Creating a feedback culture

Creating a feedback culture

Adrian Cropley, CEO and principal consultant at Cropley Communications, lists five essential ingredients for two-way communication:

1. Link to business outcomes: It's important that every employee is completely clear how their role contributes to the overall business outcomes. A clear link to the business outcomes will ensure that when you communicate the business results, employees are listening.

2. Survey regularly: Establish a regular timeframe for your survey and stick to it, so it becomes part of people's mindset. To have the greatest impact on developing the culture, make sure your survey is sent out at the same time of year so that employees are expecting it and are prepared.

3. Feed back the survey results: It may seem simple, but actually taking time out to feed back the survey results is very important. Make the results available first to the management for analysis and then to all employees. Focus on the most relevant bits to each part of the business.

4. Take meaningful action and get buy-in: This is the most potent ingredient of all. Look at your top issues and create an action plan within the next survey period to take meaningful actions. Most importantly, get the buy-in by allowing employees to be involved in some way: through a workgroup or part of team meetings. Ask for input and involvement.

5. Feed back actions and show the link: This is probably the most overlooked ingredient, but is the difference between a good and great feedback culture. You'll have a number of people involved in developing plans and taking actions, but not everyone will be involved in everything. Make sure you communicate what actions have been taken and list the improvements. Also clearly show how this will impact the overall business outcome. After all, the first ingredient was the link to business outcomes, so simply close the loop.

Source: The Business Communicator.