Why Employee Feedback is Important

Employee feedback is important because it because it can directly affect efficiency and production among any business or corporation. Feedback allows an employee to correct mistakes, learn of his or her strengths and weaknesses, and receive positive and uplifting feedback. The combination of all three of these things can all offer benefits to the company. An employee can learn and work on areas of work that they may struggle or have room to improve on. Also, it can offer an immediate solution to mistakes that need correcting and on the contrast an employee can receive praise and positive feedback for good work that overall may lift morale and enhance work life. By offering useful and effective feedback an employee can correct and improve on their work and most importantly become aware of the right and wrongs of their work and actions in the workplace.

Knowing this, managers and superior can give effective feedback to lead employees in a direction to improve production and efficiency in their work and for the company. As an employee you have a responsibility for you work and to be accountable for what work is done. And useful feedback can offer direction for an employee to fulfill their responsibilities and meet standards of managers and superiors. The problem arises when employees become defensive to feedback. Defensiveness to feedback can hinder production and efficiency and block an employee from reaching his or her own potential. Useful feedback comes with truthful critiquing of ones work and bringing mistakes or weaknesses to the forefront to solve problems and find solutions. It’s important that an employee can identify critiquing as useful, something that he or she does not take defense to but rather accepts and appreciates as an opportunity to get improve and get better. But not only is a positive and optimistic mindset from the employee crucial but the manager or superior who is offering criticism should not criticize in a harsh and judgmental manner but more so a directional and assisting approach to criticizing employee(s) and making them aware strengths, weaknesses, or areas to improve.

In any defensive reaction there is Fight or Flight. Fight being an angry, aggressive or rejective defense style. Flight on the other hand is a more passive accepting approach to avoid confrontation. In any criticism an employee can and will take defense in one of the two ways. To deal with such reactions appropriately knowing what to do is essential. Typically, in a fight defense one would allow the “criticized” to vent and encourage them to fully express their opinion (1). Most importantly in any fight reaction is active listening and allowing one to express their opinion and concerns. Dealing with flight reactions is different, instead a manager or supervisor offering criticism should not allow one to simply agree and move on but rather continue to focus on whatever deficiency until there is a complete understanding (1). In having the knowledge to understand and control both reactions appropriately it can lead to effect and useful criticism that can benefit the employee.