Three Things to Bear in Mind when Delivering Performance Feedback
Appraisal or “feedback” is a key way to assess the performance of employees. Only through a measured process of appraisal can employees understand how their performance relates to their colleagues and where they can potentially improve and develop as business people.
When collecting and delivering feedback bear in mind the following:
Feedback should be relative. That is to say data is only valuable when it is in context, i.e. so that an employee can compare his or her performance with their employees. This is why 360-degree feedback is helpful. 360 feedback collects data from an employee’s circle of colleagues therefore creating a holistic picture of someone’s performance.
Ensure that data is collected confidentially. This is quite important simply because people are much more likely to give a genuine opinion when they can do so in private. They may not be conscious of this, however, it is a psychologically proven fact.
Data is again useless unless it can be converted into action. Working with the employee in question you should construct a method of action, a path towards improvement that is built on solid feedback data.
This kind of useful feedback works especially when in the context of management positions. Managers are only as good as the people that they manage, and systems of feed back like the 360 system can help managers better understand where exactly they fit in a company.
