How Feedback Loops Foster Continuous Engagement

Feedback plays various important roles in an organization - from increasing employee engagement to promoting a culture of continuous improvement. Although feedback in its own right is useful, it is pivotal for organizations to take action from the feedback that they receive and close the feedback loop by communicating improvements or changes back to employees. By doing this, organizations ensure continuous engagement through open communication, empowering employees to use their voices and bringing a sense of focus and alignment.

‍

What are employee feedback loops?

‍
Employee feedback loops refer to the process of collecting and analyzing feedback from employees, implementing necessary changes according to the feedback received, communicating back to employees on changes or results and requesting further feedback.  

This is the usual employee feedback loop process:
‍

1. Gather/obtain feedback from employees
2. Analyze the feedback from employees
3. Implement changes where necessary
4. Communicate changes/results to employees to obtain further feedback

‍

The importance of feedback within an organization

‍
Employee feedback is crucial in any organization as it has the potential to increase employee performance, satisfaction, productivity, teamwork and lastly, foster a culture of connection and belonging, all of which contribute to increased profitability. In addition to this, obtaining frequent feedback from employees enables managers to keep performance steered in the right direction, which improves overall workplace efficiency. As for employees, receiving feedback on their performance and being acknowledged and recognized for their work, brings them a feeling of satisfaction and value, having a significant effect on employee engagement.

‍

Implementing feedback loops

Define clear objectives
Before implementing a feedback mechanism in your organization, you need to have a clear understanding of what you’re trying to achieve and ensure that the feedback process aligns with your company values. This will encourage an environment of open communication and support from your employees.

Promote transparency and open communication
In order to receive valuable feedback from your employees, you need to ensure that they feel comfortable enough with sharing their honest views and opinions. It is therefore important to create a safe environment for employees, which can be achieved through leadership sharing how their feedback will be used and valued in the organization.

Respect employee identity when appropriate
To get a good understanding of general employee sentiment, you can conduct regular anonymous pulse surveys that cover a variety of topics or issues in the organization. If you want to receive feedback on sensitive topics, it is advisable to opt for anonymous surveys, in order to protect employee identity and confidentiality, which can also result in more honest feedback.

Act swiftly
Once you have received the feedback, make sure to be prompt when it comes to acting on it. You should swiftly create action plans based on the feedback that you receive and communicate these plans to your team members to ensure they understand that their opinions and insights are valued and important to the organization. After you have implemented changes, you should close the feedback loop by communicating with employees on the progress and results of the changes from their feedback.

‍

Top feedback tools & technology

‍

There are many software tools and technology systems that automate and enhance the feedback loop process. Depending on what type of feedback you’re wanting to obtain from your employees, there are certain tools that you can use to streamline the process.

Here are some examples:

Qualee
Qualee offers a seamless employee experience platform that prioritizes employee feedback through pulse surveys and eNPS surveys. Feedback is received in real-time, allowing you to act immediately. Customize your feedback surveys to ensure alignment with your company goals and values. In addition, Qualee’s AI capabilities provide an extra advantage and help you detect improvement areas.

Pricing: $

SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey is a useful tool for creating and sending surveys, although it is
limited in the sense of it only offering templates and analytics on employee
feedback.

Pricing: $$

CultureAmp
CultureAmp offers a range of customizable survey templates. CultureAmp also offers insights and recommendations on the feedback received.

Pricing: $$$

Workleap Officevibe
Workleap Officevibe offers employee engagement surveys with real-time insights. Workleap Officevibe helps managers improve team dynamics and increase workplace culture.

Pricing: $$

Lattice
Lattice can be used for performance management, goal setting and continuous feedback. You can track progress with Lattice and ensure that individual objectives are aligned with the goals of the organization.

Pricing: $$$

‍

Periodic vs real-time feedback

‍

Both periodic and real-time feedback are useful in understanding overall employee sentiment. There are benefits to both types of feedback, and when used together, they complement each other.

The benefits of periodic feedback include:
‍

• A holistic understanding for a specific time frame
• Ability to identify long-term career opportunities
• Identify strengths and weaknesses over a set period of time

The benefits of real-time feedback include:
‍

• Ability to be responsive
• Increased employee engagement
• The ability to make data-driven decisions

By making use of both periodic and real-time feedback, your organization will have a structured, reflective understanding of employee performance from periodic reviews and good insight into immediate issues whilst keeping employees engaged. By incorporating both types of feedback, you’re able to follow a balanced approach, enabling both short and long-term success.

‍

The benefits of feedback on employee engagement

• Encourages transparency and open communication
• Enables employees to be recognized and rewarded
• Empowers employees and gives them a voice
• Promotes a culture of continuous learning and development
• Brings a sense of focus and alignment
• Promotes employee wellbeing by addressing issues as they arise

‍

Tracking improvements from feedback

‍

There are multiple ways that feedback impacts an organization. From improving employee engagement to monitoring performance or retention rates, by regularly obtaining feedback from employees, you’ll be able to track improvements in your organization.

Here are a few metrics to monitor and track improvement:
‍

• Employee Engagement
  • eNPS scores
  • Participation rate
• Improvement
  • KPI’s - i.e.  productivity rate, sales performance
  • Error rates
• Response Time
  • Time to address
  • Time to resolve
• Employee Turnover
  • Exit interview insights
  • Retention rate

Conclusion

‍
In conclusion, feedback loops are crucial to business success. Whether you’re using periodic feedback loops to gain a holistic understanding of your organization, real-time feedback to address immediate issues and needs or following a balanced approach and making use of both types of feedback, there are multiple benefits. Feedback loops foster employee engagement by giving employees a voice, prioritizing transparency and open communication and promoting a culture of continuous learning and development. In essence, organizations can use feedback loops to get a better understanding of their organization and track improvements over time to ensure progression and organizational success.

‍