Five Ways to Get Feedback from Your Employees

It doesn’t matter what kind of business you are in. If you have employees working under you, there is a balance you must strike. You need to be friendly enough with them to gain their trust, but you also need them to remember you are their boss.

You need to be comfortable giving feedback to them so they can improve and become better employees, but you also need to be comfortable getting feedback from them. It’s a two-way street. When you are open to staff feedback, you will gain information that you never had before. You will be able to see things from their point of view. Below are five ways to get feedback from your employees.

One-on-One Meetings

One of the most effective ways to get feedback from individual employees is to talk to them one-on-one. When you are curious what someone thinks about your leadership or if you want to know the answer to a specific question, it is often better to ask people in private. When you ask a staff member what they think, you should be ready for honest feedback. The best part about doing this in private is that other people won’t know what you said to each other. When you are looking for wider feedback, there are other ways to get it.

Host a Company Wide Meeting

When you need more extensive feedback, you should host a company-wide meeting. You can do this in person or over the internet. Hosting a meeting is a good way to get honest feedback without singling anyone out. You can also ask them questions using live polling software that enables you to get real-time feedback that you can discuss as a company. You can dive deeper into the issues by asking follow-up questions. Whatever you are looking for, if you need the whole company involved you should host a meeting based on these things.

Sequester Groups

Another thing you can do when you are looking for feedback is to ask a specific group of employees. When you have various teams that perform different tasks, you can get their feedback on specifics. You can also get expertise from people who do something better than you do. Sequestering groups is a great way to make a private panel for asking questions and seeing what people think of business operations and processes. When something is private but doesn’t need to be dealt with one-on-one, putting a group together is very helpful.

Build Trust with Team-Building Exercises

It’s also a good idea to build trust with your employees. If you are afraid that your staff isn’t telling you the truth about certain things, you should do everything you can to gain their trust. Whether you are concerned that they are lying to you, or you don’t know how much specific employees feel about you, it’s time to do team-building exercises. 

There are plenty of things you can do to strengthen your team atmosphere and trust, but if you put in the work you’ll have the chance to begin hearing the truth from employees who have withheld how they feel and what you can do better to make it a more comfortable work environment for them.

Keep Feedback Anonymous

Finally, a helpful aspect to any feedback is to keep it anonymous. When people know that you, and other upper management, won’t know who said what, you will be a lot more likely to get the feedback that you’ve been looking for. Feedback is touchy. No one wants to offend you and a lot of people are afraid that they will get fired for saying the wrong thing. When you emphasize anonymous feedback, you will have the chance to hear what people actually think and feel.

Getting feedback from your staff is just as important as giving feedback to them. It’s a two-way street that should be acknowledged and utilized. This feedback is very valuable to you. When you put in the effort to get what you need from employees as far as how they perceive the business and management, you will be able to move forward and create a comprehensive company culture that is both pleasant and productive. Don’t be afraid of feedback! It will really help you.