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Feedback

Effective and timely feedback is an important component in career development and performance improvement. Feedback given to employees about their accomplishments related to achieving their goals helps them improve performance. Employees should be made aware of what they are doing, how they are doing, what is working, and what is not working, all of which can help employees work toward improving their performance. Feedback can come from different sources, such as managers, peers, and measurement systems. Notifying employees of performance expectations and setting goals prior to beginning work are key elements for setting objectives and providing feedback. Telling employees they have exceeded expectations is more effective than saying simply that they are “doing a good job.” Negative feedback provided early will give employees more time to correct their problems. Early positive feedback will be more rewarding to them. Feedback should be positive whenever possible, and should include accuracy, facts, and completeness. Feedback can come to employees via different modes, such as certificates, rewards, and oral recognition. Organizational environments are “feedback rich:” they stress continuous improvement, promote risk-taking, and afford opportunities to learn from the successes and failures of decisions (Cascio, 2005). All employees get equal opportunity to dispute, to aid in providing solutions, and to be involved in impact planning for improvements.

Factors to Improve Performance Levels

Performance levels of employees can be enhanced by teaching them how to do their jobs rather than telling them what to do, educating employees (in detail) about expectations, and by laying out how they can fulfill them. Various factors, which should be considered in the process of reviewing performance, are listening, respecting, keeping a positive attitude, motivating, involvement, relaying realistic goals, and maintaining flexibility.