It comes as no surprise to most that employee satisfaction is a key ingredient to a successful business. Without happy staff, you risk impacting workplace productivity and having a company dynamic that’s less than welcoming. Your employees keep the wheels of the business turning, so it’s always important to maintain communications with your workforce.
Employee feedback can tell you a lot about the needs of your staff and how you can improve their work environment and way of work for the better. A study found that four out of ten workers are actively disengaged when they receive little or no feedback. There’s nothing worse than an employee feeling like they’re not being valued or appreciated within the organization.
In this guide, we’ll explore the benefits that come from improving business and employee communications, as well as why it’s so essential for small business productivity.
Tips for encouraging employee feedback within the organisation
There are a number of tips that can be helpful in encouraging employees to provide feedback and for you as an organization, to give it. Here are a number of ways that you can do that:
Set the right impression from the top
It’s all about creating influence so that employees feel more obliged to give their own feedback and for them to also receive it from their peers. It’s something that needs to be done from the top to the bottom, regardless of position.
If very few of the seniors or executives are bothering to give feedback, then it’s likely not to trickle down to managers and any member of staff that’s responsible for other employees.
Use employee feedback examples
To give employees the right advice, you want to create the right resources that communicate the feedback effectively. These employee feedback examples should give you plenty of guidance in creating the best feedback documents for your employees so that they gain everything they can, from it.
Create a routine
Feedback should be regular and that means you’ll want to create a routine that sticks. Liaise with those supervising or managing teams or individuals and set a structure in place that encourages them to give regular feedback either on a weekly, monthly, or twice-monthly basis.
Five reasons why employee feedback is important for your small business
Employee feedback is highly effective for many reasons and if you’ve not implemented these communications, then you could be missing opportunities to help your employees and grow the business further. While there are many reasons why employee feedback is important, these five should be a good starting point.
1. Your employees need and want it.
Most employees like to get an insight into what’s required of them when it comes to their performance. For some, it might be helpful in helping their career progression, and without this knowledge, they wouldn’t have the same opportunities available to climb the company ladder.
It directly benefits your business if you’re able to provide feedback to your employees. For the most part, employees will appreciate getting the feedback whether it’s positive or it’s a constructive approach that’s taken instead.
You can always find out how your employees feel about receiving feedback and whether some might want it, whilst others are happy with their annual review meeting.
2. Confirms employees’ value to the business.
Value and respect are something that an employee can really benefit from when it comes from their peers and from the business as a whole. To feel valued is to be included within the business growth, rather than feeling like just another number.
With detailed employee feedback, you’re going to confirm the employee’s value to the business. It’s a nod to them that the organization sees them, recognizes any issues at play, and is willing to do more to improve their experiences and work-life in general.
A lack of value leads to a lack of work productivity. With only 36% of employees being engaged in the workplace, according to statistics, it’s a problem that needs fixing within many organizations. Recognizing your staff can be done through employee feedback as well as a number of other
3. Creates a dialogue between employees.
It’s necessary to create dialogue because sometimes it can be missing from the employee/business relationship. Delivering employee feedback and setting up these avenues of communication will certainly help employees feel more confident when it comes to giving their own feedback, as well as receiving it.
"When employees receive feedback, they feel more confident because they are able to reflect on their own performance and see where they can improve. Additionally, feedback allows employees to compare their performance to that of their peers, which can give them a sense of where they rank within the company." says Richard Morgan of Cyclone Computers. "Receiving feedback also allows employees to identify any areas in which they need more training or development. Finally, feedback can help employees feel appreciated by their manager, which can boost morale."
When feedback isn’t given, it can be difficult for some employees to speak up about how they’re feeling and as a result, they may feel like they don’t have the ability to do so. That can lead to unhappiness in the workplace, which is something you want to avoid at all costs. Open up the lines of communication when it comes to your employees, you’ll benefit greatly from it.
4. Keeps everyone on the same page.
With communication, you keep everyone on the same page and as a small business, there’s very little room for error to be made. Without this employee feedback in place, how do you expect employees to know that they’re doing something wrong or that they need to improve on X, Y and Z?
Your employees require direction and with employee feedback, you can provide that communication that will ensure everyone is conducting themselves properly.
Failing to communicate effectively won’t do much good for business relationships with clients and customers too, so it’s important to keep comms at the top of your priority list. There are plenty of tools to help organize and communicate with your staff out there, with many being free or costing the same as a cup of coffee.
5. It’s a tool that provides learning experiences.
Employee feedback is more than just the feedback itself. For employees, it’s a learning experience that they can grow from. For the employers or those giving the feedback, it’s an opportunity to build relationships with the employees so that they ultimately want to be part of the business for a longer period of time.
With the variety of feedback, you can give and receive a business, it’s all great in helping to build a company dynamic and culture that’s healthy for everyone. There’s a big influence that comes from quality feedback whether it’s your employees opening up to the business or vice versa.
The benefits of employee and business communication
Communication within a business is always going to be useful, whether it’s a big commercial corporation to a small start-up. As a small business, it’s good to know how your employees are feeling and how things can be improved to enhance business growth and success. A few benefits of employee/business communication include:
Improves job satisfaction
With work satisfaction being important to many employees, keeping them engaged and happy in their job is key. With effective communications in place, feedback can help improve job satisfaction because not only are they learning from their peers but they’re also gaining insight into how they can make their job more enjoyable and efficient.
According to a survey, only 49% of American workers report being very satisfied with their work. That’s just under half of the surveyed US workers, meaning there are many companies out there, not doing enough.
Better employee retention rates
With the right guidance and feedback, you’re most likely to help a lot of your employees stick around longer. Not every employee is going to stay in the business forever, especially for some small businesses. There might not be enough career progression available or they may simply see the business as a stepping stone in their career.
However, if you care and value your staff, they’ll find it harder to leave because they’ve found a company that respects them beyond just their employee number.
Encourages innovation, creativity, and engagement
Your small business needs employees that are going to actively contribute to the success of the business. Their own creativity and engagement are going to encourage innovation and positive change within the work environment.
For your business, each employee will be able to work more productively and in an environment that’s going to benefit them both personally and professionally. There’s nothing better than having employees who provide innovation and growth for the business.
Start gathering feedback and churning it out for employees
To begin the process of employee feedback, understand which employees would benefit from this type of feedback. Start gathering feedback from your staff so that you can understand fully what’s expected and needed from you as a business.
From there, you can look at structuring how you collect and deliver employee feedback to those individuals. Again, it’s essential you encourage it within all parts of the business and it isn’t just one department or one particular manager who is making the effort to give feedback. It should be part and parcel of the communications between employer and employee.
Author Bio: Natalie Redman (LinkedIn)
Freelance writer for many clients across multiple industries. Natalie has two years of copywriting experience. Natalie has a wide range of experience copywriting for web pages for businesses across many industries. She’s also an owner of two blog websites and a Youtube content creator.
