The manager's guide to meaningful ongoing employee feedback
Most managers only prioritize feedback once or twice a year during the formal performance review season that their company requires.
Today, we're going to cover what you need to make feedback an ongoing and meaningful part of your relationship with your employees to drive performance, engagement, and trust across your team.
Why is ongoing feedback important?
A recent Gallup study in 2024 found that80% of employees who say they have received meaningful feedback in the past week are fully engaged.
This is important because Gallup shares that engaged employees are more likely to:
take initiative and go beyond what's expected of them
stay with their company longer
deliver better customer outcomes
collaborate effectively with others
show resilience under stress or change
Who wouldn't want their employees to exhibit all of these behaviors?
There are two important pieces to call out in the stat above that makes a big difference: the timing and quality of feedback.
Timing: receiving meaningful feedback in the past week shows that this is preferably happening each week.
Quality: receiving meaningful feedback specifies that the feedback needs to be high-quality, which I define as specific, objective, and actionable.
What do I need in order to provide meaningful feedback?
There are a few obvious pieces needed in order to be able to provide meaningful feedback that often go overlooked by teams and leaders: clear expectations and an ability to measure those expectations. I've found too many times this part goes unspoken or is just assumed to be understood by both parties, when in reality, it needs to be as explicit and clear as possible, and preferably in writing that everyone can refer back to in the future.
Clear expectations for each person on your team:
What are their day-to-day responsibilities in their role?
What are the annual goals they're responsible for?
What does meeting, exceeding, and not meeting these expectations look like?
An ability to measure their expectations, objectively:
How will we measure their progress against the expectations above?
How often will we measure it?
How will we know what's working and what's not working?
As the leader you need to mindful to keep your feedback objective, as in, measurable and un-biased. It can't be based on your preferences, opinions, or judgments. In other words, don't punish people for doing things differently than you would have if it's meeting the requirements or getting to the same end goal.
What's the balance of positive and constructive feedback to provide?
It's also important to note that feedback includes both positive (recognition) and negative (constructive) feedback.
Research has shown that we need to be mindful with our ratio of positive to negative feedback (Forbes):
Highest-performing teams had a ratio of between 5:1 and 6:1
Medium-performing teams averaged around 2:1
Low-performing teams were at 1:3 (more negative interactions than positive ones)
You might think that you're always giving positive recognition, but I want you to really reflect on this to see where you land. Maybe keep track of it for the next week for each person on your time and tally how much positive vs. negative feedback you're giving.
Remember that broad statements like "great job" don't count as positive recognition. They need to be meaningful (specific, objective, and actionable) so add more details like "You did a great job on the presentation today, I could tell how prepared you were and the slides were so easy to follow."
What does ongoing feedback look like?
There are several avenues you'll want to consider for providing feedback regularly, I'd recommend using each of these in varying degrees depending on your employees' preferences.
Weekly one-on-ones
Recognition: Make positive recognition a part of every single one-on-one you have with each team member. This will help keep morale and engagement up as long as it seems genuine and not forced.
Constructive: These meetings are a perfect time to address any feedback you have about gaps in their day-to-day work in order to help them stay on track with their goals and development. Be cautious that this isn't the only thing you're focused on during your time together though, it can quickly turn into micromanaging.
Team meetings
Recognition: Public recognition can go a long way with employee ownership, morale, and engagement. Be cautious that employees may have varying levels of preferences here for being acknowledged publicly, especially if it's a large meeting. Some people love the public recognition, some people hate it, so make sure you know each of your team member's preferences here.
Constructive: This will vary so much depending on the trust levels established on your team. Trusting teams can have constructive conversations in a group setting in order to hold each other accountable and create the best possible deliverable or solution. If your team isn't at that level yet, it can be detrimental and erode trust. Work your way up slowly, or when in doubt, make it a private conversation instead.
Email and Slack messages
Recognition: Again, remember to push yourself to say more than just "great job, thanks!" or responding with a reaction emoji every time. Share a specific detail about their work or skill they brought that you appreciate.
Constructive: Be careful with constructive feedback over email or slack since tone and context can quickly get lost in translation. If you use this platform, make sure the feedback is specific, objective (so it can't be misconstrued), and actionable and that the person is expecting or prepared for it.
As needed
Recognition: Always be on the lookout for opportunities where you can provide specific and meaningful recognition for a job well done in the moment. It can be immediately after a meeting they presented in, or after they handled a difficult conversation with a client, or after they shared a new idea with you.
Constructive: There are a few times where constructive feedback needs to be addressed in the moment or immediately after the situation or meeting. If any employee is being disrespectful or crossing a line with someone else, you need to address that immediately. You also may want to address smaller pieces of constructive feedback in the moment or right after, so the person can fine-tune their skills throughout the year and not wait until formal review processes to learn about these opportunities.
Want a one-page cheat sheet for your next tough (or celebratory) conversation? Download How to Give Feedback to Your Team Members for free. Grab it here.
Brittany Canaski is a highly-rated Leadership Coach, Trainer, and Founder of Hello Velocity where she builds confident leaders and high-performing teams. When she's not building her business, you can find her planning her next travel adventure with her husband, watching Formula 1 racing, or volunteering in her local community of Charlotte, NC.
