Many managers and HR professionals know how frustrating it can be when they give feedback to employees and it obviously didn’t sink in. In some situations, this could genuinely be due to the employee not wanting to listen or change their actions. However, it’s worth it for the HR department and management team to take a look at how they are communicating their feedback to their employees. There are a few major indicators that reveal why your feedback might be falling short.
All too often, HR professionals and managers ending up giving too much feedback all at once. It’s fine to point out a mistake or an area that needs improvement in an employee’s performance. However, employees will likely tune you out if you are constantly throwing feedback at them. While you may feel like you’re helping your employees out, you may actually be overwhelming and discouraging them. To avoid this, focus on one piece of advice at a time and give your employees a chance to work on improving that aspect.
Often times if your employees aren’t taking your feedback to heart, it could be because you didn’t get specific enough. Managers and HR professionals might feel that a quick comment here or there will steer employees onto the right path. However, you may not have actually given them enough information. In fact, your employees may really want to change and work on the feedback you’ve given them but they’re just not sure how to go about it or they feel like they don’t really know what you actually want to see from them. In order to get your employees going in the right direction, the HR department and management team needs to make sure that they are specific in what you want them to do.
Accountability for managers and HR professionals is incredibly important in the workplace. It even affects the quality of your feedback. If your employees see you doing the exact same things that you just warned them against, your feedback no longer seems very valuable or important. It can be frustrating to be confronted for your behavior when your superiors continue to engage in the same behavior. For example, if you tell an employee not to check their personal email in the office but you check your personal email all the time, they will be less likely to listen to you. Managers and HR professionals who really want to see their feedback make an impact in the workplace need to lead by example.
Most of the time, your employees really do want to know how they’re doing and what they can do to improve. But if it seems like they’re just not grasping your feedback, it may be time to reevaluate. HR professionals and managers should remember that in order for their feedback to work, it needs to be given in manageable chunks with enough specifics that the employee can really understand what you want. Since the management team and HR department are leaders in the workplace, your feedback will go far if you set positive examples.