Culture Over Coffee
Culture Over Coffee
Why Aren’t Employees Receiving More Meaningful Feedback? With Kelly George
In this episode, we’re continuing our focus on ENGAGE 2024, our latest company culture and employee engagement report, by asking: “Why aren’t employees receiving more meaningful feedback?”
It’s here that we’ll discuss how essential it is for every organization to provide the development opportunities that their employees clearly crave.
Discussing the latest findings on People Development with me is the wonderful Kelly George, Talent Analyst/Engagement Specialist here at Up Your Culture.
Kelly offers such great points to think about, like:
- How developing your people not only results in a team that’s invested and competitive, but also leads to your workplace being an employer of choice
- Why it’s just as important to provide continuous feedback and development for company veterans as it is for fresher faces.
- And, finally, why it’s critical to not only celebrate and recognize top performance, but also the successes and improvements of the entire team
LINKS:
ENGAGE 2024: The Company Culture Report
Kelly George
Beth Sunshine
Up Your Culture
Hello and welcome to Culture Over Coffee, a podcast focused on improving company culture and fostering employee engagement. Every week, we chat with experts and thought leaders about the latest information and proven practices you can use to reduce regrettable turnover, increase productivity on your team and retain key customers. So pour a cup of your favorite brew and join us. I'm your host, beth Sunshine, SVP at Up your Culture and the Center for Sales Strategy. In this episode, we're continuing our focus on ENGAGE 2024, our latest company culture and employee engagement report, by asking why aren't employees receiving more meaningful feedback? Here we'll discuss how essential it is for every organization to provide the development opportunities that their employees clearly crave.
Beth Sunshine:Discussing the latest findings on people development with me is Kelly George, talent analyst and Engagement Specialist here at Up your Culture. Kelly offers such great points to think about, like how developing your people not only results in a team that's invested and competitive, but also leads to your workplace being an employer of choice. Why it's just as important to provide continuous feedback and development for company veterans as it is for new hires. To provide continuous feedback and development for company veterans as it is for new hires. And, finally, why it's critical to not only celebrate and recognize top performance, but also the successes and improvements of the entire team. Hi Kelly, thank you for joining me today for Culture Over Coffee. I've been really looking forward to this.
Beth Sunshine:This season we're going to break down all that we learned from the Engage 2024 Culture Report, and today we're going to focus on one of my favorite topics. I think I told you it's going to be a meaty conversation because we're going to be talking about employee development, so I appreciate you coming and talking with me about the trends that we're spotting and for providing our listeners with insight that they can actually walk away with and use. So cool stuff, ready to get started.
Kelly George:Let's get going. Yeah, I keep saying our Engage 2024 report. It just gets better and better every year, so it's really fun to look at some of the data today.
Beth Sunshine:I agree to look at some of the data today, I agree Well. After spending time with it recently, I really noticed how the survey data connected to how we are growing and developing our people, and I found it concerning to see a pretty steep decline in a number of areas. People development is a critical area. It can have a significant impact both on the success of an individual employee but also on that of the organization. So first I would love you to start by just sharing your perspective on why employee development is important and then maybe talk about the potential consequences that can happen when that development is neglected.
Kelly George:Yeah, I mean. For me, employee development is quite simply just a must. It is a non-negotiable. If you want a skilled, engaged and adaptable workforce that is successful and competitive, you have to invest in employee development and when you get it right, there's so many things that you have as benefits. You have improved performance, improved productivity because you have employees who are engaged and what I love is that they have the right skills and knowledge to perform well in their roles. So you also really reduce your turnover costs because you're allowing people to really grow in their careers and, I think, probably most important right now, you have a reputation as an employer of choice so that you can recruit the top talent that you need.
Kelly George:So, talking about consequences, without strong employee development, your organization isn't going to realize those benefits. So, just for example, without a strong employee development program, you're not going to have standards for training in place to ensure that your employees have access to and can follow best practices. That's going to have a negative impact on your organization's ability to have consistent and high quality products or services. So one of the things we saw in our Engage 2024 report the data said clearly we have a development deficit and only 37% of those surveyed reported that their company is extremely focused on their development and that, as you said, beth, is down 51% from last year, which is so disheartening. And, even worse, 15% believe that their company isn't focused on employee development at all.
Beth Sunshine:I find that shocking. I mean 15% feeling completely neglected. And as newer generations enter the workforce, we know how important development is to them, even potentially more than some of the generations before them. So, considering that drop in numbers, what factors do you believe contribute to so many of those survey respondents feeling like they're lacking? They're lacking in professional growth and development and their company investing in them.
Kelly George:Yeah, as you said, more than ever, especially younger employees, really want to feel connected to the mission of organizations, so having that growth and development, it's so important.
Kelly George:Some of the factors that come to my mind when I think of this pretty immediately are having a high turnover in the organization.
Kelly George:Another factor would be lack of recognition, where you have employees not feeling valued or appreciated I touched earlier on the inadequate training programs but having unclear career paths.
Kelly George:I mean we know that paths are not vertical the way that they used to be. We have more of that lattice than a ladder approach, but not having clarity there on career paths. And I think, especially when you have another factor, when you have a company culture without coaching, support or feedback, just not having that psychological safety in place to explore, growing, stretching and developing. I mean we know when companies focus on culture it pays off and we know, as you said, employees want to feel they're working in an environment where they have structured processes, where there's financial investment and growth, where there's consistent and regular feedback channels and coaching and resources that are supportive for their professional growth and development. And you know, one of the things we found is and this is sad as well one of the most neglected groups included the newly onboarded, those from zero to six months and the veterans who have stuck by their companies for six to eight years. So a whopping 27% of new hires and 25% of the veterans say their companies are not focused on their development at all.
Beth Sunshine:Wow. So digging into that a bit more specifically, focusing on the new hires that are feeling that way, why do you think that they are being particularly overlooked when it comes to development? I would think that common sense. They're new, you got to train them, so why are they feeling as though their companies are not investing in them? Do you think?
Kelly George:Two things really come to mind here for me and I'm glad we're looking at this specifically. One is the onboarding process. If you have an onboarding process that's rushed or it doesn't have structure, I think new hires feel really overwhelmed and unsupported from the very beginning right. And then, without that proper guidance, that orientation, they really struggle to integrate into the organization and understand their role. In that broader context, I think also mismatched expectations If there's a mismatch between a new hire's expectations and the reality of how the role is unfolding or the organization's culture, the employees that are new often feel disillusioned or overlooked. So it's really important to have that clear communication in the hiring process to manage expectations, make sure there's alignment between the organization and new hires. That's great.
Beth Sunshine:And I actually want to dig in a bit more to the power of good expectations, but I also don't want to leave something else you said hanging. So first I want to hear from you about those veteran employees, because you shared that the lack of development was really hitting new employees as well as those who have been there for a while pretty hard. So, looking at them, why do you think that organizations are failing when it comes to the development ongoing development of long-term employees?
Kelly George:Yeah, I think this is really interesting and, and thinking through this data, I mean, one thought I have here is what I would say is assumption of competence. So I think organizations often mistakenly believe that their veterans and veteran employees, because they have experience, because they have tenure, they don't need further development. And I think when you have that oversight, that can really lead to a lack of investment in training and upskilling opportunities and then those veteran employees can feel stagnant. So I think there is that I would, you know, kind of call it assumption of competence that can be misleading. And the other is, if you have high turnover rates and you're really focused on the hiring and retaining of new talent to replace those who leave, you might have resources that are disproportionate in how they're allocated, so going more toward new hires and neglecting the development needs of veteran employees.
Beth Sunshine:That's a really good point, one that I think you know many of us forget. And it's also interesting what you were saying about assuming that veteran employees know what they're doing, they are consistently performing. When you look at top athletes, the best musicians, those people are constantly practicing, they all have coaches, they're all developing. It is always so interesting to me that that doesn't translate into the more traditional business world Me too. What proactive steps can leaders take to ensure that they get this right, that they are consistently and effectively developing their people?
Kelly George:Yeah, exactly To what you're saying. We should always be learning and growing and, first and foremost, I would tell one of the steps I would say for leaders is don't be complacent, make the investment, allocate resources for employee development. Another thing is periodically conducting training needs assessment, so assessing skill, skills and knowledge gaps in your organization right through surveys, performance evaluations, feedback sessions. You can take this information and really identify areas where employees need development and then tailor training programs accordingly. The other thing is another step providing continuous feedback. So you want to make sure managers are providing ongoing feedback to employees about their performance, their strengths, their areas for improvement.
Kelly George:When you have that constructive feedback, employees can understand well where are my development needs and where are the areas where I can grow. So you want to understand what's unique about each employee and create those priority coaching strategies that are customized for that individual's unique talents coaching strategies that are customized for that individual's unique talents. Another is making sure that everyone has an individual development plan, working with employees to make sure they have development plans that align with their career goals and their aspirations. So these should be their learning objectives, milestones and timelines for growth. We also work with companies to create engagement plans for employees. And then, I think, you know, fostering that culture of learning, as we were saying, that we see in other areas, that sometimes not in business, but that area of and culture of learning, and providing the psychological safety for employees to give and receive feedback and try new things and continue, you know, to stretch and grow.
Beth Sunshine:I like that you pointed out the importance for individualized management. You talked about a few different tools and a few different philosophies on just understanding each unique individual and coaching them to their unique needs. I'm glad you did you also. And coaching them to their unique needs, I'm glad you did you also. Kind of going back to the point you made about setting clear expectations, I'd love to zero in on that a little bit more, because the Engage 2024 survey shed some interesting light on the significant number of employees and managers who express that they are unclear about what is expected of them at work, and we know that that can hinder their ability to meet targets. So my question for you is how can managers more effectively communicate expectations so that the people they're managing are well-informed and they feel well-equipped to succeed in their role?
Kelly George:Yeah, that's such a great question and let's look at the data. It was really striking. So only 62% of people said they have a clear understanding of what is expected of them at work. It's pretty amazing 38% of managers and 34% of employees reported that they need more insight to successfully aim for their targets. And there were some respondents 9% that said they're not clear at all on what is expected of them at work.
Kelly George:So this tells us employees and managers feel like they're shooting at targets while blindfolded, and there are several things managers can do to help with clear role expectations. One is providing clear job descriptions. So you want to start ensuring that each role within your organization has a clear and detailed job description. So this document really needs to outline the responsibilities, the expectations, the goals and performance indicators for each role. We use a wonderful tool, the Job Analysis and Spec Sheet at CSS and Up your Culture to clearly define what is needed for a role, setting clear expectations and then matching with the required talents that you need for success in that role, and then having those open dialogues we talked about that feedback loop scheduling one-on-one meetings with each employee.
Kelly George:Let's discuss their role, the responsibilities and the and using this time as an opportunity to clarify questions or concerns and make sure there's that alignment between their goals and the goals of the organization. We want to have smart goals, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound, to make sure that the goals are aligned with their role and the overall objectives of the team and the organization. That, as we said earlier, that broader mission and vision of the organization. And I just can't say enough about keeping that feedback loop going, just providing regular feedback. So this is about performance, about strengths, about areas for improvement and progress, being specific, being constructive, being very timely and regular in that feedback and having that psychological safety for open communication to talk about challenges and talk about obstacles.
Beth Sunshine:So let's pivot to that topic of feedback, because it's a really interesting one and it's evident from the survey that there is a decline in the number of people who are receiving effective feedback. We know that can get in the way of their development. So, starting with kind of the simple question we often receive feedback is often misconstrued. Often feedback is associated with negativity, so it's seen as a negative thing, but we know how important it is for growth. So would you start by just defining effective feedback for us?
Kelly George:Yes, thank you, beth. I'm so glad you're taking us there. We all have to have feedback. How can we improve if we don't know how we're doing so?
Kelly George:For me, feedback is about how we foster growth, how we improve our performance and how we align with the goals of the organization, and I think it should be very constructive. It should offer clear, actionable advice rather than just criticism. It should be very specific to behaviors or outcomes that we can improve or we can adjust, and we should make sure feedback is timely and regular. We said that before, but providing feedback soon after an observed behavior or outcome, that just keeps that fresh and more meaningful and helps with that transfer of the feedback and the learning. So here's what we learned in our data. Right now, only 45% of those surveyed told us 45% that they receive frequent feedback, daily or weekly at work, and more than one in three people receive feedback no more than four times a year. Some 12% share that they never received meaningful feedback at all, and all of these numbers have fallen from last year. So it's very clear that people are feeling more neglected.
Beth Sunshine:They are and I'm glad you've got that data to really illustrate this for us. There's clearly a deficit. We know people are hungering for this and it's interesting when you think about the way. Let's picture a high school or college or even an NFL football team how, during practice or even games, often their coach will film them so that later they can go to the film room and they can go through that tape and they can see very, very specifically what they did, because when you're in the moment, it's hard to also watch yourself in that moment.
Beth Sunshine:We have always learned as a best practice that the ratio of positive to negative feedback is five to one. So watching that game tape, a good coach is typically going to point out, at about a five to one ratio, some things that need to be changed or improved, but also some things are like look right there, that's exactly what we're looking for. Do that again, do it more, do it bigger. That is so magical and it just it's hard to imagine employees in the workforce not having that game tape, not having any way to know how they're performing and also not hearing it from someone else around them. So striking and I appreciate you sharing that. Sticking with that topic of feedback. With all the responsibilities that a manager needs to juggle, how do they make this happen? Finding time for it can be hard. You were saying, I think, that daily or weekly frequent is best. So what can a busy manager do who feels like they don't have time for this, to provide consistent and constructive feedback?
Kelly George:Yeah, certainly it is challenging. But I think, most importantly for managers, making time and priority to receive your own feedback is just as important as providing feedback for your employees. Managers cannot pour from an empty cup, so we always want to start, you know, with ourselves and work from there. But I think you know, scheduling that regular check-in, blocking off dedicated time in your calendar for the regular one-on-one meetings with your direct reports, even if they're short but they're on a regular, frequent schedule weekly, bi-weekly that's really important and we always say show me your calendar and I can show you your priorities.
Kelly George:And then, using technology, leveraging technology, you can use email messaging, app, project management platforms for specific, quick feedback. We have weekly check-ins that we share to have that feedback loop of the giving and receiving of information in real time. And you can also incorporate feedback into your team meetings. Maybe dedicate a portion of your existing meetings, such as a sales meeting or a pipeline review, to providing feedback to the individuals and the team. This can be a very time efficient way that you can bring that regular feedback in without needing additional meetings and I think, the other I would bookend with how important it is for managers to have this for themselves with creating that culture of feedback, also Empowering your team. So encourage that culture of peer feedback. Employees can provide valuable insights with each other based on the experiences they share, with each other based on the experiences they share, and this reduces the feedback burden, often on managers and it also fosters that collaborative team environment.
Beth Sunshine:I like that. All right, we've reached our last topic of the day, which is a hot one, something that I know we work with a lot of our clients to get right, and that is recognition. The survey shows a growing number of employees feel underappreciated and we saw a very significant shift from last year's survey. So it kind of made me stop and pause and really want to talk to you about this. So again, you shared what feedback is, effective feedback, but could you clarify the distinction between feedback and recognition and also tell a little bit about why each one of those is valuable in its own right?
Kelly George:Yeah, that's a really important thing to clarify. So I think of feedback as a tool right for personal and professional development, ensuring that your people are continuously improving and contributing effectively. Now, when I think about recognition, I think of this more as the acknowledgement and appreciation of an individual's contributions, their achievements, their efforts. So, a little bit differently than feedback, which I think is more focused on areas for improvement, I think of recognition emphasizing positive reinforcement and reinforcement of desired behaviors. So this could be praise, awards, a bonus, a promotion or just a simple thank you right, an appreciation or gesture of gratitude.
Kelly George:And when I think about the value of recognition, I think the value lies in its power to motivate and reinforce the behaviors that really lead to success. So when we celebrate achievements, managers, can that can go such a long way toward boosting morale, increasing engagement and really encouraging that culture of excellent recognition. We all feel so good right when we receive it, so it makes us feel valued. To what we were saying earlier from the data, people want to feel valued, they want to feel appreciated, and it really can lead also to increased loyalty and an even stronger commitment to the goals of the team. So I think feedback provides that roadmap for improvement and development and recognition helps ensure that everyone feels valued and motivated to continue contributing their best, and I think they're both really, really important and you know, equally so.
Beth Sunshine:Yeah, they are. And just kind of boiling down what you said, it sounds like feedback is really about behaviors and performance every day and recognition is about the outcome. I think you used the word outcome or achievement. It's about the end result, kind of tying a bow on what you achieved after doing all of that work every day. So interesting, interesting way to share it, thank you. I know that recognition plays a vital role in motivation and satisfaction and I'd love to hear why you think and you might've touched on this already why is it so important for people to feel?
Kelly George:motivated, mm-hmm. Yeah, this was some of the data that really I found most interesting. So this year's survey showed that many people 41% don't report receiving the recognition they believe they deserve for a job well done, and this number has grown significantly from last year it was 29%. So people are really feeling undervalued, they're feeling underappreciated and I think it's important to say this includes both employees and managers. So if we celebrate achievements, you know, with recognition managers, we can really help with boosting morale, increasing engagement, really strengthening the performance and team collaboration and encouraging that culture of excellence we talked about earlier. So, you know, recognition it makes people feel valued and appreciated and that's its power.
Beth Sunshine:So what advice would you give to managers to get better at recognizing those on their teams?
Kelly George:Yeah, there are several things, Spotlight successes. So regularly put the spotlight on activities and the successes of your team that really define the culture you're trying to build. So this could be in your team meetings, in your company newsletters or a dedicated recognition board. In our engagement work, we help companies set up their own culture committees to support and have fun with this. I also think defining and sharing your values. You need to clearly share what you want your team to stand for. Recognition needs to align with these core values, ensuring that the behaviors you're celebrating really are aligned and contribute to the brand and the culture you're aiming to build. And celebrate, celebrate, celebrate not just top performers, but also recognizing the efforts and improvements of the entire team. So, again, this goes a long way toward motivating and encouraging that culture of continuous improvement.
Kelly George:I think another thing that works really well is having a culture where team members recognize each other's contributions, peer recognition. This is super motivating and helps build that supportive team environment. We have this every week in our real-time recognition on our employee Facebook page, which is wonderful, and it's a great way to hear what your peers are doing, celebrate with them and also recognize them for things that they're doing so wonderfully and yeah, and just remember, it doesn't always have to be monetary. Again, our real-time recognition page, I mean it could be public acknowledgement, it could be extra time off, a personal note of thanks. So there are all kinds of different ways that can really, you know, meet all the diverse preferences of your team members around recognition.
Beth Sunshine:Thank you for sharing all of those ideas and your expertise with us. I enjoyed spending time with you talking culture over coffee. You shared a lot of good information, great ideas. I'm sure our listeners have found it valuable. So for those listening, we are going to drop Kelly's LinkedIn information in the show notes. You can connect with her if you're interested, and then we'll also add a link to the Engage 2024 company culture report so you can dig into it yourself as we wrap up. Just a reminder to us all that a strong company culture starts with you. Thank you everyone. Thanks so much for spending time with us on Culture Over Coffee. If you've enjoyed the conversation, be sure to subscribe and join us for every episode. For more helpful information on the topics of company culture and employee engagement, visit us at upyourculturecom.
