Feedback

Feedback has become an essential tool for any company, regardless of its industry or size. Thanks to this process, companies have the necessary information to make decisions.

It is a very useful and strategic tool for Human Resources, providing them with valuable data for people analytics. 

In addition to providing valuable information for organizational goals, feedback fosters a positive work climate and collaborative work environment. It is also essential for goal setting.

In addition, feedback helps identify areas for improvement and opportunities for growth at both the individual and collective levels. Human resources departments can use this information to create customized training and development programs. These programs will help employees reach their full potential.

Another benefit of feedback is that it promotes open and transparent communication within the organization. By encouraging ongoing feedback, effective channels of communication are created between different levels of hierarchy. This facilitates conflict resolution, team collaboration, and goal alignment.

For feedback to be effective, it is important that it is given in a constructive and respectful manner. Managers and supervisors should be clear in their comments, highlighting positive aspects and offering suggestions for improvement in an objective manner. It is also important to establish regular times for giving and receiving feedback so that it becomes a regular practice in the organization.

What is feedback?

Feedback is a process that provides people with constructive information about their performance or work. It involves sharing observations and suggestions that help employees improve their skills and grow professionally.

As part of a performance review, an individual receives information about his or her performance, skills, behaviors, and achievements from different people in different roles and from different perspectives.

Feedback, both positive and negative, helps employees identify areas for improvement and strengths. This requires reviewers to be objective and constructive in their performance reviews.

What are the levels of feedback?

Anyone can be evaluated by others with whom they frequently work:

90º 

The 90° feedback is provided by the evaluatee's manager.

180º

In this methodology, the feedback is in the hands of the manager and peers of the person being evaluated.

270º

In addition to the manager and peers, the subordinates in this case evaluate their manager in the 270º feedback. 270º and 360º

360º

360º feedback is the most complete and objective because it includes the opinion of all roles: manager, peers, employees and customers (internal or external).

How does feedback help a team?

The benefits of feedback are many, but here are the top five:

Diversity of perspectives

Feedback, especially 360-degree feedback, promotes diversity of perspective by coming from multiple viewpoints. The more roles that assess an employee's performance, the more accurate and objective the results and conclusions will be.

Improves self-awareness

Feedback allows the employee to gain greater self-awareness. The person being evaluated receives a report on his or her strengths and weaknesses. He or she is also shown how he or she behaves in certain situations and how others perceive him or her. In addition, the inclusion of self-assessment in the process allows the employee to reflect on his or her approach and compare it with that of other reviewers.

Reduces turnover

Feedback improves communication and encourages participation - who wouldn't want to be in an organization where information flows? Employees who feel heard and valued will stay longer!

Creates an open culture

Feedback also promotes transparency and collaboration among colleagues. This openness builds trust and encourages all team members to be more productive and cohesive. 

Identifies development opportunities

Most employees want to grow professionally, but do not know how to do it. It is necessary to identify opportunities for improvement and professional development, and this can only be done through performance reviews and subsequent feedback.

By understanding the skills and limitations of each team member, managers and employees can create an action plan. This plan will make the most of talent, encourage continuous learning, and prepare the evaluatee for future internal promotions.

What types of feedback are there?

There are different types of feedback and one or the other can be used depending on the needs of each team:

Positive feedback

Positive feedback focuses on an employee's or team's strengths, talents, and accomplishments. This fosters a culture of improvement and communication where team members know what they are doing well and should continue to do so. 

Using an employee's strengths to provide positive feedback is a much more effective approach than focusing solely on weaknesses. 

Psychologist Marcial Losada studied the ratio of positive to negative feedback in high-performing teams. He found that the ratio was six positive comments for every negative one. In addition, positive feedback stimulates the brain's production of oxytocin, the hormone of happiness.

Negative feedback

Negative feedback is an important part of learning and growth, focusing on areas where an employee or team needs to improve. In an organizational culture where mistakes are accepted and constructive communication is encouraged, trust is required. This trust is necessary to talk about weaknesses and what needs to be improved or changed.

MIMO feedback

The MIMO (Mantener, Incorporar, Mejorar y Omitir) method consists of providing feedback that adds value to the recipient and allows them to improve. It consists of:

· (Mantener) Maintain the policies and procedures that create value: What did you like best?  

· (Incorporar) Include behaviors or actions that were not present: Is there anything you want to add?

· (Mejorar) Improve these attitudes or behaviors: How could you improve? 

· (Omitir) Omit those guidelines that did not add value to achieving the expected result: Do you think anything could be omitted?

This way, useful and truthful information is obtained without damaging the motivation of the person being evaluated.

Feedback Sandwich

The term was coined by Marshall Goldsmith. A feedback sandwich is a popular three-step process that helps deal with negative comments. The manager or person giving the feedback places constructive or negative criticism between two positive comments. This is called the sandwich method because these two positive comments precede and follow the criticism.

Here are the steps I usually follow with these types of comments:

· State what they are doing well. Give positive feedback.

· Communicate what they need to improve. Constructive Criticism

· Emphasize the positive aspects of their overall performance. Express gratitude.

In summary, feedback is an essential tool for organizational growth and development. It provides valuable information, encourages communication, and contributes to the well-being of employees. Therefore, it is critical that organizations integrate it into their culture and use it effectively to drive long-term success.