Do your employees seem checked out and disengaged? Are stellar employees starting to quietly quit by doing the bare minimum required? Is your workforce just going through the motions rather than actively driving business results?

If so, your organization likely has an urgent problem with providing impactful employee feedback. Without constructive feedback and praise, employees feel directionless. Their performance stagnates, and morale plummets.

It makes sense, after all. What employee would choose a work environment where their contributions are taken for granted, and they never receive recognition? With nearly half of those leaving their current roles quitting “quietly,” it’s clear that employees are looking for more than regular salary checks and benefits packages.

The good news is feedback doesn't have to be complicated. The most effective communication techniques center around transforming feedback from negative criticism into actionable advice. Simple changes in wording can make employees feel valued and supported while also helping them identify areas of improvement. 

In this guide to revamping your internal feedback process, we'll cover:

• Best practices for providing employee feedback

• Tips for crafting a positive yet impactful message

• Strategies for improving your internal feedback culture

By the end of this guide, you'll be well on your way to creating an environment that encourages growth and development through active employee engagement beyond typical employee performance reviews. With the right feedback mechanisms, you can enhance your company culture and create a sense of ownership among team members.

Why Employee Feedback Matters

Employee feedback should be an integral part of your culture, not just an annual ritual. If you want to see your team members thrive in their roles, you’ll need to get strategic about how you check in with direct reports. When you implement effective employee feedback, you’ll see:

Improved Employee Performance

Consistent employee feedback enables continuous improvement of skills, efficiency, and outcomes. Rather than waiting for yearly reviews, regular feedback allows course correction along the way.

For example, an engineering manager might provide monthly feedback to help technicians troubleshoot issues more effectively. This refinement accumulates into major performance gains over time.

Without regular feedback and constructive criticism, employees operate based on assumptions of what good performance entails. Quality suffers when not actively calibrated.

Boosts in Employee Engagement

Gallup research shows employees who receive regular feedback and career development support are 3.5 times more likely to be engaged at work. They feel invested in, listened to, and empowered to grow. Even negative feedback — when delivered in an actionable way — can help build better relationships between a manager and their team.

Feedback demonstrates to employees their opinions and contributions matter to leadership. This drives engagement, productivity, and discretionary effort.

On the flip side, a lack of feedback causes employees to disengage, unsure of expectations or progress. They become unmotivated and do the bare minimum required — resulting in lower employee experience and dips in entire team morale.

Develops Employee Talents

Constructive feedback that highlights an employee’s strengths provides a roadmap for maximizing those talents. For example, praise for a salesperson’s rapport with clients encourages further sharpening of emotional intelligence.

When employees know their stand-out abilities, they can hone them into true competitive advantages, both for individual and company success. Feedback opens up growth opportunities — and a positive attitude can help activate those moments when combined with actionable insights.

Without feedback, employees operate in the dark about their strengths. Unclear about paths for advancement, top performers seek growth opportunities elsewhere.

Boosts Employee Retention

Speaking of talent retention, employees who feel their professional growth is stagnant or hindered quickly look for opportunities at other organizations. Consistent feedback shows a path forward and demonstrates the company’s commitment to development.

Even if pay raises aren’t feasible, consistent feedback provides the growth and progression employees crave from their jobs. It shows you’re invested in their futures within your organization, and can help to enhance employee retention rather than lose top talent to competitors.

Aligns Employees with Company Values

Effective feedback not only focuses on individual employee performance but also reinforces alignment with company values and culture.

For example, offering praise when an employee demonstrates great teamwork improves collaboration company-wide. Values-focused feedback clarifies expected behaviors.

Without it, organizational values remain just words on a wall, not guides for employee actions. Feedback brings values alive.

Identifies Problems Early

Finally, providing ongoing feedback gives managers insight into problems as they emerge. Issues can be swiftly addressed rather than allowed to spiral.

For example, early feedback can nip absenteeism or waning customer service in the bud before reaching severe levels. Even small course corrections downstream prevent major problems upstream, where solutions are more costly and time-consuming.

Rather than relying on human resources to create and implement feedback tools, leaders who take on this responsibility demonstrate a commitment to creating and sustaining a values-driven culture.

What Feedback Should I Give to My Employees?

Knowing how employee feedback is only part of the battle. The other side is knowing the type of feedback to give. Simply giving project-specific feedback is not enough.

The best feedback provides supportive guidance for employees to help with professional development. It should also be concise, timely, and specific to the individual to demonstrate the care and attention needed to build trust.

When determining what feedback to give team members, aim to balance positive reinforcement and constructive suggestions.

Positive Feedback

This focuses on what an employee is doing well. Examples include:

• Praise for achievements: Give kudos when goals are met or projects completed successfully. Recognize the effort.

• Compliments on skills: Highlight specific strengths and talents you want the employee to continue leveraging.

• Appreciation for teamwork: Express gratitude for collaboration, knowledge sharing, mentoring, etc.

• Recognition of growth: Note when you observe progress on developmental areas for the employee.

• Admiration for values: Applaud demonstrating company values like excellence, respect, or innovation.

Constructive Feedback

This focuses on areas for improvement and growth. Examples include:

• Performance issues: Identify any deficiencies in quality, efficiency, outcomes, behaviors, etc. and offer advice to resolve them.

• Skill gaps: Note where an employee lacks proficiency in a required ability and suggest training to close the gaps.

• Overused strengths: Even strengths can become weaknesses when overused. Reign in as needed.

• Blind spots: Make employees aware of unrecognized weaknesses holding them back from advancement.

• Alignment with values: Course correct behaviors that are misaligned with company culture and values.

While positive and constructive feedback are the most common types of employee feedback, they are by no means the only ones. Here are some other types of actionable feedback that can be implemented in your performance management:

• Growth feedback - Provide guidance to help employees develop new skills or expand their responsibilities. For example, suggesting an employee shadow other roles or take on stretch assignments.

• Course correction feedback - Gently realign employee behavior or work products that have drifted off track from expectations.

• Effort feedback - Recognize extra time, energy, and care an employee puts into their work. Hard work and diligence should be acknowledged.

• Complimentary feedback - Praise an employee's collaborations with colleagues, mentoring, knowledge sharing, and other actions that build team cohesion.

• Values reinforcement - Reference how an employee's actions reflect important company values like integrity, excellence, respect, etc.

• Goal-setting feedback - Have periodic discussions about progress on goals and resetting objectives as needed.

• Self-assessment feedback - Incorporate feedback from the employee about their own perceived strengths and weaknesses.

• Forward-looking feedback - Provide insight to help employees prepare for future opportunities and challenges on the horizon.

Feedback Delivery: When Should Employee Feedback Be Given?

The optimal cadence and scenarios for delivering feedback will vary by company culture. The key is integrating it holistically rather than siloing feedback to yearly reviews. From small, immediate acknowledgments to more formal check-ins, the key is finding the balance.

Day-to-Day Interactions

Don't reserve feedback only for formal reviews. Look for opportunities to offer praise or constructive advice during regular interactions.

For example, compliment an employee's presentation skills after a meeting or email a new hire reinforcing their strong customer service. This real-time reinforcement sticks better than delayed feedback.

Team meetings — be they standup syncs, Slack chats, or scheduled gatherings — are also great moments to provide feedback. During your team's meetings, focus on engaging each member in conversation and providing actionable advice that can be implemented right away.

Project Completion

Do you find that the employee is constantly missing deadlines? Or, do they often exceed expectations for project completion?

Whatever the case may be, use this moment to give feedback. Explain how the employee should adjust their approach in order to meet goals or improve the quality of future work.

Goal Setting Discussions

Schedule regular performance check-ins with employees to review individual and team goals. This open dialogue gives you a chance to assess progress and provide guidance on what an employee can do differently moving forward.

Go beyond just discussing goals; engage employees in understanding why a goal is important. Clarifying objectives helps employees stay focused and motivated throughout the evaluation process.

Probationary Period Check-Ins

Have more frequent touchpoints with new hires during their first 3 months. Early feedback accelerates their growth and provides course correction if needed. Having a review process that offers honest feedback will lead to better retention and a successful onboarding experience.

Regular Performance Conversations

Organize consistent conversations with employees to review their work, align on objectives, and identify opportunities for development. Setting aside time for these regular reviews helps direct an employee’s performance and creates an environment of open communication between leaders and team members.

If an employee demonstrates a skills gap, values misalignment, or other problem, address it promptly through feedback. Nipping issues in the bud prevents bigger headaches down the road.

Preparing for Reviews

Provide informal feedback in the weeks leading up to formal mid-year or annual performance reviews. This eliminates surprise and sets the employee up to succeed. During one-on-one meetings, you can offer an open feedback channel that sets the stage for an honest dialogue.

Reviews are a great time for checking on employee satisfaction via employee engagement surveys. These standardized employee feel checks offer key insights into the employee experience and can help managers proactively address any potential issues.

Leadership Check-ins

Employee feedback shouldn’t be regulated to just frontline employees and their direct supervisors. Critical feedback across leadership can help to foster a culture of feedback that trickles down to the bottom line. Anonymous feedback channels can help encourage honest dialogue, and regular check-ins with employees can help create an atmosphere of trust and respect.

Managers should receive brief weekly or bi-weekly feedback from their own leaders focused on priorities, challenges, and team dynamics.

Periodic Surveys

Conduct anonymous pulse surveys every 1-2 months to gather broad feedback on what the team is doing well and areas for improvement. These are a great way to measure sentiment, identify key themes, and determine if any topics require further exploration. As a feedback loop, these surveys create an important connection between the top and bottom levels of the organization.

Times of Transition

Change management is a crucial element of high-performing teams, and internal communication plays a major role in the process. When roles change through promotion, reorganization or taking on new projects, discuss transitions through feedback on strengths to leverage in the new situation.

What is an example of good employee feedback?

So, know that you know why to offer feedback and when to engage, what are some positive employee feedback examples? Let’s look at a variety of positive behavior and constructive employee feedback examples that you can use to guide your own communication skills.

What are some examples of positive feedback?

Recognizing Achievement

"Great work hitting all your sales targets this quarter through sheer persistence and hustle. Your hard work is inspiring!"

"I'm thoroughly impressed with how you coordinated our corporate volunteer event. Feedback from employees has been overwhelmingly positive. You make our culture shine!"

Complimenting Skills

"You have a natural talent for explaining technical concepts in a way everyone can understand. Your presentation demystified a complex topic. Keep refining this skill."

"You never cease to amaze me with your graphic design capabilities. The infographics you created make the data truly come to life visually."

Appreciating Values

"I admire your commitment to transparency and integrity even when tackling difficult situations. You consistently model our values."

"You demonstrated incredible patience and understanding dealing with that angry customer. Thank you for preserving our reputation through your professionalism."

Recognizing Growth

"I've noticed a real improvement in how you collaborate cross-functionally the past few months. It's great to see you applying the feedback we've discussed."

"Your speaking skills during the town hall were excellent - poised, smooth pacing, good eye contact. Your hard work practicing presentations has paid off!"

Appreciating Teamwork

"Thank you for going above and beyond to help train our new team members. Your mentorship is invaluable and shows up in you and your team’s good work!”

"You always step up when others are in need without being asked. Your willingness to lend a hand makes our team stronger."

What are some examples of constructive feedback?

Improving Performance

"Let's collaborate to build your skills in analyzing customer data to drive even more insightful recommendations. This will boost satisfaction."

"Your presentations are clear and organized. One area to work on is speaking up and projecting more to have greater impact."

Developing Skills

"You have strong technical capabilities. To round out your skillset, let's work on building your emotional intelligence and mentorship abilities."

"As we expand overseas, improving your cross-cultural communication skills will help you better collaborate with global teams."

Managing Overused Strengths

"Your attention to detail is impressive. But sometimes, spending too much time perfecting a report means missing deadlines. Let's discuss balancing thoroughness with pace."

"You raise thoughtful objections during brainstorms. Make sure to balance critical thinking with openness so creativity still flows."

Improving Blindspots

"What if you took some time to focus on your leadership skills through a course? This could help you take your managerial ability to the next level!”

"You have a lot of product expertise but tend to get bogged down in details during client presentations. Work on tailoring your message to audience needs."

Aligning Values

"You have great relationships across teams, but some colleagues perceive your jokes as unprofessional. Let's refocus on our value of mutual respect."

"I know you want to support your team, but overriding policies that apply to everyone undermines our culture of fairness. Let's discuss in our next two-way meeting."

Building an employee feedback template for your processes

Want to start putting these employee feedback principles into practice? Start by creating an employee feedback template that outlines a standard structure for giving and receiving feedback. Your template should include:

• Opening statement to set the tone

• Areas of improvement

• Positive reinforcement

• Actionable steps for improvement

• Closing statement to emphasize points discussed

This way, employees have a clear understanding of what to expect when receiving feedback, and can track their progress over time as they work on areas identified. With this tool in place, managers have consistent language for delivering feedback and can foster open conversations with employees.

Consider building a method by which to track metrics once you have established a feedback process. For instance, you could gather employee sentiment data via surveys to measure the overall impact of your program and gauge employees’ experience with feedback sessions. This will enable you to make more strategic decisions on how best to improve your brand voice with each interaction.

Never Underestimate the Power of Quality Feedback

The key is to create an environment where team members feel comfortable sharing their opinions and offering constructive criticism. When everyone is on the same page about expectations and goals, it's much easier for teams to collectively work towards greater success while maintaining a cohesive culture.

Take the above tips and insights and start creating your own employee feedback mechanisms that take your organization to the next level. From improved team member morale to higher talent retention, you can’t afford not to focus on your brand voice. With the right approach and dedication, you’ll be well on your way to a stronger, more unified organization!