How to Deliver Negative Feedback Fairly and Effectively

delivering negative feedback to your employees can be awkward uncomfortable and let's face it a little intimidating as a manager you may find yourself avoiding these conversations in an effort to spare and employees feelings or to preserve good working relationships welcome to HR over coffee a video series from the experts at HR 360 where we explore compelling and timely topics in HR and benefits management we understand your dilemma but we're here to tell you you aren't doing your employee any favors by withholding constructive criticism about where he or she needs to improve think about it their performance isn't up to par and by avoiding the uncomfortable conversation you're depriving them of the opportunity to make necessary changes we advocate providing constructive feedback regularly rather than waiting for a formal review that being said you do need to pay attention to the language you use when having these types of conversations most important you need to avoid any language or description of the employee that might be discriminatory according to state or federal labor law a good rule of thumb is to be factual and confine your comments to the employees performance rather than personality as these types of remarks can be interpreted as a personal attack an example of words to avoid would be descriptions such as sloppy or messy which sound like value judgments rather than an appraisal of performance well every workplace and situation is different the following are some guidelines and helpful suggestions on how to proceed start off by getting right to the point see something like the purpose of our meeting is or I called you here to discuss next outline where you're going with the conversation use openings such as I have a concern about or there's a problem with after that fill the employee in on what you know about the situation or performance gap preface your thoughts with phrases such as I saw or when I was informed of the problem I looked into it by next carefully outline the consequences that await if there is no improvement in performance try using phrases like if I see no improvement or according to company policy after you've communicated the problem and shared the consequences you need to hear what the employee has to say invite such dialogue with questions such as that's my take on this situation but what's your view or is that the way you see things when discussing the situation be careful not to use phrases such as I understand which can be misinterpreted to sound like you accept poor performance next communicate a plan of action be as clear as possible using phrases like you must or by our next meeting you will have finally summarize a conversation from both ends finishing up with an outline of each person's responsibilities going forward use starters such as you will and I will always commit to following up on the employees progress and set your next meeting up before you wrap up again delivering negative feedback isn't easy but it is critical to your employees performance and your company's success to learn more about our subscription options including our discipline and termination kit go to HR 360 comm and click on the products tab as a subscriber you will have access to a library of forms and documents including performance improvement plans that you can download and customize to help you through this process you

Channel: HR360Inc

Views: 95,762

Rating: 4.7906976 out of 5

Keywords: constructive criticism, delivering feedback, Feedback, Negative Feedback

Id: s76bX5ujl_4

Length: 4min 12sec (252 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 06 2014