How to improve culture with real-time feedback?

Real-time feedback is essential to every organization and individual in order to grow. It seems, though, that some organizations are stuck with annual feedback. This means employees only receive feedback on their work once a year in an official meeting. In order for them to really improve and thrive, employees need more than that.

Real-time VS annual feedback

The workplace has changed a lot and companies need to adapt. This is why still only providing your employees with annual feedback may not work anymore. Nowadays employees want more. Annual feedback is now old-fashioned and doesn't give employees what they need in order to perform. Receiving feedback on your work at the end of each year means you can only try to improve once a year. This decreases productivity. Nowadays employees want to know what they can do better and want to find out how they can improve. Annual feedback doesn't help ambitious employees to reach their goals.

Continuous feedback is all about giving and asking for both positive and negative feedback when it is needed. Employees then receive feedback from their managers and colleagues at the right time. There is no need for an official meeting planned weeks in advance in order to give or receive insight. This helps to improve the company's performance and makes employees more engaged. They feel like their opinions matter. Real-time feedback is all about helping each other to perform better and all working towards the same goal: the company's success.

How to implement feedback in your culture?

In order to implement feedback, your organization needs to be welcoming and accepting of everybody's different insights. In fact, to implement feedback in your culture, you need to encourage everyone to share their perspectives on the things that are happening. Encouraging employees to give feedback to their colleagues and managers will provide the organization with multiple points of view. Implementing feedback is making sure that you get insights from every level of the organization and that every person feels safe doing so. The last thing you want is for people to feel scared to share their opinions with their peers and managers.

Showing openness to all and demonstrating that you need your employees' feedback will make a big difference. The organization should be the first to share in order for employees to follow. Implementing pulse surveys can also be a great way to get your employees' feedback regularly. You can make your pulse surveys anonymous. This assures that no employees will hold back their thoughts because they are scared of their managers' reactions. In the end, showing your employees that you need their insights and that it can greatly help the company is important. It will encourage them to share even more.

What can real-time feedback do for your organizational culture?

Real-time feedback is all about giving your employees a voice and listening to them. It makes employees feel like they matter and that what they have to say is important. It is also great for the work environment and can engage employees even more. Everyone has a more open attitude towards each other and great work relationships can come out of this. Continuous feedback helps to create an environment where everyone feels like they are making a difference. It provides the company with different perspectives on things which can then help to make better and more informed decisions.

On top of that, it can help the company to move forward faster with solutions. In fact, companies receive real-time insights about present problems. This makes it possible for a company to start developing a solution as soon as employees start bringing up a problem. This will make employees feel listened to and again it will make them feel like their voice matters.

Real-time feedback can also implement a learning culture in your organization. In fact, when you are constantly receiving feedback you are in a constant state of learning. The whole organization is in a new state of mind and everyone is looking for ways to improve and help others to improve. Great results can come out of this.

Continuous feedback is becoming crucial with the workforce of today. Engaging employees is more and more important and finding ways to do so can be difficult. Allowing your employees to give their peers and the organization real-time feedback is a great way to keep them engaged. As long as you return the favor and give them feedback as well, your company's culture will greatly benefit from real-time feedback.

 From today onwards misaligned teams and isolated employees can unleash actionable feedback, with the help of Tap My Back.