Staff Feedback: The key to hanging on to your talent

Staff Feedback: The key to hanging on to your talent

March 24, 2017

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Staff Feedback: The key to hanging on to your talent

Part of our business advisory article series 

Whether you are a small business owner or a senior manager in a large company, developing a high-trust culture in your team is essential to hanging onto your talent and maximising the opportunities in your teams.

The labour market is changing and it is harder to attract good people unless you have an offering that will excite them and a job that inspires and challenges them to grow and evolve.

People who are ambitious want to grow and evolve. They are interested in learning about how they can improve and how they are perceived by their peers and superiors.   If they are not getting feedback that is enabling them to develop and grow or they are being micro managed and held back, you are in danger of losing them to another company.

We are all motivated by different things but the one thing all employees want to know on a regular basis is: How am I doing?

Developing a high-trust culture is an investment in building collaborative relationships, that give and receive honest feedback which is aimed at developing self-awareness and exploring opportunities.

You are entrusting your customers and business to your staff on a day to day basis, ignoring their levels of motivation at work is a recipe for failure.

If staff are not energised, lacking enthusiasm, and have no drive to achieve the company objectives you have a problem. The solution to the problem is to gather the facts by asking for feedback and genuinely listening to the feedback.

 If staff are not performing or you feel frustrated at the results here are some questions to reflect on:

  • Have they been given clear instructions as to what is expected of them?
  • Are they being engaged in regular conversation about their progress?
  • Do you listen to the challenges they are facing?
  • Do you know what they find motivating about their work?
  • How do they feel about you as their Manager?
  • Do your management interventions demotivate or inspire them?
  • How are mistakes dealt with?
  • Do they feel they can be honest with you as their boss / Manager?

A lot of managers/ business owners don’t ask these hard questions because they don’t want to hear the truth or they don’t want to change. But that is like not asking your customers why they don’t want to buy your products.  It won’t change the outcome. We have to allow people to grow and change.

2017 is the time to create a culture in Irish businesses that will truly enable us to offer world-class services, products and customer experiences.  This can only be achieved by creating healthy, transparent and collaborative relationships between managers and staff and removing the barriers to change.  The question starts with you as a manager.  How am I doing as your boss? How can I help you to reach your potential?

UHY Farrelly Dawe White, work with businesses to drive growth and profit, through our Business Advisory Services. We like to recommend articles, tools and events which will assist your business to tackle any business areas that may need attention.

If you wish to learn more or you want to develop your ability to build collaborative relationships at work check out the leadership workshops offered by Fox Leadership, See http://foxleadership.ie/events-list/

Written by Guest Blogger: Aine Fox from Fox Leadership