Yes Feedback Is Actually A GOOD Tool

Over the last few years we have been working with leaders to improve their feedback skills.  It's important that, as HR Professionals, we have a good understanding of the most effective way to create and communicate feedback to employees. 

THE BASICS:

1. "If it's not in writing, it NEVER happened" Now, this does not mean that feedback has to be in a formatted letter with a signature line, etc...  It can be in a letter, email, hand written note, but it HAS to be in writing for it to be truly meaningful for the employee.  \
2. Feedback comes in two varieties... Positive Feedback and Redirective/Developmental Feedback.  (Notice I didn't use the"Negative" word)  Truly we should look at employee moral like a bank, you can only withdraw as much as you put in.  What does this mean?  It means that you have to provide MORE positive feedback than redirective.  Now of course I am not saying to make things up, but it's important to have your leaders finding their employees doing something right and praising them for it.  It will help to build the employees confidence, and make them feel strong (Thank you Marcus Buckingham). 
3. Okay, so now you know that you need to give feedback in writing and it should be positive or redirective, what's next?  Good feedback had 4 parts:
1. What are they doing well, or why are they valuable?
2. What is the issue, or what are they not doing well?
3. How they should do it, and what are your expectations for the future.
4. What happens if it happens again.  This is an important piece that should really only be used when the manager says they will not be okay if the mistake or issue reoccurs. 
4. Now we have created good written feedback, what is the next step?  Well, I always ask the Manager how the conversation went with the employee when they asked them about the issue.  :)  It's important that we always understand the employee's opinion of why the mistake was made or why the issue occurred.  If we are not inspecting what we expect than we may be missing valuable information that will help to resolve the issue. 
5. Last but not least, the Manager must take ownership for the feedback and the message contained.  No, it likely was not a "Corporate" decision, it was the Manager's decision that they needed to provide that employee with the needed information and direction in order to be successful.  Employee's don't know what they don't know, and what I mean by this is that we can't expect them to understand our expectations if we haven't shared them. :)

These are my thoughts for now, but I will have more on feedback (because it is one of the most important tools in our toolbox) soon.