How to obtain feedback from your employees

Many employees enjoy being at work knowing that they have the respect of their manager and co-workers. They also like to be compensated fairly, have good benefits and job security. They take pride in their work, have good productivity and get along with their co-workers when management offers ways for them to express their thoughts openly through personal meetings and anonymously with surveys and suggestion boxes.

As a supervisor or a manager of a small or big department of working people, it is your job to make sure that each employee stays focused on the job and getting his work done on time. You want to ensure that everyone working under your management has what it takes to contribute to the success of the company.

How can you obtain feedback from your employees concerning their jobs? You can have small meetings with them asking how things are going and if there is anything you can do to improve or to solve the situations facing them. Be open with them. Show your employees that you are interested in their work and that you are there to help if they need you. This is a great way to build trust.

Good communication is also an important management skill to have. Most managers must offer ways to constantly stay in contact and tuned in with their employees. A regular employee meeting is necessary to acknowledge the employees’ overall performance without discouraging or upsetting them. Most employees accept and welcome feedback for improvement if they know management is continually helping them work on it and is somewhat pleased with their overall effort. It is not necessary to wait for the annual review to call an employee into your office to talk about what he did wrong or to praise him on something good he achieves.

If you need to talk to an employee, it is a great opportunity to call him in the office. Say what you have in mind. He won’t mind receiving appropriate criticism. He likes to know when you think he’s not performing well so he can improve or at least have a discussion with you about it. Don’t forget to also give good and positive feedback. You want to build up self-confidence and continually see improvement among your employees. Try to be specific in your comments if there are issues that need to be addressed. Listen to employees’ comments, views or opinions to improve or to avoid problems. Their experiences and observations in their field of work can help you in determining how you can be the most helpful.

An Employee looks forward to a personal review where a meaningful feedback on his overall performance is given. He cares to be recognized on specific accomplishments. He likes to show goals he has achieved and the ones he made for himself for the upcoming months. This is a great opportunity for both parties to exchange feedback.

Another way to get a feedback on how well the company or the employee is performing is to create a company website where employees can take a survey online and be anonymous. The survey will have questions such as:

• How well the company is doing for the last five years?


• How do you describe your performance with the company?


• Do you think you are well compensated for what you do in the company?


• What changes would you want to see happening for the next few months?

Sometimes, having a suggestion box close to your employees’ work stations can help you get feedback. It allows the employee to fill out a card anonymously about suggestions or ideas he may have. This way he doesn’t have to fear being fired but can hope that management will read them and will act upon if they think it’s a good suggestion.

Companies and managers that offer full and open communication with their employees will help them do their jobs well and will see great respect among each other. You must ask for feedback from your employees because you care about their opinions, views and suggestions to improve overall performance.

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Tags: employees feedback performance suggestion boxes online surveys employee meetings management manager supervisor meetings communication