Feedback is no longer a management nice-to-have, it’s fundamental and necessary to engaging and retaining employees. The annual performance appraisal has moved past its shelf life and is now relegated to the land of fax machines and the personnel department. In its place sits real-time feedback, constructive criticism and focused career paths. The art of microfeedback, however, can be derailed when management, employee and technology fail to ask the all-important question: What is the goal of this feedback?

Feedback can come in the form of accolade or constructive criticism, it can focus on strengths or weaknesses, but if it has no goal, it can be worse than worthless. Feedback without a purpose can be detrimental. Whether feedback helps reinforce positive behaviors, nip bad habits in the bud, or to improve employee performance, setting a goal for specific feedback can help give it even more meaning and attach it to an overarching goal. We don’t grade performance once a year anymore because it’s not specific enough nor helpful in today’s fast-paced learning and working environments. Why repeat the same bad practice in giving feedback?

Read more about the dreaded annual review here

iRevü is cognizant of the varying degrees and levels of feedback, and what outcomes they can induce. For that reason, when our clients give feedback, whether it’s daily, weekly, monthly or even every quarter, every piece of feedback must be placed within an appropriate category. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be discussing why we’ve built the product this way and what purpose it serves from every angle, manager or executive to employee and team member. The first goal we want to explore is Career Goals.

An employer or manager might select this option when they are giving criticism that is not chastising the employee for any wrongdoing, but rather showing them the proper way to do it in the future.

Bigger Picture

Employee: “I want to know my employer sees me as part of a larger picture than just my immediate deliverables. Receiving feedback with the Career Goals attached tells me my boss is thinking about me as integral to the company as a whole, and someone who will grow with it.”

68% of employees say their managers aren’t actively engaged in their career pathers development.

Manager’s Perspective: When I build out a constructive feedback iRevü, it’s important to me that my employee knows that it’s not an indication of misbehavior, but a piece of feedback designed to prepare them for the career paths we’ve built together.

Promote from Within

Employee: “A Career Paths indicator on an iRevü shows me I have the opportunity to move up in the organization and contribute in a bigger way than I previously thought. A simple nudge towards a different department, or an added responsibility means my boss is thinking of possible future promotions like I am.” The 2015 SHRM Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement report found that 42% of the workforce views an organization’s commitment to professional development as very important, yet only 23% are currently satisfied with their company’s development policies.

Manager: “When I build out an accolade within the iRevü system, attaching the Career Paths indicator helps me to focus on what I want this employee to achieve and aspire to. It helps cement goals and future positions as something to work toward together rather than just being another useless “atta boy”.”

Finding Fit

“Feedback is an opinion, grounded in observations and experiences, which allows us to know what impression we make on others.” ― Sheryl Sandberg @sherylsandberg

Employee: “Am I the right person for the job? It may be hard to hear, but feedback in the Career Paths department can help guide me towards a job or department more of my style and speed. They know more than me, and if they see my potential in a different area, I want to hear it!”

Manager: “I’ve used the Career Paths feature to guide employees who are struggling into a department or onto a team that is a better fit for their skills, aptitude and working style. Instead of pointing out that they are failing to meet goals in Dept. A, I can show them how their skills will work a little better in Dept. B. We’ve also used the feature to create a plan over months or even years for employees to move from one place to another within the organization, and frequently reminding them of those goals so they don’t get caught up in the day-to-day.”

Paving a Path

Pointed and specific feedback goals can help shape how opinions and evaluations are delivered and received. Helping to guide career development, internal promotion and the age young questions of cultural fit are all outcomes of Career Path feedback goals. When giving feedback do you categorize your goal? For employees, this option creates a better frame for the picture of feedback managers are often trying to create. For managers, it’s helpful to view feedback in the context of a specific internal goal, stripping feedback down from any emotional or in the moment entanglements.

When you conduct performance reviews, do you take the time to discover what goals it sets for you and the employee? If not, or if you feel you don’t have time, explore iRevü. Our system does this important work for you and frees you up to give you employees the feedback they need, as often as they need it.