Effectively delivering employee feedback can elevate an organization and its people, fostering high engagement and performance across the workforce. In fact, 80% of employees who said they’ve received meaningful feedback in the past week are fully engaged at work, according to a 2023 Gallup report.
But, those discussions often are in short supply. In a separate 2023 Gallup poll, about 30% of respondents strongly agreed that they had a conversation about their progress in the last six months; received recognition in the last week; or have someone at work who encourages their development. For those kinds of feedback to be impactful, scattered conversations aren’t enough. Conversations must be ongoing, and the process of preparing and delivering these performance discussions requires careful planning.
This article covers what employee feedback encompasses and best practices that organizations should employ to ensure it’s meaningful.
What is employee feedback?
Employee feedback provides individuals with specific, constructive, and actionable insights aimed at improving their performance, so they can better support the organization’s mission and objectives. When they receive effective feedback, employees can shore up flagging skills and continue to develop in areas where they shine.
“The intent of feedback is to influence further performance,” said Denitresse Ferrell, founder and CEO of Culture Refinery, a leadership and professional development consultancy. “That’s the whole end goal.”
For generations, conversations about employee performance and development were mostly limited to annual performance reviews when compensation and promotion decisions were made. Those yearly benchmarks are still helpful, serving as a culminating conversation about an individual's development over the past 12 months.
But employee feedback is best when it’s part of an ongoing dialogue, providing in-the-moment insights so individuals can adjust their work in some areas and continue enhancing it in others.
That kind of continuous feedback can come through regular one-on-one meetings between managers and direct reports; employee recognition programs; goal-setting and tracking; and project retrospectives. Altogether, through that regular dialogue, employee feedback should cover the depth and breadth of an individual’s current and future contributions to the organization, whether it’s their great work preparing a client presentation, their need for a new certification, or their delay in turning in a project on deadline.
Employee Feedback Examples
To be authentic and impactful, employee feedback must focus on more than poor performance. Nobody wants to only hear about what they’re doing wrong. And, while your top talent may truly be surpassing every goal, they always have room to grow. Feedback can be helpful for everyone, but it needs to be tailored to the individual.
Here are four types of employee feedback and how they can be effective.
1. Constructive Feedback
Constructive feedback identifies areas where an employee can improve with clear and actionable language that sets them on a better course.
For example, if an employee is having trouble meeting project deadlines, a manager shouldn’t just complain that they’re always late on their work. Meaningful constructive feedback should cover these four areas:
- It’s specific. Instead of saying an employee is “always late,” better feedback would name the specific incidents and how long past deadline projects were turned in.
- It’s timely. Instead of waiting for an entire year of missed deadlines to accumulate before something is mentioned during a performance review, constructive criticism heads off patterns of poor performance as soon as they emerge.
- It’s regular. An ongoing discussion ensures any roadblocks are flagged, promoting transparency and allowing both managers and direct reports to adjust as needed to ensure projects succeed.
- It’s actionable. Employees and managers set specific goals together as they collaborate to ensure key milestones are met on time.
Constructive, or negative, feedback should also include conversations about skills development, including continuous learning opportunities that can help employees shore up their performance in particular areas. As they talk to their direct reports, managers should offer those opportunities and tie the potential learnings to areas where an employee still has room to develop. In the case of missed deadlines, for example, programs that cover time management or communication skills could help.
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2. Positive Feedback
Positive employee feedback points out where employees are doing well, and it can go a long way in bolstering employee engagement and motivation. A 2022 Deloitte study on workforce experience found that 85% of employees who are regularly recognized for their good work believe that their employer cares about their wellbeing. Yet, the study found, only 58% of workers say they are regularly recognized for their contributions.
Delivering praise doesn’t have to take much time. It’s best when it’s embedded into daily operations. And it can be for big and little moments — celebrating when new hires complete onboarding, a direct report earns a new certification, or a team member displays a positive attitude.
Employee recognition programs or call-outs in Slack channels or during in-person team meetings are quick ways to mark exceptional effort. Recognition platforms like Lattice Praise also make it easy to celebrate wins and hard work and reinforce outstanding performance and the company’s values across a team. Regular encouragement and public recognition of great work ensure team members know what it takes to excel and are aligned on their shared mission to reach new heights.
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3. 360-Degree Feedback
Traditionally, employee feedback has involved two individuals: the manager and their direct report. But, increasingly, as companies work to build a culture of feedback, leaders see the value in bringing in more perspectives through 360-degree feedback.
With 360-degree appraisals, feedback comes from various directions, including peers, cross-functional teammates, and executives. Reviewers often can comment not just on an individual’s skills, but how well they communicate, collaborate, and lead in areas that the manager might not be privy to.
Because 360-degree feedback involves gathering feedback from multiple sources, it’s important to deploy a deliberate process that includes mapping out the program's primary objectives and selecting the right participants. Any 360-degree review process also should ensure anonymity so raters feel comfortable providing thorough and honest feedback.
Platforms such as Lattice Performance can help streamline the work, ensuring the right people are answering the right 360-degree questions and that confidentiality is maintained.
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4. Real-Time Feedback
Waiting to praise great work or identify missteps until an annual review is a missed opportunity. Months later, a manager may forget the specifics of that stellar product launch. Just the same, delaying feedback means that poor performance, such as disorganized sales presentations, may only get worse if it isn’t flagged immediately.
Delivering feedback in real-time is critical for it to be effective and meaningful, enhancing learning and performance. With immediate feedback, the employee behind that top-notch product launch can now duplicate and improve on their great work. Similarly, the employee with disorganized client presentations can immediately work on improving before they turn away any other leads.
Kimberly Prescott, founder and president of human resources consulting firm Prescott HR, recommends providing real-time feedback within 24 hours of that great work or misstep. “Everything is much more fresh in our mind about what happened in that situation,” Prescott said. “[Likewise], if it’s related to your job, the likelihood that you’re going to have to do it again or that you’re still working on it is very high. I want that to be corrected as soon as possible.”
Preparing to Give Employee Feedback
Delivering employee feedback requires careful planning to ensure it’s fair, actionable, and productive. Here’s why preparation matters and how to deliver feedback effectively.
Why Preparation Matters
Not all feedback opportunities serve the same purpose. In the heat of a big project, one-on-ones may focus exclusively on timelines and hurdles. A 360-degree review may focus more on whether an employee has the broader skills they need to continue growing in their career. In both cases, preparation ensures participants are clear on the goals and objectives of the feedback conversations to ensure the right questions are asked and appraisals are offered.
Carefully planning how feedback is crafted and communicated also goes a long way toward building a strong culture of feedback. In organizations with a healthy feedback culture, a dedication to providing constructive and positive appraisals is normalized. Feedback sharing, for example, is included in manager standards and competencies. It’s integrated into organizational values and repeated at meetings and newsletters. And it’s continuous, furnished promptly when wins and missteps are still recent. All those steps require deliberate preparation.
How to Give Employee Feedback
Whether the feedback is intended to shed light on productivity or personal development, best practices for delivering feedback are the same. Feedback should include examples, based on specific and, as often as possible, objective observations. That might include the number of times an individual turned in a project late or early or the rate of new client acquisition or attrition.
Context also helps. Feedback should demonstrate how performance has impacted the team or overall organization. For example, the late delivery of a project may have delayed a major product launch. Similarly, a great employee may have exceeded expectations by acquiring new customers in a new market.
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Throughout the process, remember that blame or back-slapping isn’t the objective. The goal of feedback is to nurture employees so they can deliver their best work. Structure each session to ensure clarity and constructiveness. Ask open-ended questions to glean an employee’s thoughts on the feedback. Work together to develop goals for building on and improving skills.
To ensure feedback is meaningful, it’s important for managers to know their employees, Ferrell emphasized. That relationship-building work — nurtured during regular check-ins and conversations — helps managers understand how their employees operate and may react to negative feedback, in particular.
After a tough presentation, for example, some employees may value immediate feedback; others may need time to cool off. Before providing feedback, ask yourself, “Is this the right time? Are they in the right headspace? Is this the right environment to give feedback?” Ferrell said.
Deliver employee feedback effectively.
It’s easy enough to deliver praise, letting individuals know that they surpassed every expectation or expertly demonstrated new skills. Delivering constructive feedback effectively, however, takes some finesse. For some, it can feel uncomfortable to highlight an individual’s fumbles.
To calm that unease and ensure the feedback you deliver is meaningful, refrain from using “blur words,” unclear comments that don’t trigger any kind of change. Feedback that leans on blur words could look like this: “You don’t listen” or “You’re amazing.” These comments fail to provide specific examples of when the employee didn’t listen or why they’re amazing, so they’re not as useful as they could be.
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It’s also best to separate the behavior from the person. Instead of focusing on personal traits, offer advice on actions. Don’t tell an employee, “You’re so introverted and aloof at meetings.”
Instead, say, “It's always nice to see you participating in team discussions. Team members have told me that they learn a lot from you when you share your input. Just last month, your recommendations on how to overcome some roadblocks helped steer our big project in the right direction and ensured we met our deadlines. I know we all would love to hear more from you at meetings.”
Employee Feedback in Different Contexts
Adapting your feedback style to the relationship and context is critical. After all, you would likely speak with your executive team far differently than you would with your immediate reports and peers. Here are tips on providing feedback to team members with different roles and seniority levels.
Feedback for Peers and Subordinates
Establishing mutual respect is fundamental when providing feedback to peers and subordinates, ensuring that it’s received as intended — constructive and helpful, not critical.
Treat feedback sessions as a collaborative discussion rather than directive. Focus on specific examples of how an individual’s performance is impacting the bigger team and organization.
And don’t dwell in the past. Instead, provide feedback that focuses on developmental opportunities to do better. This approach encourages open dialogue and mutual problem-solving, making it more likely that the feedback will be well-received and acted upon.
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Upward Feedback for Managers
The power dynamic can make delivering constructive feedback to managers anxiety-inducing. But learning how to broach difficult topics is a critical skill to master as you advance in your career.
Performance management systems that support and encourage upward feedback without fear of reprisal, along with a strong feedback culture, can assuage those worries and support positive behavior and growth through upward reviews.
So can being respectful and constructive in your feedback and delivery. Always balance constructive feedback with recognition of the manager’s positive aspects.
When writing upward reviews, the Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI)™ model is a useful framework. Use the SBI feedback model to frame your comments.
- Situation: Describe the situation where the behavior occurred.
- Behavior: Specify the actual behavior you observed.
- Impact: Explain the impact of the behavior on the team, project, or individual goals.
Finally, look for private moments to deliver your thoughts. A one-on-one or performance review are two good times to provide upward feedback, not during a meeting with external stakeholders.
“You always want to think about the impact,” Prescott said. “You want to make sure the focus is on the organization or the team or the department or the project because it takes the personal out of it. And that’s really what you want to do. We’re all here to contribute to the larger good of the organization.”
Using Employee Feedback to Drive Improvement and Engagement
To ensure that feedback supports employee satisfaction and improvement, organizations must provide the tools and resources employees need to better themselves and their skills.
Managers and employees should harness feedback conversations as an opportunity to direct ongoing development and growth opportunities. Tools such as Lattice Grow can provide transparency into an employee’s development needs by integrating regular feedback and performance review conversations into personal growth plans.
For companies like Goldrich Kest, Lattice has become an integral part of employee development and feedback culture. Its use of Lattice 1:1s, in particular, has allowed managers to quickly jot down employee conversations and performance, creating a real-time record of missteps, obstacles, and goal-setting needs to ensure they’re addressed.
Leverage employee feedback tools and resources.
Building on a company culture of effective employee feedback, delivering meaningful continuous feedback, and gathering data on employee performance, engagement, and goal achievement requires effort and intention. Training and resources, including learning modules and competency frameworks that enhance feedback skills across the organization, are critical.
Feedback tools that facilitate effective evaluations and communication also ensure everybody is aligned on the same goals and objectives. Lattice Pulse, for example, allows for active listening through pulse surveys that gauge how an organization’s people feel about job satisfaction and the employee experience. And tools like Lattice Analytics provide managers with metrics about their team, so they can direct development opportunities and provide targeted support where needed.
With the right training and tools in place, organizations can capitalize on the important benefits of effective feedback, supercharging employee performance and business outcomes. Ready to boost your people strategy? Book a demo to see how Lattice can help.
Constructive Feedback Examples:
- I’ve noticed that your weekly reports have been late for the last month. Can you talk me through what’s going on?
- I’ve noticed that you have yet to use our new software tool. What’s holding you back?
Positive Feedback Examples:
- “You did a fantastic job during the presentation. I admired how prepared you were to handle every question from the audience.”
- “I really appreciate your mentorship of our junior employee. They just completed their first project, and it’s hit every mark thanks to your guidance.”
Self-Evaluations in 360-Degree Feedback
Self-evaluations allow employees to advocate for their own needs as they identify roadblocks, consider their job satisfaction, and map out their career plans. They also can help employees in their daily work.
A 2021 study published in the journal Reading and Writing found that when students had an opportunity to set goals for their work and reflect on their progress, they had better outcomes. Similarly, 360-degree feedback processes should include some time for employees to consider their own work and think critically about skills they can strengthen.
To help get started with a self-evaluation, download this Self-Evaluation Template.
Make it continuous.
Remember that continuous feedback is the gold standard. Conversations about performance and great work must be ongoing, part of the day-to-day values, processes, and feedback culture at your organization.
Tools that track performance and behavior, such as Lattice Feedback, can help, allowing managers, peers, and others to quickly log feedback in real time so progress, wins, and obstacles are always tracked. That up-to-date log of performance feedback is especially helpful during mid-year and annual reviews, providing a source of year-round data about an employee’s performance.
Be clear, not blurry.
Don’t say: “You’re always late.”
Do say: “You’ve been late providing time-sensitive updates, and that has slowed down our team and may affect our ability to achieve this major product launch for the organization. Is there a roadblock that’s keeping you from delivering on time?”
Look forward.
When delivering feedback, don’t consider just the immediate impact of a behavior. Rather than stating how a behavior is impacting the team right now, tie your feedback to broader goals and explain how a behavior could disrupt the team in the future if it’s allowed to continue.
Don’t just offer present-focused feedback:
“Our customer service line opens at 9 AM, and Rebecca usually doesn’t log in until 9:30 most mornings. That’s making for longer wait times for our customers.”
Do offer forward-looking feedback:
“Rebecca logs into our customer service line around 9:30 AM and is effective at supporting our clients. But our line opens at 9 AM, and we have had higher-than-usual wait times for our clients, which means our team is not meeting our goals for the quarter. I’d like for Rebecca to begin taking calls at 9 AM with the other reps, so we can better serve our customers and meet our team goals in the next quarter.”
Why it works: Feedback like this, Prescott said, demonstrates the broader impact of the employee’s actions. “I do not have time to manage what time you pull into the parking lot,” she said. “But I do care about our numbers and metrics and customer service and other things we’re getting measured on. So this is why it’s important.”
