Getting Started with Feedback Activities

Tips for admins to help prepare for your Feedback feature launch

7Geese avatar
Written by 7Geese
Updated over a week ago

This guide will help you get started on creating and launching your Feedback activities in Talent Development.


Get to Know Feedback

Feedback Features in Talent Development Pro

Here are some resources to help you get familiar with the Feedback features in Talent:

Video Walkthrough

Job Aid


Launching Feedback Activities

Types of Feedback Requests

  • Feedback for You: Feedback requested directly by the individual. This feature allows individuals to seek development feedback at any time, using any template they wish to use. Admins can upload their own templates into the template library. There are multiple ways people can use this feature such as seeking feedback during the onboarding process (i.e. 30, 60 and 90 day progress updates), after the delivery of a project, to help provide evidence for a promotion or internal opportunity, or to gather feedback on specific areas of development an individual is working on such as presentation skills.

  • Feedback for Coworkers: Feedback requested by either a Manager or Admin on behalf of an individual. This feature allows an Admin or Manager to request feedback on behalf of others and combine, filter and summarize feedback responses into one report that can be debriefed with the individual. This feature is typically used as part of a more formalized feedback process, such as multi-rater feedback for Reviews. There are a range of templates available in the template library or you can customize your own.

  • Company & Teams Surveys: Feedback requested for a group, team or entire company such as an e-NPS or lightweight engagement survey. Companies often use this feature for a variety of purposes if they are looking for feedback on events, wellness, engagement, or manager effectiveness to name a few. Managers can also use this feature to seek feedback from their teams. Check out the e-book for company surveys by Paycor if you are looking for more ideas on how to best use this feature.

Feedback Cadences

  • There is often a lot of variation in how feedback is applied. For individual developmental feedback, it is recommended that these are conducted every six months or immediately after key projects or deliverables. Some companies prefer to trigger these as a mandatory part of a review process, while others prefer to leave the onus of requesting feedback on the department or individual to determine when they prefer to do so. For company surveys, regular sentiment surveys are typically recommended to ensure you have a regular pulse on your people.

Creating Your Feedback Template

  • Questions. There are a variety of templates available for ideas on what is possible with the Feedback feature. Many customers customize feedback templates to include their company competencies and core value frameworks. If you do decide to create your own survey, there are some great tips in the company survey e-book referenced above.

  • Test it out first! If this is the first time you are running your survey, it is recommended to run a quick pilot test with a smaller group or simply complete the survey as a respondent yourself and iterate before sending it out. This is a great way to test out whether you need to re-word questions or use different question types to gather the data you need.

  • Note: consider the context of the question being asked, who they are asked about, and who is responding so that you can frame the question accordingly. For example, when creating a Feedback for Coworkers request consider using 3rd person pronouns if sending them on behalf of more than one person: “What should they/this person keep doing?”. A Feedback for Me request would look like “What should I keep doing?”. A Company & teams request could look like “What should this department/[Company name] keep doing?”

Training & Communication

  • Communicate. In your communications it is important to include a timeframe for completion, an estimation of the time commitment it will take, what the data will be used for and whether data is going to be anonymous or not. If the feedback gathered is in any way identifiable this needs to be clearly outlined. It is also important to be extremely clear around whether these are forming part of a performance evaluation process. To enhance completion rates, set a few reminders as part of your workflow to nudge participants along.

  • Train & Provide Support. Feedback may be a confronting process, especially if this is new to your people. It is always recommended to ensure your Feedback processes provide people with adequate preparation including supporting material and training on how to give and receive feedback (i.e. tips around good frameworks to incorporate). Managers in particular should be provided with support around how to effectively debrief feedback with their teams or if this is a company or team survey, how to action findings within their team to close the feedback loop.


After the Feedback Period

Closing the Feedback Loop

  • Clarify and Analyze Results: As responses and summary data comes in, ensure there is time set aside to review and clarify with responders the feedback they provided, this is important for Managers to get context for their debrief conversations. As you are analyzing and summarizing the results, you can initiate a conversation with individual responders on their feedback, ensuring that you have captured and will share the key messages in their feedback (you can also request further clarification on responses and people can reply anonymously!).

  • Communicate Results. Communicating and debriefing the feedback results in a timely manner is as important as the feedback planning and preparation. Whether this is in a 1-on-1 feedback setting or on a company level for company surveys, sharing what insights and actions you are taking from the feedback is critical to ensure people know their feedback has been incorporated. This reinforces that taking part was worth their time, so they will likely do it again if you run another feedback process in the future.

  • Action Findings and Support Change. Whether it be for individual development or company surveys, ensure that clear actions are taken to support changes as a result of the feedback. Ensure you assign ownership and accountability for these actions and that they have the resources to make changes happen.


Resources

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