Read on to learn about how you can give effective employee feedback.

Ask yourself how often you assess employee performance. Is it once a year, at employee evaluation time? If the answer to that question is “yes,” that’s a problem. When you wait for a whole year to evaluate an employee, he or she wonder why you couldn’t have said this earlier. It also means that you are probably focusing on one or two events throughout the year and ignoring many of the other things that went right (or wrong).

Another question to ask yourself is, “How do I give feedback?” Do you provide constructive criticism, focusing on the good that the employee has done? Or, do you choose to raise your voice, humiliate your subordinates, and make them remember not to do that again? Yelling at employees won’t motivate them to do better. Maybe the reason that employees can’t take your critiques is because of your delivery of them.

How clear is your feedback to your employees? Do they understand what you’re telling them and why? If your employees can’t follow what you’re trying to convey, they won’t be able to correct their behavior. Keep your evaluations clear and easy to understand, and you’ll see a positive change.

How often do you tell your employees that their behavior needs to change, tell them there will be consequences, and then don’t do anything when there are no changes? When you don’t back up what you’re going to say with actions, your employees stop believing that you have any power over them. They won’t think that you can actually do anything to them, so they don’t see any reason to modify their behavior.

Do your employees wish you’d change the way you give feedback? Contact Grapevine Evaluations today. We offer cloud-based 360 degree employee evaluation software that companies can customize according to their unique needs. HR professionals can also receive the results of the evaluation in real time.