Buddha said that desire is the root cause of suffering. We can also say that desire is the root cause of functioning. A baby desires to become a boy overnight; the boy wants to become a man too soon.
Even if an employer provides his employees with the best environment of today, the best of best still crave for better and better. Like the generation gap and the communication gap, there is a satisfaction gap among the employees. Optimum theory of satisfaction starts operating. The hungry man would consider his first bread as a jewel, and his last bread as a pebble. Even if an employee gets everything he wants, he is not fully satisfied. Why? Job satisfaction is not really a job’s satisfaction. Soul satisfaction and sole satisfaction of an employee is commonly, rather incompletely, called job satisfaction.
If body is for this world, soul is for the next. We can also say that body is for today and soul is for tomorrow. The best employees of a company demand that tomorrow today itself. How do they visualize that tomorrow and that future? What will be their ideal future job and ideal future company?
What is their ideal company?
Their ideal company will be customer friendly as well as employee friendly. That company will totally meet the ventilation need of the employees. That company will fulfill their urge of participation. It will quench their thirst for skills development. It will provide them next generation technology. It will pay them well. It will be an employer managed company and also an employee managed company. Is this really possible? Yes, it is possible if the right focus is given to performance management in that company. This is possible if multi-channel feedback system is adopted; it will immensely boost the employee morale. Then you can retain the top talent and subtly guide the lesser talent.
Continuous Interactions & Feedback
In an article published in Forbes, John Bersin condemns the conventional annual review. It is nearly impossible to remember a year’s worth of activity and do any changes at the end of the year. Course corrections should happen as soon as possible. They cannot wait for annual reviews. For fifteen years, Bersin fought against the annual review based performance appraisals. Many companies resisted him. But Adobe, Accenture, Deloitte and Kelly Services accepted the policy of continuous feedback. General Electric Company with 300,000 employees agreed to try continuous feedback.
Continuous feedback ensures the dynamic nature of the work environment, constant employee growth and skill development. Employee goals and performance process are frequently reviewed and suitably updated. By opening communication lines with the employees, the proposed changes are discussed. Discussion based goal setting is implemented. It helps the manager to provide role clarity. It keeps track of employee’s progress. It motivates and appreciates employee efforts. It develops good working relationship between manager and employee. It enables an organization to cultivate engaged employees for the fulfillment of organizational objectives. So, the focus shifts towards real-time, ongoing, constructive feedback.
In corporate context, continuous feedback helps them to overcome the recency bias. As it enables the involvement of all the stake-holders, personal bias is neutralized. Individual tendency to leniency or strictness is avoided. The varied inputs of the involved stake-holders prevent the central tendency bias. It facilitates the discussion of each relevant point at the time of occurrence. Thus, an honest and objective feedback is available. As a result, employees are suitably engaged and fully absorbed in their work. They become very enthusiastic about their job and take positive action to further the reputation and interests of their organization. In 2015 Survey of Globoforce in collaboration with the Society of Human Resource Management, it is reported that value based recognition has a strong impact among employees: engagement is 90% and retention is 68%.
360 Degree Feedback
360 degree feedback is the other dimension which supplements or complements the continuous feedback. In this process, employees receive confidential anonymous feedback from the people who work around him: an employee’s manager, peers, and direct reports. Eight to twelve people fill out an anonymous feedback form that asks questions about work-place competencies, strength, area of improvements, what should continue, what should stop, etc.. 360 degree feedback brings us better understanding of strength and weakness. It automatically tabulates the results and presents them in a helpful format for stimulating a development plan.
Gone are the days when an employee was treated as “replaceable”. Now an employee is an honorable part of the company. Patting, not beating, is needed. Tapping his/her back will work, not the threatening look. A company does not want to lose a good employee because it has to advertise, appoint and train the new employee – it is a difficult one and expensive.
With on-going, continuous feedback culture, we can improve the situation. Continuous feedback gives us the best average for the correct appraisal. 360 degree feedback gives us the full picture.. Together, these two types of feedback march on the track of constructive feedback. Every employee gets a feeling of recognition and satisfaction. So, you can retain the best employees and correct the erring employees. Then you can create tomorrow’s working condition today at your workplace to lock in the key talent.
