Safety and trust, one of the most important elements in giving feedback. In practice, we often notice that in many organizations it is still (unfortunately) a habit to talk about each other instead of with each other. Many people find it difficult to address someone about his/her behavior, even when it is positive. We are naturally defensive when receiving feedback. Do you want to avoid this? Then safety and trust crucial. Resistance among people occurs when there is no longer trust. Then people lose the willingness to cooperate and thus to give each other valuable feedback. We talked about this with Wanda Ploeg, HR manager at Unique.
"Evolutionarily speaking, it's almost impossible to cope well with feedback. It feels like a certain kind of confrontation that you would really rather stay away from," Wanda says. So giving and receiving feedback is difficult. At Unique, they started two years ago to improve and optimize the employee journey. In doing so, they examined what employees actually need. When they started on this journey, the career paths were very traditionally set up; you come in, get trained, then you become a senior and eventually a manager. "We noticed that this didn't always work. In our case, the biggest reason for leaving was that people were not getting enough depth in their area of expertise. That's why we introduced a new way of working in that area as well. An employee is constantly developing and with that it's good that someone is also constantly talking about this development."
"Our employees are now responsible for their own own development . We, as an organization, facilitate everything around that. We provide all the tools, education and training you need to be successful, but the direction is in the hands of the employees themselves." All of these developments are directly linked to feedback. Feedback aims to make others but also the organization and your team better. However, implementing feedback within your organization is not always easy either. "Only when you really feel safe and appreciated is it possible. So safety and trust is crucial. In addition, it also just takes time. Our employees have received this new way of working very well, but we are far from there yet. At Unique we have a very clear ambition with a clear intention, the development towards it and the changes in the system go hand in hand. I also think that you cannot work on a culture where we give feedback to each other if at the same time you still maintain a system in which you are assessed."
Back to safety and trust. Because who is actually responsible for safety and trust within teams? "I think you are jointly responsible for this. Of course, the manager is responsible for the team, so he or she has to make sure it stays alive. But ultimately my ambition is also for everyone to be culture carriers within the organization." According to Wanda, feedback also works best when something is going on. That's also when it often has the most impact. The ideal situation, of course, is that everyone understands that it is meant to make each other better and that everyone feels appreciated."
"What helps in giving feedback is getting the feeling out. That may sound a little weird, but there are many online tools available that can help you do that. We also use an online tool at Unique. Feedback via an online tool only works when you describe situations without judgment. After all, everyone reads the text from their own perspective. I would therefore advise everyone to start with face to face feedback. And perhaps before that, with giving a good compliment. At Unique, we have trained employees to articulate feedback factually. Tell what happened, what the effect was and ultimately the consequence. Afterwards, tie an action to it directly that tells how to do better next time. That's how you complete it."
In short, safety and trust are important conditions for feedback. "I think those two elements comprise the biggest part of feedback. It says a lot about how you interact with your colleagues and how you as HR have set up your system and processes," Wanda concludes.