The power of employee feedback: A Q&A with Rob Catalano

As we enter a post-pandemic world and a possible recession looms, anxiety is at an all time high for employers and employees alike. In return, productivity can become a challenge. However, putting positive pressure on employees and listening to employee feedback can allow for employee growth and productivity.

So says Rob Catalano, CSO of WorkTango, an employee experience platform that warrants employee recognition and insights through surveys and feedback.

Why is employee productivity top of mind for business leaders amid economic downturns?

To operate a successful organization in these uncertain times, leaders must ensure that everyone is aligned with the most critical business priorities. It’s on business leaders’ minds because if there’s a lack of focus on key priorities, organizations can find themselves in situations where companies may slow growth or have to be in a place to cut critical costs, including talent.

That being said, employee productivity is closely balanced with high levels of employee engagement so leaders must also have a grasp of employee wellness and burnout. This is particularly important during times of economic uncertainty, especially when during these times companies are often asking employees to do less with more.

Quite often, employees are the most critical part of the equation when it comes to sustainable profitability or how a company defines business success. Customer satisfaction and business success are outputs, however, the only inputs that business leaders can really influence is the experience and productivity of employees.

How can leaders put positive pressures on employees to boost productivity and progress toward goals? What does negative pressure look like?

Before getting into employee productivity, it’s important to be honest with employees about the state of the business. Keeping teams looped in on big wins or losses helps them understand the impact of their contributions to the organization. An open line of communication is critical in creating a culture where employees are aligned with the needs of the business.

As for positive pressure to boost productivity, there are intrinsic and extrinsic motivators that can be leveraged. Recognition and rewards are great ways to reinforce key behaviors and results that you’re looking for. What gets recognized, gets repeated, and recognition that can be shared throughout the organization supports amplification of what’s important. Rewards in the form of incentives are also a way to boost productivity. If there are specific results that are important, offering incentives in the form of rewards is also motivating.

Providing incentives for saving the company money, wellness initiatives, or anything that’s critical at the stage of your organization can be quite impactful.

Another positive pressure is offering more responsibility and accountability for employees looking to gain new experiences. These growth opportunities offer a new experience and opportunity to employees while supporting the business overall.

Negative pressure, such as placing blame on teams, managers, and employees for the overall downfall of the business, is counterproductive and leaves individuals feeling unsupported and stressed. The end result is often a decline in productivity and morale. It’s important to be clear about the current state, and have employees be part of the solution and bring their ideas to the mix to support turbulent times.

Should business leaders be focusing on individual employee success over company success? How are the two related?

Overall company success is often the primary concern of company leaders and board members. However, overall company success cannot be achieved without individual employee success. With this core truth in mind, it is important for day-to-day managers to provide team members with consistent opportunities for feedback and support continuous employee learning and development.

No individual in isolation will build and grow a company, but when all employees know how they themselves contribute to the overall goals of the organization (in good times or to weather the storm of a downturn), it supports alignment and engagement with employees. Business leaders should be focused on building alignment with company goals and a vision for what success looks like for the organization.

Employees who know they are valued and are consistently recognized for their work are more likely to maintain their passion and productivity, even through a recession. If a company has strong programs in place to support employees, reward them and recognize them, the chances of retaining great talent and keeping employee productivity high are great – recession or no recession.

What role does feedback play in all of this? Why is consistent feedback so important in motivating employees?

Without feedback, it’s significantly more difficult to get to success. Feedback supports alignment, course correction, and ensuring there’s a consistent conversation to support employee and business leader needs.

A structured feedback model is critical. Where I see companies succeed is when they instill a cadence and rhythm of feedback into their organization. A cadence of feedback around checking in on performance, checking in on development goals, having 1-on-1 conversations, and listening to employee feedback on a regular basis to get authentic feedback through surveys in the overall employee experience.

I like to say that feedback makes us all qualified for our next jobs and for success. A feedback strategy is critical for employees and companies alike.

This highlights the point that it isn’t about feedback to make employees ‘perform’ better – rather it supports employees in developing for the future. Frequent employee coaching and development conversations help the individual identify opportunities for self-improvement and growth. Providing swift feedback also helps to reinforce positive progress and quickly identify areas for improvement. Employees stay motivated because they are able to adjust their actions in the moment and feel in control of their professional success and development.

What advice can you give to employers looking to revamp their employee feedback structure or programs?

If you’re looking to revamp your employee feedback structure, think about cadence and audience. Structure your feedback cadence not only in years but in quarters, months and weeks. After you have a cadence, compliment your strategy with communication and feedback for three audiences: the company, teams and individuals.

A good place to start is by surveying team members. Surveys are a simple and easy way to not only collect data and sentiment for the moment in time but get feedback on what the company is doing holistically.

Since there is no one-size-fits-all approach to how employees like to receive or provide feedback, here are a few tips and tricks business leaders can follow to build a positive culture of continuous feedback:

• Train your leaders on how to give and receive feedback. It’s an art that doesn’t come naturally to all leaders.
• Mandate cadences that support feedback like quarterly all-hands to get feedback from employees, monthly pulse surveys to get feedback anonymously, or weekly 1-on-1’s between employees and leaders.
• Balance open and confidential feedback. Confidential surveys offer an authentic way to understand the employee’s experience. But ensure there are other feedback points and conversations for your different audiences and different structured cadences.

Having tools in place that support a consistent and positive feedback loop is essential to employee feedback programs running smoothly. Today there are a number of platforms and technologies available that are built to improve and reinforce feedback plans. I’ve seen it personally change cultures and support positive change in cultures and organizations…even through challenging times.