101: Soliciting employee feedback
A heated exit interview is not the ideal way to find out what is on your employees’ minds. It’s also too late to make changes to have kept a valued team member on board. It’s important to solicit honest feedback. Employees should see changes made in response to some of that input. Here are some things to keep in mind regarding employee feedback.
Notice non-verbal cues. Ron Carucci at Harvard Business Review said there are employees who may withhold verbal comments. But managers can learn how to read cues – if an employee avoids eye contact, for instance, or if a normal even-keeled employee gets a defensive tone. “One leader I worked with did this masterfully,” he writes. “When moods or countenance took a sudden shift, he would say something like, ‘Tell me how I should interpret your silence.’”
Ask three questions. “What are you getting from me that you want more of? What are you getting from me that you want less of? What are you not getting from me that you want?” Asking employees those queries ensures a well-rounded perspective on their views, according to David Taylor-Klaus of DTK Coaching of Atlanta. He tells Forbes.com a second conversation is needed, where managers repeat back what they heard from the employee and map out how to address the concerns.
Consider a flow chart, a replacement to the outdated suggestion box and a feedback method used by marketing agency Quirk, according to Andrew Lavoie of Entrepreneur.com. “The anonymous aspect of the stereotypical suggestion box encourages employees to give their two cents because there’s no fear of retribution. But that fear shouldn’t be present if a company has successfully developed a culture based on open communication,” he writes. “Employees should feel empowered and realize they have a stake in the success (or lack thereof) of the organization.”
WBJ Web Partners
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