As the working environment changes and working relationships become more informal, Randstad – one of the world’s largest HR solution agencies – found out in its survey that real-time feedback is finding its way more into the workforce these days as it gives employees a chance to ask for new growth opportunities as they present themselves, or raise any red flags before it is too late.
In fact, in Singapore, 49% of the employers have adopted the use of real-time feedback to monitor productivity and to share a response on how to improve using the context of a current situation.
More than 7 in 10 respondents (72%) revealed that they feel comfortable in giving and receiving feedback to their managers. In addition, 73% said that they work in an open environment where feedback can be share with each other, including their managers, at any time.
However, despite working in an environment where instant feedback is encouraged, the survey found out that 88% of respondents still feel that performance review is a session that is used by the manager to give them feedback and 47% of them said that they still have regular annual performance reviews. In fact, 15% of respondents felt that they do not have the opportunity to speak out about their career aspirations or concerns at work.
Most employees consider giving and receiving feedback as a positive thing as it helps them have a clear understanding of what they need to achieve and how to do it (60%), encourages open communication (49%), and helps them learn and develop (45%).
But, these people do not look forward to receiving or giving feedback to their colleagues and managers as they feel vulnerable (32%), do not know how to react (29%) and feel uncomfortable (26%).
It is also written in the survey results that feedback is shared between colleagues does not always need to highlight areas of improvement; it can also be recognising someone on the team for a job well done. The balance between sharing positive and negative feedback helps point the employees in the right direction of growth, motivate them to be more productive and collaborative as well as promote employee loyalty.
As such, jumping on the bandwagon of real-time feedback, in 2018, Randstad has completely gotten rid of its annual graded performance and replaced it with “Great Conversations”. Under the new practice, managers and employees engage in an open discussion to share and receive feedback on their work performance, as well as discuss opportunities for growth and the kind of support they hope to have.
To facilitate these conversations, the company organises training session for all of its employees so that they would feel more comfortable and confident with receiving and giving feedback to each other.
Jos Schut, Global Chief Human Resource Officer at Randstad said, “We moved from the traditional backward-looking appraisal process to a future-oriented process using real-time feedback to make the conversations meaningful, aspirational and progress-focussed. This new approach made sure all of our employees have the opportunity to provide and receive frequent feedback to improve their performance, something the traditional appraisal process didn’t offer.
