ExplodingTopics found that around 58% of employees who did not receive any feedback over the previous week felt disengaged at work.
Disengagement among your employees results in lower productivity. Whether you keep these team members or decide to replace them, you are losing money, since every recruitment process costs. According to Gallup, financial loss due to disengaged employees costs U.S. companies between $450 and $550 billion yearly.
On the other hand, organizations with highly engaged employees are 21% more profitable than those suffering from employee disengagement. In other words, taking care of employee engagement can help you cut turnover costs and improve your bottom line.
A sure way to keep your employees engaged is to provide regular and constructive feedback and acknowledge achievements.
This article outlines how feedback loops can help you keep your employees aligned and engaged. It also shows how digital tools like remote staff monitoring software can help you improve the efficiency of your feedback sessions.
What is a Feedback Loop?
A feedback loop is the process of collecting feedback, considering it, responding to it, and learning from it.
This principle can be applied in customer-facing teams. In these cases, the feedback is collected from customers. The team learns what needs to be improved. The improvement is planned immediately, and the customer receives a personalized reply that shows appreciation for their feedback. Once the improvement process is completed, they are notified about the improvement.
Feedback loops can also be used internally to improve the performance of any team or individual employee.
The Benefits of Continuous Feedback for Remote Teams
Ongoing feedback can generate momentous improvements within remote teams. Here are just some aspects it can boost:
- Engagement: If feedback is delivered professionally, it makes employees feel appreciated and motivated to help their team reach its goals.
- Productivity: Detailed feedback helps employees recognize their strengths and work on their weak points. This, in turn, helps increase their overall productivity.
- Efficiency: When the issues are addressed promptly and openly, it creates a chance for a quick and efficient resolution.
- Trust: Leaders can build a strong and trustworthy relationship with their employees through regular, constructive, and friendly feedback.
How to Effectively Implement Feedback Loop
To efficiently implement a feedback loop, there are several fail-proof tips you can rely on:
1. Automate Performance Tracking
Computer monitoring software can help you by analyzing every employee’s performance in detail. It also generates reports that make your feedback sessions comparatively effective as well as easier to prepare.
This type of software enables:
- Feedback that Relies on Real-Time Data & Automatically Generated Reports: Computer monitoring software often offers real-time monitoring and detailed productivity reports. This helps managers provide timely feedback based on accurate data about employee’s work activities and performance.
- Feedback that Is Backed by Detailed Activity Logs & Screenshots: A robust monitoring software offers detailed logs and screenshot capabilities. This way it provides concrete examples of employee activities, making feedback sessions more objective and focused on actual performance.
- Prompt Security-Focused Feedback: Managers can often set up alerts so they are immediately informed about any risky employee behaviors. This allows them to contact workers without delay and provide feedback on how their actions could jeopardize the company.
2. Create Dedicated Communication Channels
Feedback loops heavily rely on effective communication, which is impossible without proper channels. Open different channels of communication and explain to your employees the purpose of each channel. Access to video conferencing platforms is a must for a functioning remote team.
You can deliver smaller, everyday team feedback via group channels. The same goes for smaller bits of customer feedback that your employees receive.
3. State Your Expectations
As a leader, you should define how the feedback should be constructed. Create a template for a feedback loop and make it available to everyone so your employees know what to expect.
You should define everything from the feedback format and focus points to the frequency of feedback sessions. Once you have a template in place, the feedback loop should be much easier to maintain.
4. Support Informal Feedback
Feedback outside the established feedback loop should be welcome. Everything from 1:1 and meetings to daily informal feedback via messaging platforms. Remember— the more openly and frequently your team shares internal and external feedback, the more efficient your organization becomes.
5. Train Your Employees to Provide Constructive Feedback
To help an employee grow and improve their performance, you should focus on delivering the feedback in the right manner.
Instruct your managers to focus more on suggested actions than on the person’s mistakes. Ask them to be respectful of every team member and show support for them during every feedback session.
This way, you can create an atmosphere where everyone feels safe and motivated to adopt new pieces of advice and do better.
6. Don’t Stop at Delivering Feedback
Feedback that is not implemented is just a meeting or a message wasted. Your feedback loop template should also include a part about implementing the feedback your employees received.
Keep your eyes peeled for employees who are struggling to improve their performance. Provide them with help and support in their feedback implementation process.
Types of Feedback Loops
Depending on their frequency and included parties, feedback loops can be divided into:
- Daily Feedback Loop—Daily Standup Calls: Standup calls serve to keep the team aligned. Everyone should state what they are working on and if there are any roadblocks so they can be resolved right away.
- Weekly Feedback Loop—Progress Check-ins: The purpose of these meetings is to check how well your team and team members are progressing towards set goals.
- Monthly Feedback Loop—Stakeholder Updates: This is often a feedback session between the company leader and stakeholders. It provides an opportunity for both stakeholders and employees to get a clearer picture of how the team’s achievements contribute to the company’s long-term goals.
- Quarterly Feedback Loop—Analyzing Old & Setting New Goals: Quarterly feedback is a chance to work as a team on analyzing processes and acknowledging achievements from the previous quarter. Ask your team for suggestions for process improvements as well as thoughts on which processes should be eliminated altogether.
Keeping remote teams aligned and maintaining their productivity may seem challenging. However, with transparent communication and a thought-through feedback loop system, you can have a happy and productive team. Ultimately, you’ll be able to cut costs that stem from inefficient processes or communication bottlenecks.
