KEY POINTS:
Ever had a job where you had little idea of what the company was trying to achieve? You're not the only one.
"It can be so frustrating working in a place where you don't get proper feedback," says Christina (surname withheld), who works in Auckland's financial sector.
"I once worked in a business where it seemed as if the goalposts were moved constantly. I'm not even sure that my manager knew what he wanted. He certainly was not able to tell my colleagues or me or give us any direction," she says.
"Eventually I found the job to be so frustrating that I found something else with more structure and feedback. I'm someone who needs to know the direction the company I'm working for is headed - and what I am expected to achieve. It gives me a feeling of security and purpose. It helps me to know I am doing well."
If an employer feels that a staff member is failing in their tasks and is getting frustrated about that person's performance, it may be a good idea for that person to look at his or her own method of feedback and the way the employee is being directed, according to registered psychologist John Groom - one of the directors of the New Zealand Mentoring Centre.
Groom cites the example of his receptionist who, coming from China, was not used to the way business was done in New Zealand.
"At first I got very frustrated with her - but, really, she was doing as best as she could. So often failure in the workplace has little to do with the performer,"said Groom. "It's probable that the employer has not specified what is expected."
The way Groom got round his problems with his receptionist was to supply her with a checklist for booking people for appointments. This specified that she should get first names and family names, tell the person the cost structure, arrange the appointment and more. Once she had this checklist, she could tick it every time a call came in. This lowered the anxiety of both boss and employee and got that section of the business working effectively.
"It was a simple solution that helped enormously.
Groom defines feedback as effective recognition for the employee on the tasks he or she is doing and a way for the employer to direct the business well.
"Feedback needs to be both clear and timely," he says.
At a workshop he once attended the following example was given: "Imagine an archery target at the back of a wall that you can't see. That would not be effective - and that's what happens without proper feedback."
He says the best type of feedback are Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Wikepedia, the online encyclopaedia, says: "KPIs are used in business intelligence to assess the present state of the business and to prescribe a course of action. The act of monitoring KPIs in real-time is known as business activity monitoring. KPIs are frequently used to measure activities such as the benefits of leadership development, engagement, service, and satisfaction. KPIs are typically tied to an organisation's strategy (as exemplified through techniques such as the Balanced Scorecard)."
Groom says, "There is a need for individual KPIs. Psychologically it gives the employee a sense of purpose at work and it benefits the business too. KPIs inform the employees on what outcomes are required from their work, what is needed from them."
Groom suggests that a company should get an employee to evaluate himself. "Then the manager goes through a check list. If the manager has complaints, he should tie them to examples of where and when the employee failed.
"This feedback needs to be matter of fact and courteous. It's a way of clearly tracking an employee's pathway."
These evaluations should be ongoing, not simply tied to an annual performance review.
"There are ways to have a built in daily or weekly performance review. A check list could be an effective way of achieving this."
As far as informing the employees about where the business is going, Groom says on one hand people have the right to know what's going on and it helps them feel valued. However, when the news is not good - such as a speed wobble in the business or a cashflow problem, the staff could get anxious, feel insecure and start looking elsewhere for work.
"So it's difficult to know what's best to do in this situation. I would suggest it's taken on a case by case basis."
Groom suggests that fostering mentoring in a workplace means, "you are fostering careful and respectful feedback".
Peer mentoring is also effective as it gets peers into small groups and helps increase their competence and professionalism.
"Like quality control circles, it realises the whole quality of the business, It builds the corporate culture."
Stewart Forsyth, director of FX Consultants - specialists in productivity improvement, says: "In the abstract, feedback is information. It tells you how you are doing, and so guides you to do more useful things. There is good evidence at the individual level, and also in terms of how organisations perform, that feedback lifts performance."
Forsyth says the ideal appears to be:
* Agreed goals.
* Ongoing feedback: How you are doing as you work towards those goals.
* Formal feedback: How you did and what that means.
* Performance consequences: Career and financial rewards.
He stresses that practically, feedback seems to work best if it is framed as "opportunity for growth", rather than "you failed".
"Rather than telling, its usually better to ask the worker, 'What went well and what could have gone better?'. They then 'own' the suggestion for improvement. Use of skills such as 'probing' and 'building' can help nudge the individual who isn't seeing the whole picture towards greater accuracy, while still maintaining ownership."
He says it also helps to have good information systems so there is an objective basis to feedback. Ideally such information should meet the 'STAR' criteria - Specific, Timely, Accurate and Relevant.
Forsyth says feedback is important because it steers behaviour towards more useful performance and helps people to succeed.
"That's motivating," he says.
Also, having people "on-task" means less performance counselling by supervisors, which contributes to the bottom-line. It is frustrating for workers to be kept in the dark because "not being able to succeed in an area that we value is frustrating, then depressing," he says.
"An American study of executives found that stress resulted from work under-load, politics [meaning it's not what you know, or how you do, but who you know] and lack of career opportunities. In contrast to their harder-worked colleagues, these people were more likely to leave."
Forsyth suggests that businesses use valid measures for feedback.
"Use techniques that engage the staff member in a 'developmentally' oriented discussion. Set the challenges around setting tougher goals and higher standards."
He says it is important for staff to know what management is planning for the workplace because trust is an important part of organisational effectiveness.
"Trust in supervisors and managers translates into higher engagement and loyalty. Telling people what is going to happen minimises surprises, and the risk that people feel that their 'psychological contract' with the organisation [for example, I work hard, you provide me with career security] is being respected."
A company that is well known for its excellent feedback to employees is Vodafone. Vodafone HR director Neil Porteous says the company regards it as "very important that people have clarity about what's expected of them and that that ties in with the goals of the organisation".
The company has an annual "kick off session" that everyone attends.
It is here that everyone hears the goals of the company and what it's focusing on.
Every six months there are sessions looking at how the company is performing and what's the next plan.
Departmental plans are set out, and then individual's goals.
Employees have quarterly reviews with their managers to assess how they're performing in relation to their goals and where they need assistance.
But that's not all.
After the top-down approach, the company looks at things from down-top - where employees get to assess their managers and the way the feedback is being done gets assessed.
"It's all around KPIs - how you manage your team gives the manager scores," says Porteous.
Forsyth agrees that it's important to give positive as well as negative feedback.
"In simple terms you're trying to encourage 'capability' rather than just 'can do [this task]'. By rewarding people you encourage them to believe in their capability - which can lead to them taking on more and tougher assignments.
"By punishing them, they learn what they can't do - which tends to encourage them to stick to specific 'can do' tasks."
