WeBlog
  • Agile Culture
    • Agile methodologies
    • Skills and expertises
    • Creativity and innovation
  • Management and Organization
    • Leadership
    • Work ethic
    • Team collaboration
  • Tech and Digital
    • DevOps and Craftsmanship
    • User experience and Digital Delivery
    • Data and Cybersecurity
  • EN
    • FR
No result found
View all result
Discover Wemanity
WeBlog
  • Agile Culture
    • Agile methodologies
    • Skills and expertises
    • Creativity and innovation
  • Management and Organization
    • Leadership
    • Work ethic
    • Team collaboration
  • Tech and Digital
    • DevOps and Craftsmanship
    • User experience and Digital Delivery
    • Data and Cybersecurity
  • EN
    • FR
No result found
View all result
Discover Wemanity
WeBlog

How to Establish a Feedback Culture in Your Organisation?

by Wemanity
08/2021
in Management and Organization
How can you establish a culture of feedback in your organisation?

With the standardisation of hybrid working and the revolution in methods of communication between employees, learning to give and receive feedback is particularly important. Feedback, all too often reduced to pointing out errors, can be a powerful tool in improving employee performance and engagement. It should not be limited to annual interviews but be present at every level of the company and be an integral part of the corporate culture. 

In this article, we will explore the characteristics and advantages of a feedback culture, as well as the best HR practices for setting it up, in particular through the case of our internal culture at Wemanity Belgium.

1. What is a culture of feedback?

Feedback is an evaluation, positive or negative, that follows an action or an experience. To make it a habit and create a genuine culture of feedback, this approach must apply to the entire organisation and to all aspects of company life (performance, feeling of belonging, adherence to values …). 

It should not only be a matter for leaders. Employees must also be able to provide feedback on their manager completely transparently. It is a powerful HR agile transformation technique for letting employees know that their voice matters.

Continuous feedback promotes performance, as it allows for self-questioning, rethinking methods, adjusting actions, etc. It creates a relationship of trust and avoids unspoken words, possible speculation or stress. In addition, it improves employee engagement and motivation because it allows all employees to be more empathetic and recognise each other’s work and efforts. 

According to a Gartner study, in this setting, employee performance increases by up to 26% and their engagement by 40%. Data that is not surprising when we learn that 70% of professional engagement depends upon direct management, according to Gallup.

Adapting to the challenge of hybrid working involves adapting your communication and valuing soft skills in your daily interactions (active listening, empathy, collaboration, learning agility, etc.). Establishing a culture of feedback today is crucial for future business success. 

2. Three good practices for creating a culture of feedback

Alice Larcher, recruitment and HR manager, shares with us three good practices established at Wemanity Belgium and reveals how to adapt them to suit the context of your organisation to instil a culture of feedback and transparency: 

Training in feedback

Giving and receiving feedback can be learned! It is not an innate skill, contrary to what one might think. To train your employees, you can offer them resources and training on the following topics: 

  • How do you give and receive feedback?
  • How do you take advantage of feedback in your daily work? 
  • During feedback, how do you formulate questions, look for examples and clarify the meaning of your words?
  • As a manager, how can you take advantage of feedback to clarify expected objectives?
Related post:  What Rugby Can Teach You about Trust in Agile Teams

For maximum effectiveness, implement these measures prior to moments that are conducive to feedback: half-yearly and annual interviews, one-to-one meetings, etc. 

You can also take advantage of onboarding to educate newcomers from their very first days with you by making these materials available to them. 

Put leaders and managers to work

To consolidate a culture of feedback sustainably, the “interpersonal skills” and methods used by leaders and managers must set an example. If employees observe specific recurring behaviour in them, even the most reluctant will be more likely to follow suit. 

Leaders and managers must continually ask for feedback from employees and their hierarchical peers. They must show that they take it into account. By doing so, they break down the taboo of failure and transform the relationship to innovation: to succeed, you have to be able to receive negative feedback – meaning that you made a mistake. 

Google, in a recent study, has also recently directly linked the performance of employees to a psychologically safe environment favoured by management. “To foster an environment of psychological safety, managers must show their own vulnerability and demonstrate the trust they place in their team,” says Frederik Pferdt, Google’s Chief Innovation Evangelist.

Provide a feedback framework

Create standards for the form that feedback should take, and pass them on to your team. These are benchmarks for your employees. They vary according to your corporate culture, the size of your structure and your organisation. They can be very different from one team to another within the same company. 

Here are some examples of initiatives that will foster a culture of feedback: 

  • Monthly or quarterly, send a “happiness survey” to all employees to assess their overall satisfaction and collect their needs. 
  • Hold monthly sharing sessions (called Knowledge Share), bringing together all employees, which allow for discussion and training among peers.
  • Hold monthly question-and-answer sessions where employees can ask company leaders questions directly.
  • Share the results of satisfaction surveys with the entire company, accompanied by an NPS (net promoter score), an action plan, progress monitoring on actions initiated previously, etc.
  • Hold public retrospective events with all stakeholders following major projects. 
  • Implement an internal communication tool to facilitate discussion and feedback, such as Slack. 

Do you practise feedback in your organisation? What are your best practices?

Wemanity

Wemanity

Related posts

5 Things to Know about Flipped Teaching
Management and Organization

5 Things to Know about Flipped Teaching

You might have heard of flipped teaching, a trend first introduced by the educational system in order to help some...

2 months ago
Enterprise Seminars: Stakes and Advantages
Management and Organization

Enterprise Seminars: Stakes and Advantages

Enterprise seminars traditionally meet a peak in popularity towards the start or the end of the year. The main feature...

3 months ago
7Ps Framework: give your meetings the thought and preparation they deserve
Agile Culture

7Ps Framework: Give your Meetings the Thought and Preparation they Deserve

How much of your life have you wasted on pointless meetings? Do you tend to find yourself saying: ‘This meeting...

4 months ago
Le top 8 des outils de gestion de projet à connaître en 2022
Management and Organization

The Top 8 Project Management Tools You Need to Know in 2022

Project management tools bring considerable added value to facilitating collaboration between the various contributors to a project. In a context...

5 months ago

Recommended

Forfait agile : la solution pour associer engagement et agilité

Agile Fixed-Price: The Solution That Combines Commitment and Agility

February 9, 2022
Don't Stop the Transformation!

Don’t Stop the Transformation!

March 27, 2020
The Meaning Behind Eating Your Own Dog Food

The Meaning Behind Eating Your Own Dog Food

October 16, 2015
The Power of Failure

The Power of Failure

December 13, 2016

Categories

  • Agile Culture
  • Management and Organization
  • Tech and Digital
  • Transformation & Change
Powered by Wemanity logo

Categories

  • Agile Culture
  • Management and Organization
  • Tech and Digital
  • Transformation & Change

Join our community and receive our newsletter.

Rejoignez notre communauté et recevez nos dernières actus.

Sluit je aan bij onze community en verkrijg onze newsletter.

No result found
View all result
  • Agile Culture
    • Agile methodologies
    • Skills and expertises
    • Creativity and innovation
  • Management and Organization
    • Leadership
    • Work ethic
    • Team collaboration
  • Tech and Digital
    • DevOps and Craftsmanship
    • User experience and Digital Delivery
    • Data and Cybersecurity
  • EN
    • FR