Tips on Receiving Feedback from your Employees (Workforce)

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Tips on Receiving Feedback from your Employees (Workforce)
🔥 This may sound obvious, but when you are going to receive feedback from your staff via (online) suggestion boxes, a conference, a brainstorm session, or an employee attitude/opinion survey, remember to prepare the implementation of the employee feedback early - including the communication about it.

Why? When employees take the time to share their insights, they expect their voices to be heard and valued. Ignoring feedback will cause the opposite of what you're trying to achieve as it will lower their organizational commitment and engagement and their morale, and may even increase turnover.

❗Fact: Only one third of respondents in a 2023 survey of US employees by Priem said they believed their company would act on the feedback they provide.

Okay, so it's important to properly 1. Prepare for the implementation of employee feedback. What other things do we need to keep in mind? Obviously it's necessary to create a psychologically safe environment to share ideas, so:

2. Encourage openness: Let employees know that their feedback is valued and won't result in negative consequences.
3. Ensure anonymity if needed: Consider using anonymous surveys or suggestion boxes. Otherwise, many employees will likely refrain from participating, especially in groupthink-prone environments and within a corporate culture that adheres to a "shoot the messenger" mentality.

Some further interesting tips from researcher Priem:

4. Focus on resolving process roadblocks. This is what most employees are looking for.
5. Train/coach middle managers (beforehand) on engaging the employees. They are the ones who need to implement most of the feedback.
6. Be Transparent: Share the way in which you will solicit, collect, and use their feedback.

Implementing changes based on feedback builds trust and transparency between employees and management. This encourages a culture of open communication, where employees feel empowered to share their thoughts, knowing their input has the potential to bring meaningful change.

Sources:
Fink A.A., (2020), "Employee Surveys and Sensing: Challenges and Opportunities", Oxford University Press.
Karmona G.S. (2022), "Measure Up: Conducting Organizational Surveys that Cultivate Employee Engagement in the Workplace".
Priem J. (2023), "Employee Engagement: Close the Action Gap to Drive Business Outcomes”

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		Anonymous
	1 More Tips on Obtaining Feedback from Employee Surveys and the Like 7. Be clear: Use concise and simple language to avoid confusion. 8. Focus: Ensure the questions are relevant to the topics you want to cover. 9. Mix question types: Combine multiple-choice, scaled, and open-ended questions. While structured questions are easier to analyze, open-ended ones provide richer insights. 10. Encourage participation: Encourage employees to participate by emphasizing the importance of their feedback. Use reminders and keep surveys short and easy to complete.

		Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	1 Clearly Communicate the Purpose of the Feedback you are Soliciting Thank you for sharing these very good tips. Yet another could be: 11. Clearly communicate the purpose of the feedback you are seeking. You need to explain why you ask for it and how employees’ input will be used. Why? ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION: When employees understand the intent—whether it's to improve processes, foster innovation, or address workplace concerns—they are more likely to contribute meaningful ideas. DIRECT THE CONTRIBUTIONS: A clear purpose outlines what types of ideas or feedback are being sought. This ensures submissions are relevant and focused, making the process more effective. BUILD TRUST: Transparency about how the feedback will be used fosters trust. Employees will be more willing to share their ideas if they believe their input will be genuinely considered. Clearly communicating the purpose demonstrates that the organization values open dialogue and is proactive about listening to its workforce. INCREASE ENGAGEMENT: By explaining how the feedback will benefit both the organization and the workforce, employees will feel valued and motivated to participate. MINIMIZE UNWANTED USE: Without a clearly defined purpose, employees might resort to unrelated grievances or unconstructive feedback, which can dilute the effectiveness of the feedback. So, to maximize the effectiveness of your employee feedback effort, include a brief statement or signage near it (or on the digital platform) that explains its purpose, the types of comments sought, and how the process works.

		Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	2 Itemised Response Feedback Agreeing with the various points numbered I would suggest a sub-point in relation to point 9: 9a. Provide a structure for open ended options. For this I suggest the "Itemised Response approach" from Synectics. This is a powerful tool that may be used in a variety of ways when asking for feedback or providing it and importantly, enabling individuals to develop ideas to counter concerns with an "offer (suggestion) that cannot be refused". This approach supports and feeds the other numbered points made and can quickly cause a change in mindset when responded to. Remember that when not listened to: the first level of response is ANNOYANCE, which can take the mind off the job and cause (costly) accidents and mistakes. the second level of response is ANGER, which will lead to 'deliberate mistakes' (sabotage), strikes, go slows and other forms of disruption. the third level of response is APATHY, which leads to absenteeism and 'sickness' days as well as clock watching and minimum performance get-by working. So, provide a feedback form with this format: Boxes at the top for topic title and date. Divide the sheet into three columns. Above the Left-Hand Side column: a note saying Please complete this column first then the word "LIKES" and "Please write here what is working well, the successes and things that are positive about this topic." Above the central column, the heading "CONCERNS" with the note: "Please write here what your concerns are about the topic starting with the phrase 'My concern is how to ... improve, deal with any shortfalls, deviations etc." Above the right-hand column: IDEAS and SOLUTIONS with the note "Your Ideas and suggestions to overcome your stated concern." A box at the bottom for name/signature (entry optional) Because you are asking for feedback (and presumably promising to act on it) it will be likely that individuals will want to be linked to the implementation of the idea. This structure will assist in correlating points made from different contributors and also (hopefully) identify that it is not all bad with the topic and assist people to think positively rather than merely focusing on negative complaints.

		Paramathmuni srinivas Kumar India
	2 12. Provide a Provision to Pre-Collect Feedback from Employees The employees may need to be given some kind of provision to pre-record and reflect on their observations while the person is actually performing a task so that those observations can later be submitt (...)

		Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	1 Don't Confuse Feedback with Formats Agreeing with the proposed process, I'm concerned that "feedback" is equated with 'formats', as listed. "Feedback" is a generic term for information being provided about something. Certain formats (e (...)