While managers often feel uneasy about giving employee feedback, it’s essential for making positive changes in your business. We’ve provided our top employee feedback examples to help get you started.
Employee feedback sheds clarity on expectations, allows employees to learn through their mistakes, and helps them build confidence.
When managers don’t provide regular feedback, employees have no idea what they’re doing well or what they should improve on. In this post, we’ll look at some internal communications ideas and examples of effective employee feedback. We’ll also examine how exactly you can implement it the next time you speak with your staff.
What Is Employee Feedback?
Employee feedback is the process of sharing information with employees about their performance, skills, or behaviour at work. But it’s not just about dishing out criticism.
The goal of employee feedback is to direct staff towards practices and resources that will help them do their job better. It should also be geared towards recognizing and celebrating employee accomplishments.
But in order for feedback to serve its purpose, managers must listen as much as they share.
When feedback becomes a two-way stream, employees are more responsive to it. Employee feedback from employees can generate actionable ideas, and feedback to employees helps them know their ideas are appreciated and considered.
With ContactMonkey, you can turn your weekly newsletter into a two-way feedback stream using embedded pulse surveys. Pulse survey questions are a useful way to gather regular feedback from your employees about any number of issues.
Collect non-survey based feedback to improve your email design with our click maps feature. See how employees are interacting with your emails to improve design and get employees’ eyes on important information.
Managers can collect employee feedback straight from their internal newsletter, using a single internal email tool. Choose from a range of survey options, including emoji reactions, like buttons, or Employee Net Promoter Score survey questions (eNPS).
You can also turn on anonymous commenting to gather feedback on more sensitive topics. ContactMonkey also has anonymous email tracking, so if your organization internal or external regulations around email privacy you can still collect email metrics while maintaining your employees’ privacy.
Once you’ve sent your survey, ContactMonkey’s email tracking software lets you assess open rates and responses from our analytics dashboard.
Not sure how to word your survey, or unclear on what questions you should include? ContactMonkey has you covered. Our OpenAI ChatGPT integration allows you to generate email and survey copy based on prompts provided by you. Simply write your prompt and edit the suggestion provided by our AI integration!
You can also check out our library of free downloadable sample emails and pre-built email templates for a quick starting point for all your communications:
Why is Employee Feedback Important?
Employee feedback is important because it lets staff know where they stand and how they could do better.
When it’s thoughtfully delivered, employee feedback empowers employees to excel at their jobs. It also improves bonds between staff and management while opening room for a fluid two-way feedback stream.
And there are additional benefits to consider. For starters, effective employee feedback is directly linked to higher employee engagement and productivity.
In fact, when the right feedback is given at the right time, it can have incredibly positive long-term effects on employee performance, job satisfaction, and overall business outcomes.
But before you can reap the rewards, it’s important to understand the key components of effective feedback. Let’s get into it.
How to Give Effective Employee Feedback
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to feedback emails to employees. You’ll have to take into consideration the context in which you’re giving feedback, the severity of the situation, and the communication style that resonates best with your employees.
That being said, there are some best practices you should keep in mind when providing feedback:
- Be specific: give examples of situations, actions, and outcomes to back up your feedback.
- Show empathy: mistakes happen. Showing that you understand and want to find solutions together will ensure that employees are responsive rather than defensive to your feedback.
- Propose solutions: this is one of the main goals of employee feedback and shows that your objective is not to criticize but to make improvements.
- Listen to employee input: your employees may have suggestions for how you can help them do better or resources they’ll need to improve. Use ContactMonkey’s employee pulse survey software to embed surveys right into your email newsletter.
We’ve incorporated these best practices in our list of effective employee feedback examples.
20 Employee Feedback Examples and When You Should Use Them
Now that we know the core components of effective feedback, let’s look at some examples that can help guide managers.
Think of these employee feedback examples as templates for the sort of feedback you should give. Remember to tailor the examples to your specific workplace context and situation.
Positive employee feedback examples
It’s easy to come up with criticism when something goes wrong, but recognizing a job well done is just as important. Your employees should always know when and how they did well.
Recognition from managers shows staff that their hard work is valued and motivates them to keep up the progress. It also gives staff a clear idea of the benchmarks for excellence and how they can surpass them.
When providing positive feedback, be specific. Employees should understand what sort of skills, actions, or gestures generated the positive response so they know how to keep it up. If possible, mention particular skills, feedback, and data to back up your positive feedback.
Here are some of our favourite opportunities for providing feedback to employees, with examples:
1. You notice an employee performing well at a particular task
“You did an amazing job with the LIVE webinar yesterday! Our participant survey is showing some awesome feedback. Thanks so much for all your hard work – I really appreciate all your efforts in putting this together and ensuring that everything ran smoothly.”
2. You’d like to thank an employee for putting in extra effort into a task
“I really appreciate you putting in the extra effort during this busy quarter. I know that staying late isn’t easy, but our team truly values your hard work. Your positive attitude and drive have helped us all feel motivated during this stressful time.
3. You want to acknowledge an employee’s good qualities
“Thank you for always coming prepared to our weekly meetings with the senior management team. Your well-researched and thought-out ideas are always helping us move forward in our goals.”
4. You want to let your employee know that they’re setting a great example
“Your final draft looks terrific! Every part of the project clearly shows that you care a lot about your work and make efforts to do it correctly. I’m really looking forward to seeing what you do next and I hope you can share your process and results with the team.”
5. You see that an employee needs a boost in morale
“You’ve been doing a great job lately Gayle. You have a knack for adding creativity to any task and helping streamline tasks that help everyone on the team. You have grown a lot in your role since joining us. Thank you for all your hard work and let us know if there’s any way we can support you in your tasks.”
6. You want to call out actions you’d like to see become habits
“I’m really happy with how detail-oriented you were in this task. I understand it wasn’t an easy project, but I was confident that you could do it well. Your attention to detail makes it clear that you can continue to take on new challenges and grow with the company. We really value all your extra efforts.”
7. You notice that an employee shows strong leadership skills
“You showed strong leadership skills when you took the time to help Aaron get his proposal in on time. Seeing as you’re ahead on all your other projects, I would like to start talking through what you need to grow into a leadership role here.”
8. Your employee demonstrates effective conflict resolution
“You did an amazing job managing the conflict that happened during yesterday’s call with the client. Conflict will always come up, especially when we’re on deadline and our clients are equally stressed. But you knew exactly how to ensure that both sides felt heard. If it wasn’t for your quick and thoughtful response, I think we’d still be dealing with the conflict.”
9. You notice that an employee is effectively managing a challenge
“I noticed that there have been some very challenging days on the job lately due to the tightened internal communications budget. It’s incredible how you have managed to keep things running smoothly despite the added obstacles. I really value your hard work and perseverance.”
10. Your employee surpassed a team goal
“Sometimes I’ll get so centred on the data and numbers that I forget to celebrate the individual work that went into achieving our goal. For the past three months I’ve really relied on you to hit your goals and help guide our team to the monthly objective. You have honestly surpassed our expectations and set an amazing example for everyone on the team. Keep this up!”
Constructive employee feedback examples
As a manager, your job is to provide guidance to your employees and give them the necessary tools to do their job well. That includes offering constructive feedback.
Sometimes, this means flagging issues and starting conversations that may make you feel nervous at first.
But once you learn to deliver constructive feedback thoughtfully and make feedback the norm, it will become easier. It will also lead to more productive and solution-driven conversations.
Let’s review some common situations when constructive feedback may be needed and examples of how to articulate it:
1. You notice problematic behaviour
“A number of staff have reported hearing you share jokes that they found offensive. Our company has clear policies regarding this. Any comments that might cause offense to others are not welcome at our workplace and cannot be tolerated.”
2. Your employee fails to meet a deadline
“It sounds like you’ve been incredibly busy lately. Since we discussed getting this project completed by Friday, I wanted to check in to see your progress. Could you walk me through the steps you’ve completed since we last spoke?
3. There’s a change in your employee’s performance
“Sam, you’re one of our top account executives and you always impress us with your results. Recently, we’ve seen a decline in your sales. I wanted to ask if there is a reason for this change and if there’s any way we can help you reach your goals.”
4. You notice a staff member speaking over others or dismissing others’ input
“I can tell that you’re really passionate about this project. But at times, we’ve noticed that when you become excited, you don’t leave room for others to bring their ideas to the table. For example, I noticed that you spoke over Anna and Tom several times throughout the meeting. Did you also notice this?
5. You’re seeing underperformance in a particular project or task
“The results of our recent IT project were not as promising as we had hoped. From the team’s understanding, you intended to be more involved and take on additional responsibility. I’d like to hear your opinion on the outcomes of the project and plan how we can avoid future misunderstandings.”
6. Your employee makes a recurring mistake
“We noticed that the marketing materials that were recently mailed had the wrong logo. I know that digital assets can sometimes be challenging to manage, but I thought we had a solid process in place. I would like to get your opinion on how the mistake happened and how we can avoid it in the future.”
7. You notice that an employee is not prioritizing the right tasks
“I wanted to have a brief discussion about your priority tasks. Recently, I’ve noticed that you are doing great on projects (1) and (3), but we are behind on project (2). I like that you are personally invested and passionate in projects (1) and (3), but it’s vital that we prioritize the projects that align with our current monthly goals. Do you feel that you have all the needed tools and resources to shift focus to project (3)? Are there any tasks you could delegate in order to prioritize project (3)? Let’s review and set our objectives.”
8. An employee exhibits a persistently bad attitude
“I’ve noticed that you have recently been more disengaged and less optimistic about your work. It’s really important for me to ensure that you feel motivated and inspired in your work. Is there something happening that I’m not aware of? Do you feel like you have enough inspiration and challenge in your work? Could I do anything to help?”
9. There’s poor communication between you and your employee
“I’m wondering where we are with the marketing project. Are there any challenges that came up? If there are any issues, it’s good for me to know right away so I can help you and the team get back on track. Would you be able to shoot me a daily update just so I have an idea of where we are?”
10. An employee is frequently late
“I’ve noticed that you weren’t able to make it to our last few standup meetings. I’m worried that you missed important information, and that it may be challenging for other team members to provide the necessary updates and instructions. I would like to take some time to go over what you missed. In the long run, let’s develop a plan together to ensure that you don’t miss out on important information in the future.”
How ContactMonkey Can Help You Gather Better Employee Feedback
In order to get positive outcomes from your employee feedback, you need to ask for and act on staff suggestions as well.
With ContactMonkey’s employee engagement tool, you can easily include various employee newsletter ideas like collecting employee feedback.
Select from multiple survey options such as star ratings, emoji reactions, like buttons, or employee net promoter score (eNPS). Simply choose your preferred survey style from the sidebar options. Then, drag and drop your chosen survey right into your feedback email to employees.
For more in-depth and candid feedback from employees, switch on the anonymous comments feature on the top right-hand corner of your email template builder.
Whichever feedback option you choose, ContactMonkey’s employee feedback platform will let you easily track your survey responses with detailed analytics. That way, you can see exactly which areas of work your employees need help with and which resources or guidance can help them do the job. Not to mention, you’ll be showing your employees that their input is valued.
When it’s your turn to give feedback, your staff will already know that this is a strategy to make improvements rather than a sign of trouble.
Looking for feedback from a particular portion of your employees? ContactMonkey’s List Management feature makes it easy to build email lists so you can send surveys to different groups of employees. ContactMonkey integrates with your Human Resources Information System (HRIS) like Workday and ADP, as well as Azure Active Directory, so your custom email lists will automatically update as employees leave and join your organization.
Make Employee Feedback Straightforward
When you know how to deliver feedback effectively, you’re able to flag issues immediately and reinforce positive feats just as fast. The trick is to ensure your feedback is always respectful, solution-oriented, and empathetic. Using the examples in this post to guide you, you’ll be able to provide effective feedback to staff and build seamless feedback channels.
With great tools like ContactMonkey, employers can get the necessary insights to provide timely feedback. They’ll also foster an environment where feedback is the norm. Book your demo to discover how ContactMonkey can help you tap into the full benefits of employee feedback at your workplace.
