It is without a doubt that employees simply just cannot reach their full potential on their own. Starting from entry-level employees to members in senior management, team members need external assistance to be able to become the best in their areas of expertise. This assistance may be in the form of feedback or guidance.
Athletes for example when properly coached can excel. Similar is the case with business professionals who can benefit tremendously from feedback as provided by their bosses. Assessing strengths and weaknesses, and offering feedback can help improve performance and ensure everyone thinks alike. One of the most reliable ways to accomplish this is to tap newer and better technologies while keeping employees happy and satisfied. There is however a way to amalgamate both aspects to accomplish successful business.
Employers love to see a workforce that is happy and motivated. If you want them to perform better then you would need to create the right kind of conditions for them. One great way how CEOs are ranked is based on a feedback system, which is received from their employees. e.g. Glassdoor Systems are created to ensure a high level of transparency at every step.
According to recent surveys, engaged employees can bring about a positive outcome to your business. But the million-dollar question is how do we practice employee engagement and how can we leverage technology to help us. Executing employee engagement is made much simpler if we embrace technology such as performance management platforms.
When we make the best use of such platforms, the value of your business can go up. Here are a few ways how remote managers can leverage the best performance management platforms to create a feedback system for employees to enhance business capabilities.
Offering an Environment that Encourages Positive Feedback
Feedback is now seen as the backbone of any performance management system since it offers a high degree of employee engagement. An organization needs to create a positive feedback culture. Companies at the same time need to also ensure that the feedback that is generated is constructive and unbiased.
Listening to your employees is equally important since it allows two-way communications. Once done, solicit your feedback and take a sign-off from the employee.
With newer and better developments in the world of technology, the feedback mechanism has become easy, less tedious and an ongoing process. Now organizations are adopting 360-degree review systems to solicit feedback from a variety of sources. These become a basis of self-evaluation, peer-to-peer evaluation as well as useful information is also collated from vendors and superiors.
With help of such continuous feedback systems, it becomes easy for remote managers to gather, record, and refer to feedback whenever wherever they want. Communication is transparent and accurate and developments in the performance of an employee can become even more evident.
Moreover, feedback can also develop employees in day-to-day skills along with the values that they bring to the table as well as their behavior patterns. Such a constructive feedback mechanism offers employees an opportunity to work on themselves and remain motivated round the clock.
Understanding and Implementing Employee Engagement Surveys Frequently
Usually, organizations tend to implement employee engagement surveys once a year, which as a result defeats the core meaning of having an employee feedback session since employees have no idea where they stand and where they are heading to. It is imperative to understand the importance of timely implementation of feedback surveys and their frequency in a year.
With the latest performance management systems, now managers sitting in remote areas can easily access feedback systems with the click of a button. Such surveys can be done more frequently and effortlessly since it is done online. It also helps to reduce overall costs and cut down on efforts.
All that remote managers now need to do is to set up the survey and invite employees to come and complete them. So, what you used to do on sheets of paper can now be done easily online. The essence of conducting an employee engagement survey is to help improve the work culture and also get to see to what degree are your employees engaged. The best part of any employee engagement survey is that you can keep the names of participating employees anonymous and solicit feedback with ease. As a result, your employees feel free and are at ease to share meaningful feedback.
Once the survey results are generated, then it becomes easy to analyze and to see what can be possibly done to enhance an employee-centric culture. As an employer, you can make more informed decisions about what may work best for everyone and what doesn’t. Moreover, you can also introspect the leadership team and also observe people management skills.
Rewards and Recognition for Employees
From time to time, employees need to be recognized and appreciated for his or her hard work. It offers a sense of belongingness and also keeps the person motivated. Feedback and performance systems can help you identify the right kind of person for the reward. You can keep the reward session once every quarter so that others also get a chance to perform better. I remember the time when I was in primary school and my class teacher would reward children with stationery items to show appreciation for how tidy they kept their tables. She would make someone the monitor of the class and offer chances to others as well depending on performance and behavior.
You too can also apply the same principle only by replacing stationery with financial rewards which would include bonuses and incentives. Managers have limited resources so they need to rely on non-financial rewards as well. You could also offer certificates and express your gratitude by talking about them in front of the company. Timely appreciation triggers motivation to work harder and better. They get to inspire other employees and as a result, you would see better job satisfaction.
Conclusion
By making the best use of technology such as performance management and feedback systems, you not only increase the effectiveness of your organization but also boost employee engagement. However, this needs to be done regularly and your staff needs to be made aware of corporate goals as well as core values. Feedback systems offer a sense of how well they are performing to contribute towards company goals and to fulfill their career aspirations. With the assistance of positive feedback culture and recognition, you not only get to improve employee engagement but can also witness an increase in your profitability margin.

Gaurav Sabharwal
CEO of JOP
Gaurav is the CEO of JOP (Joy of Performing), an OKR and high-performance enabling platform. With almost two decades of experience in building businesses, he knows what it takes to enable high performance within a team and engage them in the business. He supports organizations globally by becoming their growth partner and helping them build high-performing teams by tackling issues like lack of focus, unclear goals, unaligned teams, lack of funding, no continuous improvement framework, etc. He is a Certified OKR Coach and loves to share helpful resources and address common organizational challenges to help drive team performance. Read More