Now I’ve caught your attention with that striking headline, let me clarify – no boss wants to hear that from an employee.
However, having the ability to collate and engage with staff feedback could prevent the above situation arising in the first place.
As a manager, leader or business owner, you’re probably used to giving out feedback to the people below you in your organisation. Sometimes it will be critical, sometimes you’ll be praising their efforts; it’s all essential to help them understand how their work is perceived and when things need to improve.
However, when you’re at the top of the organisational tree, who provides you with feedback? Do you even need to hear it?
Well, if you don’t want to see good employees Googling our headline, I would suggest that feedback is just as useful when it’s coming up the chain of command as when it’s going down. Employing people is a two-way relationship and should involve a two-way dialogue.
How can a manager get feedback from their team?
Let’s start with all the ways you shouldn’t try to solicit feedback, positive or negative, from the people who work for you.
Interviews or meetings attended by the people they’re asked to provide feedback about.
This may sound obvious but having to directly critique somebody to their face is cripplingly difficult for the majority of people and unlikely to lead to any worthwhile revelations. With employee-manager relationships, there is also a power dynamic in play that should not be under-estimated.
Surveys or other data gathering activities that are not truly confidential.
Don’t tell staff that their feedback will be treated in strictest confidence, if it will become apparent that the subject is very much aware of who made which comments. When they’ve been burned once, through retaliation or embarrassment, your employees will be twice shy of sharing their true thoughts.
Demanding that staff take part in compulsory feedback sessions.
Some people may need some encouragement to provide feedback. However, if you insist that a person must find something to say, they’ll do just that – find something to say. It may be untrue or irrelevant; they won’t care as long as it gets them out of the hot seat. Meaningful feedback comes from people who are engaged and genuinely have something to share.
What’s the right way to get feedback from employees?
Often, getting your staff to provide useful, honest feedback is more about the outcomes they can expect, than about the method of collation.
Make it secure
If you want them to fill in a questionnaire, make it digital and completely untraceable – no handwritten notes – and don’t allow managers to track who has taken part and who hasn’t. Being able to see that their answers really will be confidential will help most people to be more candid.
Give them a reason to engage
Have you asked for feedback from your employees in the past? What did you do with that information? If the answer is ‘nothing’, that could be a problem. You’re asking your team to put their time and mental energy – along with their political capital, if their views are at all controversial – into an exercise that, as far as they’re concerned, has no result.
Even if you decide to take no action based on their feedback, talking them through your thought process will at least show that their views have been heard and considered, not just dismissed.
Show interest in their daily challenges
Managers and business leaders can collect feedback every day, if they really try. You may not feel you have time to talk to each of your team regularly, but you can still take a look around the office as you walk through. What is the atmosphere like? Pay attention to people’s body language and facial expressions – do they seem happy, relaxed, bored, stressed? Try raising your impressions with them proactively and being the one to start the conversation.
Employees are rightfully sceptical about bosses who only take an interest in them during evaluation season. So, try to create a culture of trust and engagement by showing an interest all year round.
Conducting stay interviews
Aside from your regular one-to-ones or performance evaluations, consider scheduling ‘stay interviews’ with all your team at intervals throughout the year. We’re used to getting departing employees’ feedback in exit interviews, but if valued team members are unhappy, you want to know before they’re ready to quit over it, not after.
Try to be proactive about the topics raised, too. If you’re aware that there was some tension around a particular issue recently, be the one to broach it first so your employees don’t have to.
Providing a regular opening for employees to discuss the bigger picture, without forcing the conversation, will help to develop a trusting, open culture. From this fertile ground, truly honest and meaningful feedback can spring forth.
