Critical Feedback is Beneficial for Everyone

Getting chastised at work is hardly ever fun, and being the person delivering the criticism is rarely a good time, either. Really, it’s an awkward encounter for both parties. Depending on the business or how your office is run, the first time you get feedback about your performance might also be the last, as some businesses and managers simply don’t do a great job managing their employees.

However, on the other hand, regular critical feedback can be a crucial part of developing confident employees who understand their role and how they can improve. Whether you simply set aside time to speak with your employees regularly or you have a company-wide evaluation program, feedback is beneficial for you, your workers, and your customers.

Feedback versus criticism

When you criticize an employee out of the blue, the reaction is almost always negative. Even if the criticism is valid and warranted, they will typically have hurt feelings. This type of informal, somewhat confrontational evaluation will likely only hurt their productivity. The reasoning is simple; when an employee feels their work has been unnecessarily criticized, they’re either going to get mad and detach from the job, or they’ll feel insecure and make mistakes because they’re nervous. Either way, it’s bad for you and them.

Having a planned sit-down establishes that they’re being observed from day 1. They know that the evaluation is planned, it sticks in their mind and it, hopefully, shouldn’t cause an undue mental burden. Getting called into your boss’s office to discuss performance is a lot less frightening when you know about it well in advance.

Establishing annual performance evaluations

Performance evaluations are a powerful tool to keep your organization running smoothly and your employees working at peak efficiency, but there are additional benefits to this process as well.

First, to accurately evaluate your staff, you need a baseline of expectations based on their job description, and if you don’t have one on paper, this is the impetus to get that done.

Annual performance evaluations also allow you to monitor what each person in your office is doing but also how workloads are allocated. For instance, if you have an employee that isn’t doing great at a specific aspect of their job, the traditional supervisor methodology might have you punish that person for underperforming. If you’re regularly evaluating them, however, you might find the troublesome aspect of their job doesn’t fit the rest of their duties. You can allocate it to someone else and make your office run more smoothly.

It’s also worth noting that, in addition to annual evaluations, feedback is beneficial at the 3 and 6-month marks as well. This helps you correct problems early on and address any issues before they become job-ending.

Functional feedback is better than callous criticism

A bad supervisor will only criticize without offering a solution or assistance, but a good boss will, when discovering faults, help correct and nurture proper growth. By establishing a regular method of evaluating your employees, your business runs better and your staff is more empowered to make quality choices and perform at their best.