What is Employee Feedback?

Employee feedback involves collecting information from employees and providing feedback to both employees and leadership. The goal of employee feedback is to improve overall employee performance.

Companies can collect employee feedback through surveys, group meetings, interviews, suggestion boxes, and daily internal communications.

In addition to improving employee engagement, employers use feedback to pinpoint problematic behavior and develop a healthy company culture.

To learn more about employee feedback via video, watch the video below. Otherwise, skip ahead.

According to Zippia, companies that collect employee feedback experience 14.9% lower employee turnover rates, among other benefits. However, many organizations don’t collect real-time feedback or do it passively. This article explores the benefits and ways to collect feedback and valuable information without sacrificing time and money.

Employee Feedback Benefits

Effective employee feedback ensures that an organization collects the correct data to boost overall staff performance. While an average company seeks positive employee feedback examples, the reality is that both positive and negative feedback are helpful.

Collecting employee input has many direct and indirect benefits, so let’s explore the most significant ones.

1. Performance Boost Across All Levels

According to Betterworks, companies that gather continuous feedback outperform the competition at a 24% rate.

Besides collecting insightful data that a company uses to improve performance, you create a culture where workers feel safe by having a feedback channel. Knowing that the employer enhances employees’ position inside the company generates a positive attitude.

In some cases, the mere fact that the employer engages with the employee can have positive results without even incorporating data and solutions into the work environment.

Feedback conversations should encourage positive behavior. While the employer should deliver on agreed changes, having a regular discussion helps maintain employee happiness and engagement.

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2. Solves Problematic Behavior Proactively

Through active listening, employers can pinpoint patterns in how employees feel at specific moments, such as when a deadline is near or the company announces a new big project.

No matter how well-oiled the machine is, mistakes happen. It means that conflicts will always take place inside the company from time to time. When people don’t feel comfortable talking about problems, minor issues evolve into problems that affect the entire company.

On-time feedback can save hours of work and money. Moreover, defusing an issue in its early stages contributes to organizational values where employees can trust their managers.

3. Help Employees Focus on Their Strengths

The larger the company, the more challenging it is to apply the “one-size-fits-all” approach. Business outcomes depend on effectiveness; you can’t know someone’s strengths or weaknesses without a proper employee performance review.

It’s not just about pinpointing an employee’s qualities. According to PWC, 72% of employees under 30 report that they prefer receiving feedback daily or weekly.

That means that 72% of young employees aren’t sure if what they are doing is right or wrong. They require constructive feedback conversation not just to perform better but also to grow. By giving feedback, you take a future-focused approach where you nurture your young employees.

Furthermore, talking to employees can help you make better decisions about who does what. A great example is news outlets. Assigning article topics randomly is far less efficient than knowing employees’ interests and assigning tasks.

4. Supports Growth & Pinpoint Top Talent

Employees who don’t feel like there’s room for progress in the company go elsewhere. While the company can’t satisfy everybody’s needs, employee feedback allows it to pinpoint key players and ensure they don’t leave.

Through employee engagement surveys, businesses can identify employees who would benefit most from additional support. Instead of investing resources in the entire workforce, the company can focus on those who matter.

Although effective feedback systems are essential, many companies find the process time-consuming, stressful, and challenging.

But the reality is quite the opposite. If you know your goal, you will also know what type of feedback you need to collect.

Types of Employee Feedback

The type of feedback you collect depends on your goals. Is your goal better employee retention or assessing past behavior? First, you need to know the different types. Here are the most common constructive employee feedback examples.

Negative Feedback vs Positive Feedback

First, dissect the most common difference between negative and positive feedback. Both types of feedback exist in the workplace. But instead of focusing on one, you should always focus on the constructive side of both.

Sharing words of encouragement is nice, but it does not help in the long run and does not help employees’ productivity. Here’s how you should use negative and positive feedback.

Positive Feedback

Positive feedback acknowledges great work or behavior and reinforces what actions you want to see repeated within your organization. It is a motivational tool that helps boost employee morale and job satisfaction. When providing positive feedback, be specific about what was done well and its positive impact.

For instance, instead of a generic “good job,” specify what was done and how it contributed to the team’s goals and encourage continued performance. Timing is also crucial; provide this feedback soon after the observed behavior to strengthen its effectiveness.

Negative Feedback

When used constructively, negative feedback corrects behaviors that are not aligned with the company’s standards or goals. It should be used to guide and improve employee performance, not to punish. When delivering negative feedback, be clear and objective—focus on the behavior, not the person, and provide concrete examples. It’s also important to include a path for improvement, such as specific steps or training that can be taken.

Deliver this feedback privately to maintain the employee’s dignity and end the conversation on a constructive note, emphasizing your confidence in their ability to improve.

How to Give Positive and Negative Feedback

Both feedback types can inspire and demoralize workers. To ensure you give constructive employee feedback, try to focus on the following:

• Become specific
• Encourage the employee to act
• Use active listening
• Focus on issues
• Use data
• Avoid subjective judgment and bias

Peer-to-Peer Feedback

Peer-to-peer is feedback between employees. Instead of receiving employee feedback from employers, employees give and receive feedback from each other.

It can seem challenging to figure out how to give employee feedback and encourage peer-to-peer feedback since it happens organically rather than systematically. However, the company can implement peer-to-peer feedback through anonymous feedback boxes and similar tactics.

This also creates more control since the managers can filter constructive feedback before it reaches the team.

360 Feedback

360-degree is a comprehensive type of regular feedback that employees receive from all directions of the workforce hierarchy.

360 feedback is constructive for managers and people who oversee large projects. Receiving feedback from all sides helps identify strengths and weaknesses in the current project and its general performance.

For 360, it’s best to use direct reports with precise results. Managers can then act and help other team members.

Informal Feedback

Giving feedback is important, and companies do it regularly. But just because a company has a process doesn’t mean that a manager shouldn’t give feedback outside the “feedback hours.”

Informal feedback means providing effective feedback in real-time. Besides engaging with employees and improving communication skills, informal feedback is an excellent tool for creating a healthy workspace environment.

By being insightful and proactive, the manager creates a feedback culture where the person receiving feedback understands they can provide input as well.

Since this type can seem more subjective, one must stay constructive.

Upward Feedback

Providing positive feedback, as well as negative, should go both ways. Similar to 360, employees also give feedback on the manager’s performance.

The company’s employee engagement depends on the team manager’s leadership qualities. Knowing how well the manager performs is critical to any company.

The effectiveness of upward feedback depends on how ready the manager is to receive feedback. Since there isn’t an overseeing figure in the form of a CEO, a lousy manager can ignore negative and positive employee feedback, which can result in a negative employee experience.

Managers should never focus on who gave feedback but on how credible the input is.

How to Collect Employee Feedback?

The method for collecting employee feedback depends on your goals and feedback type. Extensive performance reviews can work best for some companies, while a brief, direct report works wonders for others.

Besides traditional surveys and interviews, specific ways exist to collect effective employee feedback. Let’s list the most common tools.

1. New Employee Surveys

There are several benefits to conducting a new employee survey. The first two months are essential for every employee. According to Sapling, proper onboarding increases employee retention by 82%, meaning that you want to find out about the new employee’s engagement.

Some companies survey after 30 days, while others do it after 60 or even 90 days. But you can choose the method with which you wish to request feedback.

When collecting new employee feedback, focus on questions that allow the employee to express how welcome they feel, whether they created connections, and whether the goals are reasonable. You can combine these surveys with exit surveys. If an employee fails to meet goals, leaves the company, and lists bad leadership as their reason, ask new employees about their leadership expectations.

2. Engagement Surveys

Engagement surveys are typical surveys where the employer wants to know how engaged the employees feel. These surveys are a great way to collect a more significant amount of data. This also means that you may get a lot of vague feedback, but the information is still helpful. Companies conduct engagement surveys quarterly, biannually, or annually.

Engagement surveys contain questions about retention, engagement, satisfaction, and everything else that impacts their productivity. These surveys are formal surveys that all teams need to take.

Pulse surveys are a better option to gather feedback more often without overwhelming your employees.

3. Pulse Surveys

Pulse surveys are rapid surveys that contain three to five questions. These surveys don’t take more than a minute to complete, so it’s okay if you conduct them every week. For example, a company can use a pulse survey to assess employees’ satisfaction with weekly work.

Using regular feedback, team managers become much more responsive to what’s happening inside the company in real-time.

Employee Net Promoter Score (NPS) syncs with pulse surveys. ENPS is a measuring tool that measures employees’ satisfaction with the company. The goal is to ask one or two simple questions where employees use a 0 to 10 scale. The total score of all employee replies is their total eNPS.

You ask employees to express their satisfaction with the company from 0 to 10. Employees who answer 9 to 10 are your promoters, 7 to 8 passives, and anything below is detractors.

The goal here isn’t to pinpoint and punish detractors. But to figure out internal communications and what you can do to turn detractors and passives into promoters.

4. Team Meetings

Everyone experiences a team meeting where uncomfortable silence is present, whether in person or on a digital call. But if you conduct team meetings in the right way, you can collect valuable feedback without employees even realizing it.

Opinions are like domino pieces. If you ask one or two employees to speak their minds, another employee will also have something to say.

They depend on the meeting conductor and the topic, and it’s better to have team meetings about topics on which you’re sure the entire team agrees. That way, you avoid unproductive arguments and can find options to make the team happier and more productive.

5. Retention Interviews

It is exhausting for mid-businesses and enterprises to conduct detailed interviews with every team member. It’s better to pinpoint your top talent by using pulse surveys.

After you know who they are, you can conduct retention interviews to ensure they stay and determine what you can do to increase general employee retention.

You can use the collected employee feedback on a single case or across the entire company. Employee retention is essential since turnover costs can severely diminish a company’s effectiveness.

6. Review Sites

3rd-party review sites are a fantastic source of employee feedback. It is free, but you can also check competitors’ employee feedback examples. If your company is on such a website, you should monitor what employees say about you.

The most famous review websites are:

• Glassdoor
• Indeed
• Comparably

Review sites are growing in popularity in the current market where remote work is becoming more and more dominant.

Note that most users of such services are job seekers – meaning that a great addition to your force may apply to you now, so make sure to leave a good impression.

7. Employee Suggestion Box

According to an AllVoices survey, 74% of employees provide honest feedback if the feedback channel is genuinely anonymous. That’s where employee suggestion boxes come in.

Finding genuine employee experience can seem easy on paper but difficult in practice. If you have a weak employee culture, you can’t expect feedback on sensitive topics such as the team’s thinking of their manager.

An employee suggestion box is nothing new. Whether using a physical or a digital box, it’s a great way to guarantee anonymity and encourage effective feedback.

The human resources department often struggles with generic feedback that they can’t put to good use. By encouraging anonymity, you also promote honesty.

To maximize the effectiveness of a suggestion box, it’s essential to communicate its purpose clearly and assure employees that their input is valued and will lead to action.

Reviewing and acting on feedback demonstrates a commitment to improvement and builds trust.

Sharing updates about changes inspired by employee suggestions can encourage participation, fostering a culture where employees feel empowered to contribute ideas and address workplace challenges constructively.

8. Exit Surveys

An employee leaving the company is your last chance to gather feedback from that specific employee. While some are less willing to provide feedback than others, understanding employee experience while leaving the company is helpful in several ways.

The information you gather helps with retention. You can learn what you can improve to increase productivity and engagement. Moreover, you can also learn what makes an unsuitable employee for your company. A talented employee doesn’t mean that they will engage with your company.

Since there are no strings attached, you can ask anything you feel as long as you determine the employee will provide honest feedback.

Exit surveys also provide an opportunity to gain insights into industry trends and employee expectations. Departing employees may share what other companies offer regarding benefits, flexibility, career progression, or workplace culture.

This information can be invaluable for staying competitive in the talent market. By using this data proactively, organizations can adjust their strategies to meet their workforce’s needs better and attract top talent.

When approached strategically, exit surveys can be more than a formality—they can serve as a foundation for continuous improvement and long-term organizational success.

Constructive Feedback Examples

Providing constructive feedback fosters employee growth and maintaining a positive work environment. The key to effective feedback is specificity and focusing on behaviors rather than personal attributes. Below are some examples of constructive feedback:

• “Your attention to detail in the recent project ensured we met the client’s expectations. Great work on catching those last-minute errors!”
• “The presentation was informative, but adding visuals could help make the data more engaging for the audience next time.”
• “I noticed there were some communication challenges during the last team meeting. Let’s explore strategies to ensure everyone has a chance to share their input.”

These examples balance reinforcing positive behaviors and addressing areas for improvement, ensuring that employees feel motivated to grow rather than criticized.

Conclusion

Although some companies feel like collecting employee feedback isn’t necessary, many employees’ success relies on how you, as the employer, interact with employees.

Collecting and giving feedback creates a healthy work environment, vital in a working culture that values honesty, productivity, and equality.

You can also use employee feedback examples to encourage and assure recruits that it is desirable to speak their mind. A new employee is like a stranger who needs to settle in. The easier you make it for them, the better. And one way to do so is to know what makes your current employees happy.

There are countless ways to utilize employee feedback, as long as you know where to look.

FAQs

Here you can find the most asked questions and answers about employee feedback examples and tools.

What kind of feedback should I ask my employees?

Questions you ask depend on your goals. Ask yourself whether your goal is to improve employee productivity or your management skills. Most of the time, you should focus on easy-to-answer questions and avoid biased answers. Answers where you’re trying to influence the employee to give negative or positive feedback. Furthermore, since your goal is to collect honest replies, ensure that the employee feels comfortable answering.

What are some examples of positive feedback?

Positive feedback is a reaction to positive action. Giving positive feedback left and right diminishes its value and can negatively impact it. Some of the common examples are: your input in today’s meeting was helpful. Your contribution to the project made everything easier and more efficient. You are proactive and thank you for that.

How do you give feedback to employees?

When giving constructive feedback, focus on the behavior instead of the person. A popular approach is to include the issue in the question and describe what you think about it. If necessary, use data. Furthermore, become specific and realistic. Don’t reply effectively, but keep a cool head instead and always offer further support.

What are some effective examples of employee feedback?

Effective employee feedback examples include constructive feedback that focuses on specific behaviors, such as:

• “You did an excellent job handling the client’s concerns in yesterday’s meeting by addressing their questions directly and confidently.”
• For improvement: “I noticed your last report had some great insights but could benefit from clearer formatting. Let me know if you’d like tips on organizing it.”
  These examples help employees understand their strengths and areas for growth, fostering better performance and engagement.

How can managers effectively gather employee feedback?

Managers can gather employee feedback effectively by creating a safe and open environment where employees feel encouraged to share their thoughts. Techniques include conducting anonymous surveys, scheduling regular one-on-one meetings, and organizing team discussions. Using digital tools, such as feedback apps or platforms, can streamline the process and ensure employees’ voices are heard consistently.

What are some best practices for gathering employee feedback?

When gathering employee feedback, it’s important to approach the process with transparency and genuine intent. Communicate why the feedback is being collected and how it will be used. Ensure confidentiality to promote honest responses and provide multiple channels for feedback, such as surveys, suggestion boxes, or casual check-ins. Follow up on the feedback received to show employees their input is valued and implemented.

Why is employee feedback important for organizational growth?

Employee feedback helps organizations identify strengths and areas needing improvement, fostering a culture of continuous learning and development. By gathering employee feedback regularly, companies can address workplace concerns, improve processes, and enhance overall satisfaction, which often leads to higher productivity and retention rates.

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