92% of people believe that constructive criticism is effective at improving performance. Improve retention, motivation, and productivity with our guide to constructive feedback. 
Delivering feedback to your employees is a proven effective way to drive company growth. If employers use the right approach, feedback helps boost worker performance and employee-employer relations. Well, that’s what a growing body of research suggests regular worker ratings can do. Let’s explore how you can harness that power to drive a meaningful improvement to your workforce.
Benefits of effective regular feedback
- Allows workers to understand their strengths and develop their weaker areas
- Boosts worker engagement, strengthening the employer-employee relationship
- Encourages worker loyalty, minimizing worker turnover
- Helps you to keep your favorite workers, meaning a better quality workforce
Workers thrive on recognition
Anybody who’s managed a team knows how powerful positive feedback can be. Employees need to believe they are valued by their company, and even a small bit of recognition can dramatically improve a worker’s confidence, morale and workplace experience. The problem is, most companies aren’t giving workers the level of recognition they want. Recent polls find less than half of all workers feel valued by their superiors, and more than a quarter (27%) of those feeling disengaged at work felt unrecognized for their efforts. Given that employer-employee relations have entered “a new era of instability”, this has serious implications for businesses – from retention issues to lowered productivity.
Best practices for delivering feedback
Be honest
Businesses should provide regular feedback to workers with the purpose of honestly appraising their performance. If an individual performs well, praise them; if they underperform, let them know they need to improve. The honesty of this approach ensures workers can:
- Trust positive feedback
- Feel motivated to improve
- Feel respected by their employers
Try to support feedback with facts, examples or quotes from line managers. This will validate the positives and help explain any possible negative feedback.
Be fair
Fair feedback creates a sense of trust and transparency, fostering a culture of open communication. When employees feel that their contributions are recognized and evaluated objectively, they are more likely to be motivated and engaged. Many employers fear giving negative feedback. But 92% of workers say that, if delivered appropriately, it can be effective at improving performance.
Deliver feedback regularly
Equally, companies that give regular feedback can reduce their turnover by almost 15%, and workers are 3.6x more likely to be motivated when feedback is more frequent – regardless of whether it’s positive or negative. 43% of highly engaged employees receive feedback at least once a week compared to 18% of employees with low engagement.
Make it a two-way street
Just like worker feedback can improve their performance, feedback from the worker can improve the company. An important element of delivering feedback to workers is also offering the opportunity to hear their views and opinions.
Delivering feedback with Indeed Flex
The worker rating model we’ve built at Flex is based on these principles to help our Flexers improve and to deliver a high-quality workforce to our clients.
How it works
Employers give workers a star rating to let them know how they performed. Not only does this help employees understand how they’ve performed – it ensures employers can easily access their top-rated workers as it builds a pool of preferred talent automatically in the platform. Our system is designed for employers to use 5 stars as the starting point. This is because ratings should be used primarily as a tool to build positive relationships with Flexers, ultimately leading to the perfect extension of their workforce. If employers are happy with the Flexer and would have them back, rating them 5 stars adds them to a personalized worker pool. This lets the worker know clients want to continue working with them and makes it easier for employers to offer their jobs to these workers again and again.
The power of the verified worker profile
Each Flex worker’s profile features an average star rating, which helps them signal to future employers that they are a high performer. This motivates them to work harder to improve their ratings – and increase gratitude to employers who take the time to give them useful feedback. Worker feedback is an essential tool for improving your workforce. These tips and features can help staffing managers build an effective blended workforce, no matter their requirements.
