Meaning feedback culture
In many organizations, creating a feedback culture is high on the HR department's wish list. But, what is actually the meaning of a feedback culture? In an open feedback culture, employees feel free to continuously ask for and give feedback, and they actually do so. After all, feedback is the beating heart of any organization. The continuous feedback in a feedback culture ensures that employees get better and better. Still, it is often asked and given too little. Often only once a year during the appraisal interview. Employees find it exciting to give feedback to colleagues. Often so much so that they prefer not to give feedback. A missed opportunity, according to us at Treams. Having a feedback culture can give a big boost to the growth and development of employees, teams and organizations. When employees are consciously working on their development, continuous feedback is all too important. Be it strategy or individual-level feedback. Ultimately, you want people to feel free to ask for, give and receive feedback in order to create a feedback culture.
Why create an open feedback culture?
In recent years, organizations have begun to organize themselves differently. The hierarchy within organizations is increasingly disappearing. The classic "rake" in which management is top-down is a thing of the past and more and more work is done in self-managing teams. In the future, we will even increasingly work in a network of teams. In this, one team works on a common project (for example, a particular customer) with a common objective. To be able to work this way, it is important to have a feedback culture in which employees continuously give each other feedback in order to improve together. By giving each other continuous feedback, employees gain insight into the things that do not go well as well as those that do. This ensures that together you can respond much faster to innovations and thus grow faster as an organization.
How do you create a feedback culture?
The change to an open feedback culture is not just any change. As an organization you come from somewhere and you want to instill new behaviors in your employees, and instilling new behaviors is not always easy. Before you start the change to a feedback culture, it is important to have a few things in focus:
1. Feedback is not an end in itself
Creating an open feedback culture is more likely to succeed when you teach employees how to ask for feedback rather than how to give feedback. By letting employees ask for feedback, they are in control. They can decide when to ask for feedback and what to ask for feedback on. So it always comes at a good time, which is not always the case when giving feedback. In addition, asking for feedback increases engagement. After all, you are asking for the other person's opinion and thus showing interest.
2. Safety and trust is the foundation of a strong feedback culture
Safety and trust are the most important conditions of feedback. Do you feel safe with colleagues? Then you can receive feedback well and feel freer to give sincere feedback. Before getting started with feedback, get to know each other well. In addition, it is important for managers to set a good example. As a manager, make yourself vulnerable, open and transparent; that way employees will be more likely to do the same.
3. Provide a common goal
Want to establish a good feedback culture? Then it is extremely important that you work together toward a common goal. The moment you focus on this, you can reflect more easily and the feedback becomes more concrete and less personal.
4. HR is facilitative
Both in building a feedback culture and in guiding employees and managers, HR is a facilitator. It is up to the organization to equip HR with everything they need to establish this open feedback culture.
5. Give employees responsibility and ownership
Give employees responsibility over their own development. This does not mean that they can do everything right away, make sure that you as HR and manager help and facilitate. By giving employees responsibility, you give them confidence and empower them. This makes it easier to build an open feedback culture.
6. Take the time to create a feedback culture.
Change takes time. So does changing to a feedback culture. We all know it is not easy to learn new habits. Give yourself time and don't force yourself to get big results quickly.
How do you deploy a feedback app to support a feedback culture?
For any agile organization, it is important to support a feedback culture with a good feedback tool. Especially for the younger generations, this is an absolute must. They have grown up with technology and know better than anyone how to deal with it. Securing in a tool ensures that the process of asking for feedback and giving compliments becomes a lot more accessible and you can more easily build an open feedback culture. But what should you consider when choosing a tool?
Organizations are constantly changing. It is nice if you can make adjustments in the tool yourself, this saves a lot of time. Employees ultimately have to work the most in the tool. Choose a tool that is made for them and is user-friendly. A tool is not an end in itself. It is important to look for a tool that supports your feedback culture rather than adapting your feedback culture to your tool.
Looking for a feedback tool that is highly rated and easy to use? Treams has the perfect solution for you. The 360 degree feedback tool allows people, internal and external, to request and give feedback. Because the app can be used on both mobile devices and desktop, the tool is easily accessible to everyone. Treams also offers you the opportunity to attend a master class , where feedback is further explained and tips are provided!