A lot of companies these days have adopted the continuous Feedback mechanism in their performance practices. Continuous feedback is very integral to performance management and employee engagement. Continuous feedback practices play an important role in increasing employee productivity. However, there are still a few companies that fail to engage their employees due to their age-old performance practices. Most companies that follow annual performance reviews, often have a problem with employee engagement because there is no frequent communication happening among the employees and the managers. Goals are reviewed only on an annual basis. 

Among the millennial generation, it would be a mistake to conduct performance reviews annually, because of two reasons: first, traditional practices are complex, and complex performance processes put them off. It leads to disengagement. Secondly, they are impatient individuals who hunt for career growth opportunities, and when they don’t see growth, the switch to different jobs. According to a study conducted by Gallup on millennial engagement, “44 percent of Millennials say they are more likely to be engaged when their manager holds regular meetings with them. But only 21 percent of millennials meet with their manager on a weekly basis.”  

The thing with millennial employees is that they want just more than annual reviews. They want instant feedback. They want their goals to be reviewed periodically because they want to know if they are going on the right track. Even if an organization does conduct annual performance reviews, they need to incorporate a culture of continuous feedback because they want regular feedback if not instant feedback. Moreover, continuous feedback also paves way for learning opportunities, so that employees can constantly try to improve their capabilities and identify their strengths and weaknesses. Managers can know what strategies work best and what don’t.  

In this article, let us discuss the benefits of creating a continuous feedback culture:  

Employee engagement 

Continuous feedback drives employee engagement by making it more employee centric and growth driven. Continuous conversations help in terms of providing constructive feedback to employees and motivates them to learn and grow. Employees can share their ideas and get guidance from their superiors when they face issues. Continuous feedback acts as a platform through which employees as well as managers can monitor their progress on employee goals. This builds trust between employees and managers. 

Goal management 

With continuous feedback, organizations can drive high performance by reviewing goals on a real-time basis. Moreover, continuous feedback helps in measuring goals periodically leading to a high-performing work culture and healthy goal management. This is because such a mechanism is again focused on individual development, which ultimately leads to business growth. With continuous feedback, managers can set SMART goals for employees and communicate the business objectives to the employees for better alignment of goals. This way, managers can track the fulfillment of those goals on a real-time basis. Managers can identify issues in a timely manner and create effective solutions. 

Collaboration 

Continuous feedback improves peer recognition. Peers can give instant feedback to the others and appreciate them. This creates a positive feedback culture where everyone collaborates with each other and work towards their company objectives. Moreover, peers can help each other when an employee faces issues fulfilling those goals.  

Employee recognition 

Since you bring in employee appreciation, peer recognition and instantly, employees will feel valued and they will be motivated to contribute more to the organization. When we bring in recognition through continuous feedback, it ensures that the workplace culture is fun and exciting for the millennials. This way employees would cherish their work environment because they get constant appreciation and they get inspired from the other employees. 

Employee Development  

We had established earlier that employees hunt for opportunities for career growth especially millennials. Therefore, employees can work on their interpersonal skills and the skills required for their job. This happens through feedback received from managers and peers. Feedback helps employees get an overall perspective about themselves, their strengths and weaknesses, and use them as opportunities to learn. 

Continuous performance 

Performance reviews accompanied with continuous feedback helps employees to track their progress on employee goals on a regular basis. Companies could incorporate continuous feedback practices with their traditional performance reviews. Continuous feedback mechanism helps streamline employee engagement, employee self-development, goals management and performance appraisals. 

Conclusion 

A continuous feedback culture helps streamline communication by ensuring that it is specific and unbiased. Employees get recognition in a timely manner. It helps in better goal alignment and collaboration since there is room for open dialogue. This again helps employees and managers to anticipate obstacles and resolve them effectively. 

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