Feedback - The Key to Employee Engagement

The real key to engagement, emotional intelligence, is understanding how to communicate according to the behavioral style of the person you are talking to. It is important that feedback becomes the mainstay of any communication within an organization. It is a two-way dialog that is the responsibility of both the manager and the employee to provide feedback in a timely manner that can support the company in this highly competitive world. Proper feedback can provide enhancements in policy and procedure, quality assurance, rapid responses to customer needs, and much more.

Here are a few guidelines for proper feedback:

The Battle Cry for Employee Engagement

I had read an article written by Chris and Mel Wildermuth, titled the 10 M’s of Employee Engagement (Training and Development, January 2008). The subtitle noted that Workplace Learning and Performance Professionals need to be engagement champions. The article demonstrated 10 M’s of engagement to help create engagement-friendly organizations. It appears that consultants and the management experts have turned this engagement crisis into a movement and should be uttering a battle cry much like “Remember the Alamo”. It seems we are losing the battle of employee engagement and have the American worker is now totally apathetic in their jobs. Also, it appears that we are fighting for our lives to keep engagement strongly entrenched as a core value of any company or organization. It is now our responsibility to make sure that our employees, leaders, and customers are engaged. But wait, hasn’t that been our responsibility for decades?

Whose responsibility is it to do that? Is it the Human Relations or Resources Manager responsibility? OR is it the CEO and the senior executive team that should do that? Like the article noted in the previous paragraph, it starts with an “M” or “MM”, which of course stands for manager or middle manager. The most critical ingredient for employee engagement is the front-line manager. It has been reported that a 5% increase in employee engagement results in a 2.5% increase in growth. In this era of “do more with less”, the employee who freely gives that extra effort if most valued by their manager.

It’s time for HR Professionals to march directly into the C-Suite and state that they need to train and develop their front-line managers and tell them that these people are the most important component of our plan for sustained growth. We must get our managers to connect the dots between strategy, culture, performance, and motivation. These front-line managers are the future leaders of the company and they will make the difference in the future of the company.

We have to allow our front line managers to:

• Be responsible for employee development and talent management


• Be able to challenge the employee’s abilities and teach them the skills to expand their strengths


• Be able to communicate openly providing clarification for the employee


• Be goal-oriented and provide focus on their contribution to the overall success of the organization by coupling the outcome to the strategy

The skills and competencies of the front-line manager will provide the sustained growth and innovation need in this highly competitive marketplace. Communication, forward thinking, prioritization, and other skills must be learned and applied in the workplace by managers if we can expect to improve employee engagement. Employees need a manager who is willing to provide an “open” communication platform that includes feedback in a timely fashion, candid discussion on performance and appropriate behavior, a willingness to clarify expectations and use metrics to measure results, and to include the employee in the awareness and planning stages for the company’s vision.

We have to get away from telling the employee what they have to do, but why the company’s success is so dependent on them performing at the highest level of commitment. Train and motivate the manager, and the employee will be part of the team.

Join us May 19 12-1pm for a Lunch N Learn on Employee Motivation. Registration is free and we provide lunch. More Info.

All Employees Should Use Feedback to Create a Better Workplace

by Richard Hohmann, Senior Consultant and Vice President of Innovative Leadership

Everyone is talking about employee engagement. Everyone is trying to make every employee “emotionally well-rounded”. The real key to engagement, emotional intelligence, or whatever is the communication that is the result of your understanding of yourself and the behavioral style of the person you are trying to talk to. It is important that feedback becomes the mainstay of any communication within an organization. Communication is a two-way dialog that is the responsibility of both the manager and the employee to provide feedback in a timely manner that can support the company in this highly competitive world. Proper feedback can provide enhancements in policy and procedure, quality assurance, rapid responses to customer needs, and much…much more.

Everyone within a company should try to follow these guidelines for proper feedback:

1. Make feedback Routine – don’t wait to communicate a success story or a customer complaint, or whatever so that others are able to provide resolution if necessary in a timely manner…..make feedback part of your communication plan of action.

2. Make feedback yours – own the feedback by using personal pronouns like “I” and “We” and make sure the wording of your sentences eliminate any potential for “accusatory” comments.

3. Make feedback timely – it is so important and much more effective to offer corrective instruction or solutions immediately after the behavior or action in question rather than waiting hours, days, weeks or months.

4. Make feedback clear – make sure your feedback is understood both in the right context but also in regard to the recommended action. Everyone should be encouraged to speak up about any reservations or questions they may have with the feedback information.

Use your planning and administration system or tools to compliment and support your communication. An effective feedback process can certainly keep everyone engaged.