Most managers have experienced the frustration of coaching, counseling, and providing feedback to an employee who needs to improve their performance yet who ignores feedback.  The result is no change in performance, and if the performance deficit is serious enough the employee may lose their job.  The cost to the organization, and the manager, is the high cost of turnover.  The cost to the employee is all the negative consequences of losing their job.

The authors of this study reviewed results from over 7,000 instances where feedback was given to improve performance.  They found that the following factors need to be present for feedback to have it’s desired effect:

1. Feedback must indicate that change is necessary
2. The employee must see that there is a need to change their behavior
3. The employees must have a positive orientation to receiving feedback
4. The employee must react positively to the feedback
5. The employee must believe that change is feasible
6. The employee must set appropriate goals to regulate their behavior
7. The employee must take actions that lead to skill and performance improvement.

Feedback in and of itself is not enough.  The manager needs to prepare the employee to receive feedback and to engage the employee in the behavior change process.  The payoff for this process is improved employee performance.

What are you and your organization doing to assure that employees are prepared to receive feedback?

Peter Scontrino

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