a company in such a critical stage. Thanks to Deel Engage, we’ve made it a central part of every employee’s experience. And I’m saving around 8 hours every week.
—Valeria Rosati,
HR Operations Lead, Taktile
More resources
About the author
Lorelei Trisca is a content marketing manager passionate about everything AI and the future of work. She is always on the hunt for the latest HR trends, fresh statistics, and academic and real-life best practices. She aims to spread the word about creating better employee experiences and helping others grow in their careers.
