From the author: The article was published in the anthology “Sales Personnel Management”, Image Media Publishing House, March/2012What is feedback. When I talk about feedback from staff, I mean by this term freely receiving information from employees about their mood, their attitude towards certain events and people taking place in the company (both those occupying higher positions and those at the same level of the hierarchy) , collection of ideas about the development of the company, its divisions, holding events, etc., that is, well-functioning communications in the direction from the bottom up, from ordinary employees to management. Based on the feedback, you can revise one or another business policy, introduce a number of motivational measures or cancel These, embody the creative ideas of employees and take a lot of other steps that are very useful for business. Why feedback is not needed by management. A number of owners believe that feedback from staff is not needed in principle; it is enough for the organization to debug vertical communications exclusively from top to bottom, and everything will work like clockwork (employees received tasks - completed them - received information about what is right and what is wrong - corrected and so on). This attitude is formed among owners and top managers for various reasons: Some are confident in the infallibility of their decisions and do not feel the need for information from their subordinates. Some are so unsure of their managerial and/or ownership competence , that he is very afraid of receiving critical comments. Someone considers ordinary employees to be so underdeveloped that they do not believe that they can say something really worthwhile. Etc. Only when any of these attitudes are in effect, even if the feedback in the company is not debugged, it still reaches management, but it comes in the form of: Rumors, the original reason for which is so distorted, and the essence of which is so overgrown with unnecessary details that it is not possible to “get to the bottom of the truth”; Increased turnover and mass layoffs, which turn out to be completely “unforeseen” for management; Repeated scandals and conflicts that sometimes arise “out of nowhere”; Endless whining, complaints from employees about each other or secret “denunciations”; “Drunken confessions” at corporate events; And others that definitely do not increase loyalty employees, forms. Why feedback is needed. If feedback in a company is well-established, then its usefulness can hardly be overestimated: It helps to understand what to fix and improve in the company’s work, since employees in their places see many aspects of the business better than the HR service and, especially, top management. It makes it possible to assess the loyalty of staff, since with well-functioning feedback, employees are not silent until the exit interview about what they are not happy with and why they are ready to leave the company. It allows you to receive initiatives and ideas for business development from employees, which are sometimes more interesting and more valuable than management initiatives (as sad as it is to admit this). It makes it possible to show employees that their opinion is very important to management (even if this is not fully true, the very demonstration of importance acts as a separate motivational measure). makes it possible to obtain an assessment of specific events, people, situations from the company’s ordinary personnel, which is especially critical during periods of change, sudden development, change of strategy and other turning points. It allows you to obtain information about the career aspirations of employees, their desire to grow and develop , readiness to improve their skills, etc. Thus, the main people interested in feedback are top management of the business and employees of the HR service, while the main organizers and debuggers of feedback mechanisms are HR. When will feedback work. Of course, company employees are also not always willing to give open feedback (especially if it hasn’t been done for a long time).accepted and just being implemented), and they have a number of reasons for this. Knowing the nature of management, employees are often afraid of reprisals based on feedback, or they are already too disappointed in the company, or have previous negative experiences (including from other places of work), or simply do not want to change anything. That is why, in order for the feedback mechanism to start working as you planned (that is, to bring you objective information “from below”), it is important to ensure a number of conditions: Employees must be confident that the information received through feedback will not be used against them. To do this, it is important to constantly promote the goals of feedback, both as a mechanism as a whole (“information from you is very important for us in order to implement measures for the development of the company”), and as individual events (“the purpose of this survey is to collect ideas for improving the software company"). Plus - at the first stage of implementing feedback, you can make it group and anonymous (this reduces employee anxiety), publicly encouraging those who were not afraid to sign their questionnaire. Employees must be confident that the information will get where it is needed, especially if it is collected impersonal ways (through the mailbox) or it must go through several hierarchical links (questions about strategy, and the HR service conducts the survey). To do this, it is important to inform employees in different ways about the movement of information to the top (“so many questionnaires/memos have been received, today they were handed over to the general director, as soon as he returns from a business trip, he will immediately study them”). If feedback is being collected on several topics at the same time, it is advisable to designate different responsible people or otherwise structure the flow of information (for example, separate electronic mailboxes for different topics). Employees must be sure that the information will be perceived (heard, read) and not left behind "dead weight". To do this, it is important to make at least minimal reports on the content of feedback (“in most of the questionnaires we are talking about some dissatisfaction with the work schedule and information support, but the workplace and the team suit almost everyone”). It would be better, of course, if more detailed analytical reports were compiled and made publicly available (on an information board, internal website, or in the HR service). If feedback is given personally (for example, employees have the opportunity to send a personal email to the manager or HR service), a personal response is important, at least about receiving feedback, and better yet, about the actions that are planned to be taken based on it (see also next point).Employees must know that the information is not just read and processed, but it is somehow used in the work of the company. To do this, it is important to promote the embodiment of something that was in the feedback (“since in the survey almost all employees wrote about equipping a place for lunch, a refrigerator and a microwave oven were purchased that you all can use”). Even if, of all the ideas and proposals that were received, the company implements one or two small and low-cost ones, even if these ideas have been “hanging in the air” for a long time and were planned by management, it is extremely important to declare as loudly as possible that the activities were proposed by the employees , and that only thanks to their feedback management takes these steps. How to debug feedback. Globally, feedback can occur in two main ways: “Background” feedback. In this format, any employee of the company knows that at any time he can submit any idea to management, convey information about what suits him or does not suit him, communicate his mood, request the necessary work tools and/or training, etc. Moreover, any employee of the company knows exactly how he can submit this information, how and where it will go, that is, the company has a number of well-functioning feedback mechanisms. Most often by measures of “background” feedbackperform: collecting information from subordinates at regular meetings; mailboxes/shelves/folders in which you can put a note at any time; regular management office hours; feedback form on the corporate portal (internal website) of the company, etc. They are not tied to a specific time or to a specific feedback topic, but always function (as a kind of “background”). For these forms of feedback collection to be effective, regular analysis of incoming information is important. Employees should be sure that, for example, every week all notes are taken out and analyzed, distributed to the right recipients, and receive monthly monitoring (how many requests are received, on what topics, what is done based on their results). Feedback in the form of a specific event under a certain topic. In this format, an event is specially organized, for which a clear goal is set, a limited time frame is set, and the necessary employees are selected. Most often, the measures of such feedback are: specially assembled “problem” meetings, round tables and brainstorming sessions; interviews with selected employees; surveys (including loyalty surveys); idea competitions, etc. Such feedback, unlike “background” feedback, is tied to a specific situation and is limited in time (and is often used in situations of some changes in business). For its effectiveness, all stages of any event with staff are important: goal setting, preliminary information, relieving dissatisfaction, clear organization of the event itself (questioning, interviewing, brainstorming), summing up and announcing the results. Feedback topics (both “background” and as a separate event) can be: Employee satisfaction with their workplace, schedule, working conditions, material and non-material motivation, training and development system, etc. Employee understanding of business goals and objectives , its strategies, development prospects, place in the market, etc. Career aspirations of employees, their readiness for growth and development, wishes for movements within the company, etc. Attitude of employees to the top and/or middle management of the company, its reputation in in the eyes of employees. Difficulties and problems of the company that reduce its effectiveness, in the opinion of the employee. Personal difficulties of the employee that reduce his effectiveness (including in order to determine how the company can contribute to their solution). Attitude of employees to certain events and changes in the company, their satisfaction with specific events (for example, corporate events, training, etc.). Ideas for developing the company, overcoming crises, increasing the efficiency of specific departments/functions of the company, reducing costs at certain stages of the business process, etc. Yes, through feedback from employees, management can receive any useful information that management itself, due to its different position, simply does not know, does not see, does not receive. Examples of receiving feedback. Let's look at two examples of introducing feedback methods that have not previously worked in the company. Example 1. Mailbox for ideas and suggestions. A mailbox will work well as a method of “background” feedback in hierarchically branched structures (where ideas and suggestions from ordinary employees are often slowed down and lost at the middle management level), but located geographically in one place (to organize access to this mailbox). Decide with the aim of. Formulate what exactly you want to receive through the mailbox (ideas for development, information about what employees are not happy with, proposals for the purchase of additional equipment, etc.). Consider who you primarily want to receive information from (which departments, which hierarchical levels) and in what form (free or clearly structured). For a clearly structured form, prepare special forms, the number of which will then be constantly replenished next to the box. Determine Notch Frequencyproposals. Based on the previous paragraph, determine the location where the mailbox will be located. Consider several important points: access to this place should be simple and free (do not place the box in a room that is locked or access to which is strictly limited); the place must, on the one hand, be passable (do not place the box in rooms where employees wander in rarely and accidentally), and on the other hand, it should not be crowded and passable (stairs and entrances/exits are not the best option); this place should not be viewed by video cameras and/or security, otherwise the fears of employees will not give them anything put in the mailbox. Make an announcement about the start of the mailbox and its purpose through all possible channels - hang a large ad next to the mailbox itself, send an email to all corporate addresses, post an ad on the website, place information in a corporate newspaper, etc. If possible, have a grand opening ceremony for the box. As soon as the first time to collect proposals has arrived (for example, a week has passed), be sure to check your mailbox. Don’t be surprised if there isn’t a single note there; employees need time to get used to it. Be sure to also widely announce the results of the mailbox (if you don’t want to talk about the lack of information, come up with one or two notes yourself, thanking their authors) - this is necessary in order to show employees the safety of feedback, as well as its importance to management. You may get a different result - at first, the box may contain “anonymous messages” with complaints and negative personal assessments of each other, as well as papers with curses, stupid pictures and anything else. This is also normal - employees are testing a new method of communication. It is important to count such notes into general statistics, but in the announcement of the results you can mention them as “not containing constructive ideas and proposals.” Check your mailbox with planned regularity, promoting as much as possible any more or less constructive proposal. Carefully look for proposals that can be implemented (even with your modification) to announce its implementation. You will have to artificially inflate interest in the box until a fairly stable number of constructive ideas and proposals begin to flow into it. But even after this, it is extremely important to maintain regularity in reporting statistics (it can be posted next to the box itself) and informing about proposals and ideas that have been implemented. If everything in your company has been equipped with the latest technology for a long time and such a method of collecting feedback as a regular mailbox seems outdated, you can replace it with an electronic mailbox, messages to which are sent, for example, using a feedback form on the corporate portal. All stages of implementation will remain the same, only you will have to rack your brains not over choosing the location of the mailbox, but over how to prove to employees the anonymity of sent messages (taking into account the ease of determining the IP of any corporate computer). You can also install a separate computer for sending such messages in a specially designated place (all the same requirements will apply to it as to the location of the mailbox). Example 2. Loyalty survey. A loyalty survey works as a periodic (for example, once every six months) form of feedback, focused on obtaining information in specific areas (for example, employee job satisfaction) and in almost any structure. Determine the purpose of the cut. What exactly do you want to get information about: about the general level of satisfaction, about attitude towards management, office organization, material motivation system, about the difference in perception of motivational measures by different departments, etc. Based on the goal, formulate the content of the survey and compose questions. Keep in mind that filling out the survey should not take more than half an hour, otherwise employees will get tired and start.