However, members of generations X and Y have an explicit need to receive feedback as quickly as possible. In their private lives, they can get this by getting likes on social networking sites, but at work it's often not so easy. But here too, they constantly need feedback on their performance as soon as possible. But if this is missing from the culture, it is easy for them to leave within a short time. Of course, this does not mean that older people do not want feedback, they have just been socialised in different circumstances and are not as vocal about it.
The power of positive feedback
If we think about human development from infancy onwards, we can see the importance of positive external feedback in our development. Babies place themselves in the world primarily by relying on parental responses to their actions. For example, a happy parent's response to her smile is a positive reinforcement that encourages her to continue this behaviour.
To put it simply, it's no different for adult humans. During socialisation, our need for intimacy is transformed following the separation from our mother and we expect our social relationships to recognise our presence, acknowledge us, our actions. Of course, this desire for feedback is also present in our workplace relationships, and is even a priority.
We are all working towards something, and these goals are usually important to the whole community in our workplace. That is why very relevantto know that our efforts are recognised by those around us.
From whom do we expect confirmation?
We deliberately do not focus on the need for feedback only in the manager-subordinate relationship, because the same has an important role to play in everyday interactions between colleagues. In most companies, employees spend a significant amount of time not with their supervisors, but with their immediate colleaguesthey spend with. And because of the psychological background detailed above, it is from these people that they look for constant reassurance that what they are doing is good. In the absence of this, they become insecure, lose self-confidence and their work becomes less effective.
It is clear that as a leader we need to ensure that the institution of feedback is present from the ground up, should be an integral part of corporate culture. Inspire our employees to recognise and acknowledge each other's achievements. If we achieve this, we will notice that the team is self-motivated to work by all its members, without us as managers having to pay attention to this on a daily basis.
Of course, we should not neglect management assessments either. These two things do not replace but complement each other, increasing the effectiveness of feedback exponentially.
Objective assessment
It is up to the task to decide which form of feedback works. For controlled, repetitive tasks, objective evaluation may work, but for more complex work requiring human problem solving, subjective feedback that is not entirely free of emotion is inevitable.
It's important to work with clearly defined and achievable goals, which are as challenging as possible for employees. However, small, repetitive tasks can easily become tedious for staff. In this case gamification is an excellent solution. In gamified systems, participants receive immediate feedback on every step they take, and have a continuous view of their progress and the distance to reach their goal. These feedbacks and the potential rewards increase commitment to the goals set and to the community as a whole. The simplest feedback tool is a points collection system, whether it is a chain store points collection campaign or a gamified feedback system at work.
Gamification is the application of the typical elements of games (e.g. scoring points, competing with others, game rules) to other areas. Typically used as an online marketing tool to encourage engagement with a product or service.
Personal assessment
In complex tasks, where problem solving depends on human factors, we are not able to evaluate purely on objective criteria. We necessarily base our feedback on our emotions and past experiences. But this is not necessarily a problem! The best thing we can do as leaders is to honestly share our feelings, give open reactions. This way we can share with our colleague how we have been affected by his work and appreciate what he has achieved.
As we ourselves often find it difficult to express ourselves in these situations, it is even harder to motivate our staff to make personal feedback part of their everyday lives.
Personal feedback in everyday life
We believe that gamification can also be used to create a culture of personal feedback. Let's just stick to a simple example, the collection of points. Imagine a platform where employees can give each other instant positive feedback while rewarding each other with points.
Such a system has many advantages:
- the employee can make sure that his/her efforts are recognised and appreciated by his/her colleagues
- see the results of their work on an ongoing basis
- the prospect of redeemable rewards increases commitment to the job
- increases the amount of interaction between colleagues
- encourages employees to send positive reinforcement to each other, thus collectively increasing team motivation...
... and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
